Summer Shootaround: Frenemy of the pod Tom Fornelli stops by to discuss Illinois’ case as the best team in CBB 🟠🔵
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Welcome back into the Ion College basketball podcast. This is our second of what will be 18, 20, 26 summer shoot around episodes. The first one last week published with me sitting down with Dan Hurley for 55 minutes. We've got another episode coming later this week with another head coach sitting down with a top 10 team preseason going in. We're talking about a preseason, not just the top 10 team. Top five team. Top three team. Top one team. Could I have brought on a coach for this one? Did Brad Underwood practically beg me to be on this show? I won't confirm or deny, but guess what? Bring in on someone even better. Distinguished Illinois alumnus. Someone you know probably from his takes on Twitter, which can be, well, hit or miss.
Big time Chicago Bears fan. I'm rocking the sweetness shirt. I got the Bears hat behind me. I got my... Super Bowl Bears football. Got the Bears mini helmet. I spared no expense here. Josh, come on in. You know him from the Cover 3 podcast. There he is. Friend and foe of the pod, oh, by the way. Tom Fornelli joins us of Cover 3 fame. Thanks for hopping on. I believe this is the first time you and I have done a show proper. I know you did some stuff with GP back during the 26th NCAA tournament, but I appreciate your time, particularly now as we gear up for the college football season, which is right around the corner.
Yeah, and I appreciate you having me on while GP's not here. So at least that way I don't have to deal with him and his stupidity, especially when it comes to my beloved Illini basketball.
Is it still stupidity now? Let's be clear. Unless there's a narc out there that's going to go find him and at mention him because my fella can't get out of his mentions. As long as none of you do that, he won't ever watch or listen to this. That being said, and I don't have his top 25 up now, is it stupidity if he has Illinois basically anywhere that's not the number one or two spot going into the season? Just so we're clear here.
I mean, I, I'd rather not be number one or number two, to be honest with you. I I'd rather be in like that five spot more than anything, just because I feel like then you're, you're flying under the radar still a little bit. Like everybody knows you're good and they expect you to be good, but like you look at the way non-conference scheduling goes these days. And there are so many teams playing so many difficult games in the non-con at least, you know, compared to like college basketball era we grew up in. Right. where you're probably not going to stick at number one for long. So I would rather still be in that five. So that way, when I lose that game to like a UConn or Duke early in the year, people aren't like, well, we're going to forget about them.
OK, so if I have this correct, then if GP's got the fighting Illini slotted at number two, number three, then he's still stupid, right?
I mean, he's going to be stupid either way. Like a blind squirrel does find the nut every once in a while. It's just he's still blind at the end of the day.
I actually handled that a whole era when he was the conductor of the Illini train. That was a running theme on this show for a good four or five months a few years back. How'd that go for you? How did that go for the Illini that year?
I'm pretty sure that once he started driving the train, things went off the track pretty quickly.
Yeah, that was not good whatsoever. That was a big time.
I was wrong.
Yeah, that's what it was right there.
Cover three pod. Hey, let's do a quick cross promo, by the way.
Who is Tom Fornelli and why is he on the Summer Shootaround?
This is a pre-tape because GP and I did not... We both planned separate vacations, but both of them, when I say months in advance, I literally think we both planned this out like eight, nine months ago in advance. We didn't know that it would dovetail. So as you take in this podcast, everyone, GP and I are out of pocket here. So with that in mind and knowing that football is coming up around the corner here, for those who are not familiar with your soothing tones and intelligent takes nonstop with Chip Patterson,
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Chapters
3 chaptersSpeakers
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