Driving With the Windows Down.

Vegas and LA are warmer than Illinois during the winter months. Suckers.

Well, so long Chief. We knew it was coming. I didn't really care much either way, though I'm annoyed that the NCAA had the power to influence this. I'm more of a "state's rights" sort of guy when it comes to this stuff. However, if this were the NBA, David Stern would have quashed this much, much sooner.

So, I'm making a call - next year, at some point (maybe on multiple occasions) we'll see a student dressed up as Chief running across the field or the court. Maybe we can have a Paint the Hall Chief game, where we all dress up like Indians.

In my fantasy basketball league, I'm torn between picking up Rudy Gay or Tim Hardaway.

I definitely flew to Vegas on the Thursday afternoon before All-Star Weekend. My flight from Bloomington left me a 2 hour layover in O'Hare. I'm sitting there eating some food at a greasy Greek deli place, when I look up and see P.J. Brown there. And a few minutes later, Tyrus Thomas walks up to chill. And then I start looking around, and there are definitely multiple black dudes in pimp suits. Lots of track jackets and bling. The best part was that there were also a bunch of floozies in slutty outfits. The NBA - I love this game. It was like a dressed up version of when I hang out at Harold's. Needless to say, I was right at home.

Quote of the flight - black dudes are walking down the aisle, and one of them goes, "Damn, nigga. It's like, 'Soul Plane' up in here. How awesome is that?

The flight was pretty cool. I got along with the folks that were sitting next to me - Charles and Tamisha, a couple from Chicago heading out to the game. It definitely helped that they had a portable DVD player, and the guy popped in the Roy Jones Jr. Greatest Knockouts DVD. I forgot how good Jones Jr. was, and I forgot how much I enjoyed watching good boxing. And I forgot how much black people love seeing people get knocked out. After me and Charles start watching and talking boxing, two black girls behind us start watching. Lots of, "Damn!" "Oh shit!" "He knocked that nigga out!" "He broke that nigga's ribs!" And that was just what came out of my mouth. I don't even remember what they were saying.

Even after the DVD, we had some good conversation. We got talking for a while, and Tamisha brings up that her little cousin is one of the Illini's big basketball recruits next year, and she wanted him to contact me about classes, life on campus, and whatever else. So, if you see one of our incoming freshman accused of some alleged recruiting or extra-benefits violations, I'll probably be prominently involved. Because I'm awesome.

If you're keeping score on my gambling tally, it's Vegas 1, Chairman 0. Let's just say that limit hold'em is not my game. I had a game that I could break, but was drowned twice on the river for pretty large pots. Let's just say that instead of doubling up my stack in 35 minutes, I lost half my stack. I should've just quit and called it a night, but instead, I decide to enter a no-limit tourney. My first live tourney. Little 2 table game, with blinds moving up quickly - a lot like the sit 'n go's that I play on Pokerstars, only moving a little faster. I should've cashed, but I forgot one of the rules that I frequently forget in my home game. You can't bluff bad players. I was a little unlucky when my pocket Q's got outran by A-K, which took me from a big stack back to a medium stack. But I was dumb and crippled myself when I tried to make a play on some guy, who called a raise with a questionable hand, and then hit top pair on the board when I tried to continue. Needless to say, I'm a moron.

Happily, I closed out the night with In 'n Out Burger. Which was good. Though not as good as everyone says it is, and not as good as Fatburger. More on this later.

I'm off to LA in a few minutes. We'll see if a little break from gambling can give me a second wind for next week.

-Chairman