UCF upset Kansas last night. I haven’t looked at the box score, but I am assuming that Omar Payne must have outplayed Hunter Dickinson.
I always liked Omar and wanted to see him do well, esp. at FL, but also at Illinois. Against KU he didn't start, got 16min and scored 4pts on 2/3 shooting with 3rb, 1asst, 1blk.
I am as well. I am Illinois alum (MS and PhD) and was very happy when he left. He left Bruce Weber an amazing bunch of talent that went far but for some reason a squeaky clean guy like Weber couldn't recruit Chicago like Self could. Lon Kruger had the same Chicago recruiting problem. Even Lou Henson had trouble recruiting Chicago kids to play at Illinois.
I remember that Final Four team, had a great record, arguably the best team that year. I've been fortunate to visit the campus In a work capacity for a Chicago based MFG. I like the football stadium, it's not a gargantuan edifice built to make Kufu blush, as they do in the SEC, but I couldn't find a bad seat. Speaking of Chicago and the population density of Illinois, you will have to fill us in on who gets all the great HS talent coming out of the state. Ole Ray Meyer had some great clubs at DePaul back in the day........Mark Aguirre and those guys. Sucks they underperformed in the NCAA tournament, they had some really good teams, I always rooted for Ray Meyer later in his career, hoped he would get one of those coveted trophies.
I have a fondness for UIL, but consider the impression of city kids traveling to Champaign/Urbana. Having been there a couple times, the campus and town(s) are fine, but the surrounding area is all . . .