Another day, another link dump, this time including Basketball and Volleyball news.

• Deconstructing: In search of Juice's main squeeze at Illinois - Dr. Saturday
  Chris from Smart Football has a fantastic column on the running game of the Illini over the last few years, covers the Rashard Mendenhall sized hole in the offense in 2008, and even addresses the "by committee" and "go to guy" approaches to a running game. This article will make you smarter.

• 'Illini Madness' to feature Illinois' basketball, volleyball teams Oct. 16 -- chicagotribune.com
  Okay, your first impulse, like mine, might be to roll your eyes and think "great, another year, another gimmick" Granted the coaches vs cancer pink out was a huge success, but last year's world's largest basketball practice was about as packed as a middle school practice. This year, thank god, we are heading back into the Hall for Madness. There is of course the caveat, it will be preceded by a volleyball match against Minnesota, and perhaps worst/best/scariest of all, the tickets are free. So free that the Athletic Department will be sending out 125,000 tickets for the event before hand, and the first 16,000 at AH will be the only ones allowed. I hope we don't screw the pooch and lose to a different Minnesota team right before Madness, because I don't want to see the hall empty like MS was last year.

• Seattle Post-Intelligencer: College Football
  Yet another year in review/2009 outlook article devoted to your beloved Illini. This one from all the way out in Seattle for some reason.

• Wilson thrives as Illinois' man in the middle - Big Ten - ESPN
  Adam Rittenberg (All hail) with an excellent piece on Martez Wilson. The most important quote from the post "I'm ready to fulfill everyone's expectations, especially mine." I fully believe that Tez can explode this year in much the same way that Rashard did in 07, after 2 disappointing and fumble ridden seasons behind Pierre. Its a similar situation with Tez as both Brit and J are now gone and its up to him to seize his opportunity.