Welcome to the Complaint Department.
It’s a busy place, but sports wouldn’t be fun if the games didn’t give rise to never-ending disagreements.
Let’s discuss some of the more touchy issues here.
First up: Bret Bielema’s football teamQ: Why do you and the newspaper make a big deal out of returning Illini seniors in football when they’ve been losers (14-31) the last four years? Can’t Illinois bring in better players from the portal?
A: Growth, experience and familiarity have their advantages, particularly up front. We all make massive gains between the ages of 18 and 23. As of Sept. 1, projected starters in the offensive line will be the following ages: 23, 23, 22, 22 and 20. And they’ll undoubtedly have more combined starts than any quintet in the nation.
The 2021 defensive line will include 23-year-olds Rod Perry and Deon Pate, and 22-year-olds Owen Carney, Jamal Woods and Calvin Avery.
Of the younger members, Keith Randolph (20) and Jer’Zhan Newton (19) show promise, but the D-line is generally viewed as a weak link, and additions from the portal are welcome. But don’t expect many to step right in the way Perry did.
Next up: Brad Underwood’s IlliniQ: Did you mention that the Illini basketball defense was good? What were you thinking?
A: Well, it was excellent Tuesday, blocking eight shots and limiting Penn State to 33.9 percent shooting. But you’re right. It hasn’t been consistent. Excessive fouling led to three-point losses at Missouri and Rutgers. This was soon corrected and the four starters alongside 7-foot Kofi Cockburn were effective against Indiana (69-60) and Purdue (66-58), much as they had against Minnesota (92-65), in part because those teams didn’t present centers who forced Cockburn to the perimeter. Balanced Maryland and Ohio State teams did, however, and drilled jumpers in taking advantage of the UI’s Achilles heel.
Q: Big Ten officials are the worst, and you should have criticized them when they didn’t see Ohio State’s Duane Washington Jr. step out of bounds with the Illini trailing 83-81 in the final 13 seconds.
A: Once upon a time, reporters like Purdue’s great Gordon Graham tended to make officiating mistakes a part of each game’s report. But somewhere along the line of covering more than 1,500 Illini basketball games, it didn’t make sense to me. You could blame the refs for every close Illini loss. Good calls, bad calls, we should accept these as part of a game that humans can’t officiate to anyone’s satisfaction. Why blame them for their inability to do the impossible?
As for the ruling on Washington, refs can go to the monitor on balls deflected out-of-bounds in the last two minutes, but not to determine where Washington’s foot was. And he was fouled simultaneously anyway.
More quick hittersQ: You act as though these ridiculous coaching salaries are normal. Have you no opinion?
A: Yes, $4.2 million to coach football is outrageous, and $1.5 million in potential extras is providing a bonus for what is expected. But in the market-driven fantasyland of Monopoly money, that’s where we are.
Q: With all the cancellations in football and basketball, was it appropriate to play through this raging pandemic at all?
A: Yes, for three basic reasons: (1) The athletes were willing to make the testing-isolation sacrifices to compete (2) they’re safer in their environment than in the population and (3) while athletic departments are losing money, TV revenue has saved some non-revenue sports and an untold number of jobs.
Q: Why do you keep covering up for an Illini women’s basketball team that has won four Big Ten basketball games in three-plus seasons? Doesn’t it matter?
A: Nancy Fahey’s record of 737-133 at Division III Washington University offers a cushion but it has the look of a “it’s not that important” decision. Recruiting is not bringing in athletes to compete successfully in this conference. Josh Whitman has a tough decision coming up.
Q: Why did you give Mark Emmert and the NCAA a pass when money-earning legislation favoring college athletes was tabled?
A: With Florida and perhaps 20 other states presenting different name, image and likeness plans, we need a Congressional bill to consolidate the confusing differences between the NCAA and state legislatures. That takes time.
Loren Tate writes for The News-Gazette. He can be reached at ltate@news-gazette.com
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