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Welcome to “Good Morning, Illini Nation,” your daily dose of college basketball news from Illini beat writer and AP Top 25 voter Scott Richey. He’ll offer up insights every morning on Brad Underwood’s team and college basketball at large:

Illinois doesn’t have much of a connection to the Olympics. At least when it comes to basketball. Deron Williams is the only former Illini to play in the summer games, which just wrapped their 33rd iteration Sunday in Paris.

But at least Williams was successful. The one-time Illinois guard turned first-round draft pick and three-time all-star won gold with Team USA at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. The closest any other former Illini got was at the FIBA World Championship with Tal Brody playing for Team USA in 1967 and 1970, Rick Schmidt winning bronze in 1974 and Kiwane Garris also winning bronze in 1998 (which came during the NBA lockout).

The future of Illinois basketball and the Olympics might play out in 2028 in Los Angeles. Of course, it’s doubtful the Illini will have anyone on Team USA. Ayo Dosunmu and Terrence Shannon Jr., at least as things stand now, don’t project to be on that roster.

Will Riley? Kasparas Jakucionis? Tomislav Ivisic? That could be a different story.

Canada has a growing wealth of talent to pull from, but a 22-year-old Riley might have a chance to be the “young guy” on that team. That is if he follows the five-star path he’s currently on. 

Jakucionis is already considered one of the best young guards in Europe and has played for Lithuanian at every other level. It doesn’t seem like a stretch to think he could play for “The Boogeyman from the East” should Lithuania qualify (they didn’t this Olympics). 

The same is true for Ivisic with Croatia. He already got some senior national team experience in the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Pre-Qualifiers last year. He’ll also be 24, turning 25, when the 2028 games happen and perhaps ready to assume a bigger role alongside his twin brother, Zvonimir.

What a clucking shame.

An Illinois school worker will spend the next nine years in prison after she stole 11,000 cases of chicken wings worth $1.5 million that were meant for students during the height of the COVID pandemic, prosecutors said.

Vera Liddell used her position as the food service director at Harvey School District 152 to carry out the unappetizing crime that was only unearthed after the district realized the school system blew past its budget, prosecutors reportedly said.

Liddell, 68, started the scheme in July 2020 and didn’t stop until February 2022, the Cook County State Attorney’s Office said, according to ABC 7 Chicago.

While she bought up the incredible amount of poultry and used a school cargo van to pick up the food, students never saw a single wing, prosecutors said, per WGN.

Schools were closed, but the district near Chicago was still sending out meal kits to students in remote learning during the height of the pandemic.

She was originally charged with theft and operating a criminal enterprise in January 2023.

Liddell, who was food service head for ten years at the district, took a guilty plea in the case before she received the 9-year prison sentence, WGN reported.

A school business manager found food costs were $300,000 over budget even though there were still months left to the school year during a routine audit that led to Liddell’s arrest.

Considering the strength and longevity of the McDonald’s brand, I’m surprised something like this hasn’t happened sooner. But happened it has, and it proves once again that the Golden Arches muckety-mucks know how to create excitement.

Unless you count the McDiner (and you can even if some don’t), this would be McDonald’s first spin-off restaurant. (I searched and couldn’t find another one.) And it will be fruitless to walk into a CosMc’s looking for the same fare you’d find in the parent establishment…with a few exceptions.

Aimed at a younger audience, the CosMc’s menu features an array of breakfast and beverage items ranging from specialty coffees, slushes, and frappes to sandwiches like the spicy queso–an omelet with sausage, spicy queso sauce, white cheddar cheese, and crispy jalapeno chips–and the creamy avocado tomatillo–an omelet with applewood bacon, creamy avocado tomatillo sauce, and white cheddar cheese. Both are served on a brioche bun. The sides on the CosMc’s menu also look a little different, but three old favorites are also be available.

The first CosMc’s location opened last December in the Chicago suburb of Bolingbrook IL. Four other locations in Texas have also opened. We certainly hope expansion continues.

And in case you’re wondering where the name “CosMc’s” came from, you need only look back to the late 1980s and early 1990s when McDonald’s introduced a character named CosMc:

I’m enamored of the CosMc’s menu, so my fingers are crossed that it keeps expanding and eventually lands in my neighborhood…or even 100 miles away. I’m ready to go.

[SOURCE: today.com]

LOOK: 15 Discontinued McDonald’s Menu Items