What a weekend for Illini sports
First of all WE’RE GOING TO A BOWL GAME.
Now that we got that out of the way here are some highlights from the single-biggest football comeback in University of Illinois history:
And here are some good tweets:
On Friday night, basketball defeated Grand Canyon University. Here are the most important takeaways:
1 – Grand Canyon was giving off some serious fake-university-actually-a-megachurch vibes. Here’s a screenshot from one of their commercials aired during the game:

Which would be pretty normal. Except Grand Canyon University isn’t non-profit. It’s a for-profit scheme, and this ad is intentionally lying to everyone.
And that’s according to the Trump Administration, lol.
2 – This happened:
3: Here are some highlights:
And then last night we lost to Arizona – bummer :,(
Giorgi really has to get going – he had six points, one rebound and five fouls last night. Yikes.
OK now that sports are out of the way here’s the bad news
The News-Gazette announced a slew of layoffs this weekend – some, like nearly-four-decade veteran Paul Wood, have poured their hearts and souls into the newspaper. Others, like city government reporter Adalberto Toledo, have provided an invaluable service to the Champaign-Urbana community. The full extent of the layoffs is not yet known – I reached out for comment and will update as need-be.
When the Gazette was bought by Community Media Group, a media conglomerate known for re-structuring to make a profit, the writing was on the wall. This week, however, we’ll see it play out in real-time.
The Gazette also announced that they’ll be ceasing the print edition of the Monday paper – a hallmark loss for a once-proud journalistic enterprise. Interesting that this announcement appeared in the Daily Illini – and was buried in the Gazette.
If you can, subscribe to your local paper, even if you hate the right wing editorial board.
C-U is losing the most valuable oversight we have when we lose good reporters at the Gazette.
Talking election reform with Ben Chapman
(Julie McClure / Smile Politely)
Listen to Champaign City Councilperson Matthew Gladney on this week’s I Have To Ask
WTF is happening with Illini football?
They’re good now. That’s what’s happening.
(Smile Politely)
Thank you, Bloomington-Normal. Very cool!
(The Pantagraph)