Only 2 Illinois College teams rated nationally

Wow...Looks like its time for some changes at D1 programs in Illinois.

As of April 3rd, NCAA D 1 standings.

Big 10- Northwestern in 7th, Illinois 9th.

Horizon- UIC 1st ( nice job Flames )

Mid American - NIU, last place, western conference

Mid Continent - Western Illinois, 3rd place. Chicago State last place.

Missouri Valley - Illinois State, 3rd place (behind Wichita State, and Creighton) Nice Job Redbirds, Southern Illinois, 4th place, Bradley 6th Place.

Ohio Valley - Eastern Illinois, 8th place

Has Itch Jones let the program pass him by at Illinois ?

I think so.

He has done very little at Illinois for the past 14 years (347-351 going into this year and a losing season so far this year).

I'm happy for him and his days at SIU, but I'm not impressed with his results with the Illini.

Tons of kids on his roster from schools you never heard of while the star players from Illinois schools go elsewhere...not to Illinois.

I follow the game pretty closely in the Chicagoland area and he rarely gets the "stud"!

Why did Perinar head for Minnesota? Schultz to UIC? Wolff to Michigan State? Baughmann to Indiana? Dunigan to Oklahoma? Was Illinois even in the picture for any of them?

agree,reluctantly as itch is a good guy but their current rpi of 157 is like the cubs....overrated

Couldn't believe anything could be worse than Illinois football but baseball is worse than football.

Will be interesting to see what happens with Illinois basketball and Weber after the other coaches recruits are gone. I think I could have won 20+ games with the team that was left this year and for another couple of years.

Standings Update....

As of April 18th:

BIG10: Northwestern (5-7 Big10 record, 15-16-1 overall) & Illinois (5-7 Big10 record, 12-19 overall) tied for 7th, 8th or 9th (out of 10) or see Big Ten Standings

HORIZON: UIC 1st (out of 7) with a 6-2 conference record, 23-11 overall or see Horizon Standings

MAC: NIU is in 4th place (out of 7) in the MAC western conference with a 5-4 MAC record, 18-17 overall. 3 games from the cellar and 1 game out of 1st in the loss column or see MAC Standings

MID CONTINENT: Western Illinois 5th (3-5 MidCon record, 16-27 overall) & Chicago State (7th) out of 7 (1-7 MidCon record, 3-32 overall) or see Mid Continent Standings

MVC: Southern Illinois (5th) out of 9 with a 6-9-1 MVC record, 11-22-1 overall; Bradley (7th) 4-7-1 MVC record, 19-12-1 overall; Illinois State (8th) 5-11 MVC record, 11-20 overall or see MVC Standings

OVC: Eastern Illinois tied for 2nd or 3rd (out of 10) with a 8-4 OVC record, 13-20 overall or see OVC Standings

NJCAA Polls (excluding California and Washington) as of 4/14 (they update weekly so check again tomorrow for the latest poll info):

NJCAA Div I

NJCAA Div II

NJCAA Div III


Congratulations to NJCAA DI's #14 Olney Central College & honorable mention John A. Logan College, NJCAA DII's #11 College of Lake County, #15 Kankakee Community College & honorable mention Oakton Community College and NJCAA DIII #7 Joliet Junior College.

Rumor has it starting next year, the NJCAA Region IV, Div II regional champion will get an automatic bid to the NJCAA DII World Series since Region IV has approximately 15% of the DII's in the US (excluding California and Washington).

My son has scholarshiped to Olney, and will play for coach Conely next year. We are excited about the possibilities.

Cant wait to see him play college ball.

After reading your post's, I think they are a inacccurate in many cases. There has been a lot of changes in Illinois baseball...as Illinois has faded UIC and NIU have been moving up, look what Mike Dee has done at UIc in the last few years and they will keep getting better, I mean who would have ever thought they would have done what they did last year and from what I have seen they will be doing it for a very long time, to show how good they are, they have a kid like Mike Bruzner coming off the bench. Ed mathey has been at NIU for two years, and had to deal with players and coaches from the lackluster shrage era....last year they suprised a lot of people and I can see them making a late run this year, and the best part is that two of their best pitchers followed Mathey from North Central. Now yes eastern and ISU have faided in the last few years, seeing it first hand I do not think that ISU will be succesful until brownlee is gone, a pluthera have players have left the program because of the way he treats players and they will continue to as long as he is here, and I believe that first place in the valley will be locked up by the shockers for a long time to come.

yes in deed its Jones's time to go, and word has it he is not leaving because the AD will not let pitching coach Dan Hartleb take over the program. To say that his tenure at Illinois has been bad, is not the truth. A lot of those loses have come in the last few years, when the battle began over who will get the program when he leaves. I was young, but around for when Itch first was at Illinois, with guys like Mark Delesandro, Scott Spezio, Sean Mulligan, yes they were leftover from Coach Gueredo (pardon my speeling) so they had a good program for a while...I beleive in 1998 they won the big ten, and then slowly faded. Illinois, prior to the last 2 years, has had some of the top pitching prospects in the midwest. Jason Anderson, Drew Dickenson, Matt Vorwald, Jimmy Journal and former Naperville 2 sport star Tim Lavery.

So to conclude, yeah some things have changed, but other schools have came up, and yes itch is way past his time, but to say his stay at U of I has been unproductive, isnt right. he has had a few bad years in a fading conference, that shouldnt overshadow the sucess that he had for a long time

When you talk about illinois Teams fading, how can no one mention Triton College? Its no accident that ever since one of the best pitching coaches around left the program, they have started to drop. in the early 90's tritons roster may have feauture one or two local kids, now..its the other way around

NAIA Baseball Rating week 6 - April 21, 2004

Olivet Nazarene #7 with a record of 38-6-1

Go Tigers!

tar, i cant believe anyone outside of illinois would want to go to ui. lousy weather, mediocre town,corn fields rule. on top of that it is tough to get into. the big ten stinks except for the gophers (who play several games in the dome and practice their as well=recruiting advantage)and you are in the middle of nowhere.so is it any wonder why they can't be competitive off the bball court? seems obvious to me. btw, bring back a garrido and the players would follow.

Intresting thread. Not being from Il and not knowing the player pool, I have 1 question.

How many D1 schools does the State have?

In the 2003 HS class....
How many Illinois players went D1?
How many went D1 in State?
How many went D1 out of State?

Like I said, I'm an outsider, but it looks like the problem is not that players are leaving the State, but, that the talent pool is spread between many teams at all college levels within the State. I this bad? He11 no. The kids are for the most part staying in State, getting playing time, having fun, and getting an education. Reality predicts, it will be a cold day in he11 before an IL D1 team wins the CWS, enjoy what you have. I come from a State that has 1 D1 team that uses HS facilities. In the past 3 years our HS talent has gone to Ark, U of MI, Evansville, S. Carolina, Clemson, Okl, Missouri, NC State, U of MN, Northwestern, UIC, New Orleans, Purdue, and many others.

As far as kids leaving IL to play elsewhere, that's going to happen. However, there are IL teams that have the coaching, and program dedication, but, the kid also has to want to be part of the program. So many times the high profile kid is lured away by promises of greatness, then finds he is only a number in a Southern program. Most mention UIC as a program that has made the committment, and other schools may not be far behind. Now it is the players turn to step up and make that committment to those schools.

RZ...I know quite a few players/parents that have asked me about UIC. Mostly high profile kids in the state.

No one has asked about Illinois.

Without getting specific or personal, I dispute the negative comments that indians08 has said about ISU baseball and Coach Brownlie. The ISU program will steadily improve in the coming seasons.

Grateful, you have a pm

RZ--you have one, too!

Hey big ,

You forgot to mention Parkland ranked # 8 in dII poll . It is in Champaign , they have had a pretty good track record the last 4 or 5 years ,my son cannot wait to go there next year .