Sign up for our daily basketball newsletter here
Welcome to “Good Morning, Illini Nation,” your daily dose of college basketball news from Illini beat writer and AP Top 25 voter Scott Richey. He’ll offer up insights every morning on Brad Underwood’s team and college basketball at large:
Some time to kill before meeting with Ben Humrichous and Jake Davis on Friday afternoon at Illinois’ team hotel in Beverly Hills gave me an opportunity to wander around the nearby UCLA campus. Scout out historic Pauley Pavilion ahead of Saturday’s road-trip finale.
The arena was locked up tight, of course. I was left with making a lap around the building, trying to see if I could peer into the facility where Illinois was practicing and then checking out the John Wooden statue that stands on the north side of Pauley.
This UCLA team certainly isn’t one of Wooden’s that won 10 national championships, including seven straight from 1967-73, but Saturday’s game will still be meaningful. For Illinois as it attempts to move into the No. 1 seed line for the NCAA tournament (every win matters) and for me in covering a game in my 18th Big Ten arena.
I was a solid 14 of 14 before the conference decided it had to expand westward. Last year got me Oregon and Washington, and this week’s road trip provided the final two-fer at the Galen Center and Pauley Pavilion.
Covering Illinois basketball has literally taken me from coast to coast across the country. It’s a unique aspect of the job even if my business trip has mostly stayed that way, and the Illini’s has included a little more fun.
While I wrapped up my contributions for Saturday’s News-Gazette on the second floor of the team hotel, the Illinois players, with a four-hour gap between practice and dinner, were headed out into the sunshine of Los Angeles.