Sunday, April 03, 2005
Final Four fever in Champaign-Urbana
The Illinois Genetic Algorithms Laboratory (IlliGAL) is located at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), home of the number-one ranked college basketball team in the country. Yesterday after the Illini topped Louisville 72-57 in the opening game of the Final Four series in St. Louis, Missouri, students and other fans poured out into the streets of campustown, creating a crowd estimated between 5000 and 10,000 by police. Despite the large numbers, the crowd was well behaved, and festivities broke up within an hour of the finish of the game. See more here and here.
My last two academic stops were Alabama and Michigan, and I thought I was cured of big-time college athletics, but I must confess that the final-four run has been a lot of fun. Moreover, after years of egocentric big-sports coaching it is refreshing to see a leader like Bruce Weber, who was recently and deservedly named AP Coach of the Year (see article here). The championship game between North Carolina and the Illini is a matchup between two great teams and two great coaches. I know what I'll be doing tomorrow evening.
My last two academic stops were Alabama and Michigan, and I thought I was cured of big-time college athletics, but I must confess that the final-four run has been a lot of fun. Moreover, after years of egocentric big-sports coaching it is refreshing to see a leader like Bruce Weber, who was recently and deservedly named AP Coach of the Year (see article here). The championship game between North Carolina and the Illini is a matchup between two great teams and two great coaches. I know what I'll be doing tomorrow evening.
