Illinois women’s basketball coach Jolette Law has scheduled a visit this weekend with Karisma Penn, a 6-foot-3-inch forward from Shaker Heights, Ohio.
She will arrive Thursday evening and leave Sunday.
Penn is the No. 3 forward and No. 18 rated senior on ESPN’s HoopGurlz. She is currently considering Illinois, Louisville, and Connecticut. She averaged 19.3 points per game for Shaker Heights High School.
Penn would add to a recruiting class that already includes four players, including Adrienne GodBold, the no. 7 guard and No. 36 senior on HoopGurlz, and Briana Jones, the no. 25 forward.
Destiny Williams, the top forward and no. 8 senior, visited last weekend and Kelsey Bone, the no. 2 senior, is planning on making a visit.
Controversial Sun-Times sports columnist Jay Mariotti recently left the newspaper claiming “newspapers are dead.” Roger Ebert, who once graced this campus and The Daily Illini, had a few words to say about Mariotti’s bow out.
Mariotti was best known for his confrontational style which got him in numerous spats with Chicago coaches and owners, most notably his exchanges with Sox manager Ozzie Guillen. He is also a frequent panelist on ESPN’s Around the Horn.
Illinoi-Missouri is only five days away!! And we here at the Daily Illini and WPGU have you covered.
First off, the DI Illini football preview guide comes off the presses on Wednesday, with all the inside info you need to get ready for the 2008 season!
Next, Standing Room Only kicks off their season on Saturday live from Boston’s Sports Bar and Grill with TWO HOURS of pregame coverage starting at 5pm. Come out to Boston’s for some great food and fun and even get on the show to grill our hostesses with the mostest about everything Illini!
Also, check out the Daily Illini sports blog, this page you are in fact reading, to get all the info you need week after week about all the Illini sports.
Don’t forget that the Illini hockey team is getting ready to defend their national title this season, and you can catch all the action right here on WPGU and the217.com with Standing Room Only covering all your bases! Miss a part of the show…don’t worry hit up the SRO podcast.
So, all in all, keep your browser and radio dial locked to the Daily Illini and WPGU for all the best Illini coverage…and here’s a little tidbit to get you excited for Saturday. Like you need it…
The Associated Press released the results of its annual preseason college football poll today and fans should be dancing in Champaign–the Illini are ranked at no. 20 to start the season and this is the first time since 2002 that the Orange and Blue have been ranked in the preseason poll. The no. 20 spot is the same the Illini ended the season with after their 49-17 defeat in the Rose Bowl. The Illini were no. 19 in last week’s release of the preseason coaches’ poll.
Four of Illinois’ 2008 opponents–Missouri, Ohio State, Wisconsin and Penn State–are also ranked to start the season. Michigan, another Illini opponent, received votes in the poll but didn’t make the top 25.
The no. 20 ranking is something that is sure to skyrocket if the Illini can upset Missouri in their opener in St. Louis on August 30. Kickoff for that game is at 7:30 central.
Here is the whole 2008 AP preseason poll with first place votes in parentheses and total points to the right of the school name. Big Ten teams are in bold.
2008 AP Preseason Poll
1. Georgia (22) 1,528
2. Ohio State (21) 1,506
3. USC (12) 1,490
4. Oklahoma (4) 1,444
5. Florida (6) 1,415
6. Missouri 1,266
7. LSU 1,135
8. West Virginia 1,116
9. Clemson 1,105
10. Auburn 968
11. Texas 966
12. Texas Tech 786
13. Wisconsin 771
14. Kansas 707
15. Arizona State 631
16. Brigham Young 590
17. Virginia Tech 578
18. Tennessee 509
19. South Florida 496
20. Illinois 483
21. Oregon 366
22. Penn State 293
23. Wake Forest 227
24. Alabama 89
25. Pittsburgh 85
Others Receiving Votes: South Carolina 84, Fresno State 83, California 59, Utah 53, Cincinnati 44, Florida State 41, Michigan 36, Boston College 32, Rutgers 32, Michigan State 21, Boise State 17, Arkansas 14, North Carolina 14, Connecticut 10, Tulsa 7, UCLA 6, Oregon State 5, Mississippi State 4, Virginia 4, Arizona 3, Nebraska 2, Notre Dame 2, Hawaii 1, Washington 1.
As I’m sure most of you big recruiting followers already know, Illinois football picked up a huge recruiting victory today when news broke that East St. Louis wide receiver Kraig Appleton announced he will commit to the Orange and Blue on Tuesday. This story originally broke on illinihq.com with Bob Asmussen and Jeremy Werner doing the honors. Here’s a video of the incoming high school senior in action…
He is a big receiver that always looks the ball in and rounds out a class of receivers that looks to be impressive for the Illini in the next couple of years. Appleton also joins two of his high school teammates, WR Terry Hawthorne and S Tommie Hopkins, as Orange and Blue commits in the class of 2009.Even with the commitment, however, Appleton will still be taking all five of his alotted official visits in the fall even while being committed to Ron Z ook’s program. The five programs he will be visiting during the fall include LSU, Wisconsin, Notre Dame, Texas Tech and Ohio State. It’s amazing to see how far this Illini program has come now it is competing for players on the recruiting trail with programs on par with the ones Appleton will be visiting.
Appleton’s commitment tomorrow will mark the 12th verbal for the 2009 Fighting Illini recruiting class. The committed players, with Scout.com star rankings, follows:
WR Kraig Appleton **** East St. Louis, IL
RB Bud Golden *** Cincinatti, OH
OL Jake Feldmeyer ** Centerville, OH
OL Andrew Carter **** Tallahasse, FL
WR Terry Hawthorne *** East St. Louis, IL
S Tommie Hopkins ** East St. Louis, IL
QB Nathan Scheelhaase **** Kansas City, MO
WR Steve Hull *** Cincinatti, OH
CB Joelil Thrash ** Washington DC
FB Greg Fuller ** Harvey, IL (Thorton Township)
DT Lendell Buckner **** Chicago, IL (Leo)
OL Leon Hill *** Chicago, IL (Leo)
With some of the athletes the Illini staff brought into the receiving corps in the last two years, this class, and Florida transfer Jarred Fayson, the Illini will have quite a few athletes for Juice Williams to look for when he is a senior quarterback.
For those of you deadspin readers that miss UI alumnus and former editor Will Leitch, this, along with Appleton’s commit, might cheer you up:
Maybe Zook was doing this before he got to Rantoul
Here’s the link to some cool multimedia of former Illini and US Gymnast explaining his routine on the high bar. With the Hamm brothers out, Spring will be a key component of the team. Good luck to him and go USA.
RANTOUL—Sunday’s Illinois Football Media Day was somewhat of a stark contrast to last week’s Big Ten Media Days to say the least, moving from the Hyatt Regency in the big city of Chicago with national media to East Central Illinois’ main metropolis Rantoul for the Orange and Blue’s version of media day on the eve of a three-week training camp. The Illini, as you should already know, are coming off their first Rose Bowl berth since 1983 to go along with their first winning season since 2001 and was just named no. 19 in the preseason coaches’ poll, and have been facing questions since spring ball in late March regarding whether or not 2007 was a fluke.
Well, regardless if last season was a fluke for the Orange and Blue, there are some things that are for sure after Sunday:
No more frantic flankers
Covering this team for the last couple of seasons has been, to say the least, a roller coaster ride of emotions. I’ve seen some emotional, breakthrough wins and many more heartbreaking losses. In the rougher times in 2006, you could constantly see a look of nervousness and, almost pain, on the faces of many of the Illini players and coaches. It was almost a chore for them to come to practice and talk with the media. When the losses piled up, it seemed like no one really wanted to be there and players would rather burrow in a hole than talk about their team’s struggles on the field.
The coaches, however, persevered on the recruiting trail and have motivated this team to believe in themselves and have brought a new attitude and swagger to everyone involved in the Illinois program. This team had struggled for so long to get over the hump, and after the 2007 season took somewhat of a weight off of the team’s collective shoulders, everyone involved with the program seems a lot more relaxed. And, as senior linebacker Brit Miller explains, the wins have helped the team’s attitude tremendously coming into Camp Rantoul.
“Now, we’re coming in here expecting to win. Camp’s going to be a lot of fun. People are looking forward to it,” Miller said. “It’s three weeks, and there’s not even a lot of grunts and groans out here and people are looking forward to playing football this year. We know what we’re capable of, and it’s a lot better feeling coming out knowing we’re going to compete with the best in the nation.” Read the rest of this entry »
Justin Spring, a former Illinois All-American gymnast and current member of the U.S. Olympic gymnastics team, has a blog to keep fans updated. It has videos and pics of him performing at various events that led to him garnering a spot on the ‘08 Olympic team. He also has a Wikipedia page, which is pretty sweet. So does Illinois soccer player and Canada national team member Emily Zurrer, though hers is far less extensive (and also contains an error, saying she is formerly of Illinois, but unless Coach Rayfield — who does not have a Wiki page — is keeping a secret from me, I assure you that’s not true). I guess that’s how you know you’ve made it in the world.
There are many Illini also joining Spring and Zurrer in Beijing, including a good number of Paralympians. I’ll try to post updates on their performances throughout the Games, which begin on 08/08/08. Though they represent several countries, we wish them all the best of luck.
Collegefootballnews.com, part of the Scout.com network, predicted that Illinois would finish eighth in the Big Ten. This is quite a different opinion than the media, including The Daily Illini, which picked Illinois to come in third in the conference, behind only Ohio State and Wisconsin, respectively. Last season, Illinois surprised almost everyone by finishing second and garnering a Rose Bowl berth. Though they lost Rashard Mendenhall and J Leman, the faces of the 2007 team, Ron Zook’s recruiting success has brought a healthy stash of reserves to replace the departed.
Overall, the Illini are predicted by CFN to finish 6-6 with a 3-5 conference record. The scouting company even thinks Illinois will lose its final game of the season against Northwestern. Whether that’s a testament to the program Pat Fitzgerald is building, a slap in the face to Illinois’ 2008 team or an over-confidence in what home-field advantage could mean for the Wildcats, it still seems like a leap.
Either way, it’s sure to make great locker material for Zook to keep his players humble, who have had a lot of hot air blown their way following their success in 2007. And, to put things in perspective, CFN guessed Illinois would finish 5-7 last year.
Former Illini James Augustine was waived by the Orlando Magic Tuesday. The 6-foot-10 forward appeared in only a total of 27 games since being drafted in the second round of the 2006 draft.
In 25 games last season, Augustine averaged 1.6 points and 1.2 rebounds per game. The Magic’s current roster features forwards Rashard Lewis, Brian Cook and Tony Battie and are trying to resign Adonal Foyle after he opted out of his contract after last season.
