C-U Soon (4/15/22)

Good News

-🥲

Here’s a fun video from the event that I have to link instead of embed because the Gazette’s video player doesn’t allow embeds. Classic.

-There’s a lot of speculation around Kofi Cockburn, and whether he will return to Illinois for next year’s basketball season. If he returns, Illini basketball is a preseason top 10 team. If he doesn’t, they’re probably a tournament team.

One of the things that’s so interesting about Kofi’s decision, however, is that he is arguably in the first class of players who may be able to make more money playing in college (via NIL) than playing professional basketball. In theory, if his draft prospects are grim, this could make returning to Illinois a legitimate (and lucrative) option for Kofi.

Scott Richey from The News-Gazette wrote a great article breaking down the factors in Kofi’s decision, the role of Illini Guardians, and the current NIL landscape.

-This feature from The Daily Illini on Urbana restaurant Huaraches Moroleon is incredible. I can’t believe no one has written this before now, the year of our lord 2022. Huaraches is maybe the best Mexican food in town, if you haven’t been there for breakfast you must go.

Bad News

-Sadly, comedian Gilbert Gottfried passed away this week.

Gottfried was supposed to headline next week’s Ebertfest, accompanying a screening of a documentary Gilbert:

In his honor, next weekend’s festival will be dedicated to Gottfried. You can find the full schedule for Ebertfest on their website. Smile Politely also wrote a great guide to the event.

-This one is both good news and bad news, I guess. Lincoln College, the only primarily-black college in downstate Illinois, will be closing its doors after this semester. Obviously, this leaves students in a lurch, scrambling to complete their degrees at other institutions.

The good news is that Illinois universities have answered the call. Eastern Illinois, for example, just a handful of years after being under threat of closure itself, created a transfer plan to make sure Lincoln College students can transfer easily and continue to pursue their degrees at EIU.

-Illini basketball player Brandin Podziemski, a former Wisconsin Mr. Basketball, has entered the transfer portal.

We’ll miss Brandin on the court, but we’ll also, and arguably more so, miss the way he would pull up to the team plane:

A true Wisconsinite. Or Wisconsonian. Or whatever. You get the point.

-Ugh.

Good Reads

• $1.4 million in upgrades all part of Champaign County clerk's election-security plan (The News-Gazette)
• Urbana’s first Youth Poet Laureate talks poetry, performance, and promise (Smile Politely)
• Unit 4 board approves teacher contract (Illinois Newsroom)
• We have questions about private security patrolling Downtown Champaign (Smile Politely)
• Despite complications, new Champaign Central addition set for summer completion (The News-Gazette)
• Big-time producer lends his expertise to UI's burgeoning hip-hop curriculum (The News-Gazette)

Good Pods

• The 200 Level with Mike Carpenter

• Champaign Is Also A Band

  • Perimeter Road Music Festival (Deane Geiken + Adam Porter) (4/15/22)

• I Have To Ask…with Elizabeth Hess

Good Listens

Local:

Non-local: