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ROSEMONT — Kylan Boswell lit up when a question about name, image and likeness was preferred Thursday afternoon at Big Ten media day at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center.
Not that the Illinois men’s basketball guard was chomping at the bit to discuss NIL and the impact it’s had on college basketball. Boswell was thrilled that particular question was asked because it completed his Big Ten media day BINGO.
“BINGO!” Boswell exclaimed after the question was asked. “I love it.”
Boswell got his BINGO thanks to questions about conference realignment, transfer portal, youth on the team and the new Big Ten schools.
“I’ve been waiting on NIL all day,” Boswell said. “You’re clutch, man. Love it.”
Ty Rodgers argued the question about NIL was directed toward him. That he should have gotten BINGO first. Boswell’s counter was the question was offered to both of them before Rodgers answered it.
“At the end of the day, I can speak for me and him,” Rodgers said. “I can’t speak for everybody on this, but we want to go to the NBA. The NIL is little money compared to the contracts they’re getting in the NBA. If you keep it like that and stay focused on the main goal, which is to be in that league and do big things in that league, it’s kind of easy not to get sidetracked by that stuff.”
The BINGO cards Boswell and Rodgers carried with them throughout Thursday’s preseason event weren’t a Big Ten creation. That credit goes to Courtney Bay, Illinois basketball’s director of branding and creative media.
“Shoutout to CB,” Rodgers said. “CB always comes up with creative things to keep us active and keep us engaged. It’s cool, and we can get a good laugh out of it.”
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Illinois following up its Elite Eight run last season with a projected fourth-place finish in the Big Ten for the 2024-25 season — despite turning over the majority of its roster — is a sign of the lengths Brad Underwood has gone to rebuild the program since taking the job in 2017.
Making the Elite Eight last season was another step forward. In fact, simply reaching the second weekend of the NCAA tournament was progress given it hadn’t been done since 2005.
Underwood said any concern about early exits was “media driven” or fueled by the fan base. He wasn’t as concerned. But the step the program took last season can’t be glossed over, either. It just isn’t Underwood’s ultimate goal.
“I just felt like we have to keep getting back there,” the Illinois coach said during Thursday morning’s three-coach panel discussion — a new feature of Big Ten media day. “We had a great team last year in terms of character and toughness, and we were an old team. We hit the portal and got some veterans. That team had a maturity about it, but there’s no doubt I thought we were a Final Four team that just happened to lose to UConn in the Elite Eight.
“They were very, very good. I thought we were a team that had a chance, but no doubt it was great. We’re not satisfied. The Elite Eight is a great step, but we’ve got two more we would like to play, and we’ve got to keep striving to get there.”
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Forward is the direction Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman is pointed toward, too. And he’s in sync with Underwood about what it takes to get there.
“I think the NCAA tournament is a unique animal,” Whitman said. “You look at what some of our professional counterparts do. They don’t play the one-and-done tournaments because the objective is to try and find the best team. The NCAA tournament, it’s a television phenomenon. It’s an incredible sporting event. It’s unlike anything else that we do here in the United States.
“For us, we just want to keep getting back into that tournament. We want to keep getting back there — having great regular seasons so we can put ourselves in the best position we possibly can through the seeding process. Every once in a while if you’re able to do that, you’re going to catch it. We caught it last year. We got to the Elite Eight and feel like that’s something we can do with greater regularity.”
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The Big Ten hosted its media day in Rosemont this season after spending the last two years in Minneapolis. The expanded conference now touches both coasts, but the bulk of the league’s teams remain in the Midwest.
That will see the Big Ten tournament return to Indianapolis this season (and in 2027) with a stop in Chicago in 2026. But a nationwide conference means sending the tournament West with a stop in Las Vegas in 2028.
“The expansion makes it clear that we have to bring some events to try to connect all the fans across the entire fan base of the Big Ten,” Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti said. “Moving out to Vegas helps do that. I like the rotation that we have. The Midwest is still the anchor for the largest footprint of the conference, but having said that, it’s really important to bring events closer to the new members. Bring championships.
“That’s part of the way you integrate the four new members is to try to bring championships closer. This move to Las Vegas is a step toward that direction.”
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