Gnashville
Sweet 16? Not this year.
Two tough stretches in the Vanderbilt game (one in the first quarter, one in the third) means that the Commodores are moving on and the good guys are not.
Hey, props to the Vanderbilt athletic department which has turned all their major sports around...but I do hate that their first Sweet 16 in seventeen years had to come at the expense of our first this century.
But wait 'til next year.
Back-to-back trips to the NCAA tourney for the first time in awhile. We played two games in the Music City:
Round of 64 vs. Colorado (Illini win 66-57)
Great stats in this one from three of our players:
Berry (18 pts and 6 reb)
Cearah (21 pts and 5 reb)
Destiny (16 pts, 11 reb, and 6 ast)
...but the player I couldn't stop watching was Jasmine. Yes, Jas, who was SCORELESS. But she looked like she was shot out of a cannon on the defensive end and she was a big difference in the game. She was so disruptive. Steals, tipped passes, bodying up Colorado's leading scorer, Desiree Wooten, who was clearly frustrated. Defense has been a struggle for the Illini at times this year, and when JBH brings this energy, it sets the tone on that end.
In fact, WE looked like the better defensive team in this one. Colorado got to this point because of their top 25 defense, but our gals were locked in and made their average offense look even more pedestrian. And the only time you could spot some cracks was when Jas left the game with a twisted ankle. Immediate 7-0 run in the third quarter to allow the Buffs to get back into it. JBH came back in a few minutes later and we were in the driver's seat for the rest of the game.
Okay, I shouldn't have passed over the others so quickly but I wanted to give Jas some love. Cece had a dynamite first half with 15 points (and broke the Illini freshman scoring record!) and goodness, the shortest person on the floor with 11 boards is just awesome. And Berry was Berry. The freshmen got a ton of attention this year, but we sure are fortunate to have Ms. Wallace leading the charge.
I feel like I'm all over the place, but the Vanderbilt loss just happened and I'm in a weird mood. Let's just cut to the chase...
Round of 32 vs. Vanderbilt (Illini loss 75-57)
I'm proud of the team after this one. Our shooting was so, so putrid, but it didn't seem to affect the other areas of our game.
21/71 from the field (29 percent)
3/23 from three (13 percent)
...but we got a TON of offensive rebounds (19 total, 40 percent of our misses), played some pretty good defense for a majority of the game, and kept fighting even after we got down by 13 in that first quarter. In fact, we...actually outplayed them for about a quarter and a half, cutting the lead to 9 about midway through the third.
And then Vandy woke up.
Goodness gracious, that's a good team. Is it okay if I don't say much more about this game? To summarize, it was not close, then it was closer, and then it was really not close, and then our season ended. I don't want to dwell on it anymore.
All year I've kept calling to mind that loss in the tournament last year to Texas. We had just won the 8/9 game for the first NCAA tourney win in a long time. The vibes were good. And then reality set in and Texas took us to the woodshed.
It was so, so clear that that wonderful, veteran-laden, talented team had zero chance on the floor with a team of Texas' caliber. "That's the next step," I thought to myself. Gotta get talent like that and let Shauna mold them.
And...maybe I was wrong. I think the Texas's, UCLA's, South Carolina's and UCONN's of the world might be two steps away from where last year's team is.
This year's team was the beginning of the next step. A top seven recruiting class meant that we didn't need to go into rebuilding mode...heck, this young team got a better seed than last year's team.
But Vandy showed us what that next step looks like. And I might be be crazy, but I think even this excellent Vanderbilt team will get drilled by whatever one seed they meet next. (They already got beat by 29 points by South Carolina earlier in the year.) I mean, we've talked all year about the drop off in the men's game between Michigan/Arizona/Duke and the next tier...but it's nothing compared to the drop off in the women's game between the cream of the crop and the next tier.
Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm dreaming of Final Four runs with Shauna at the helm and we haven't even got to the Sweet 16 since I was a freshman in college (1999, yikes). But I really think the sky is the limit with this program. Best AD in the nation, financial resources are there, and Shauna is a star...yeah, I'm dreaming big.
Final tally for our record-breaking freshmen:
Cearah Parchment
Most points for an Illini freshman: 463 points (previous: 448 by Chatrice White)
Most rebounds for an Illini freshman: 285 (previous: 251 by Kennedy Myles)
Destiny Jackson
Most assists for an Illini freshman: 176 (previous: 140 by Jenny Johnson)
Congrats, ladies! We can't wait to see what sophomore records you break next year.
Shauna's offseason to-do list:
- KEEP THIS TEAM TOGETHER.
That's it, really. We don't have a single contributor that is out of eligibility. We can run this 22-12 team back with everyone a year older AND a healthy Gretchen (please God), Manuella Alves, and Erica Finney.
And two years from now when Berry is a senior and this current freshman class are all in their third year? I think that's the Vandy step. That's the 27-6, top three in the Big Ten, two seed in the NCAA tourney, sold out State Farm Center team that we've dreamed of.
And then there's one more step.
Friends, it's been a blast writing about this wonderful team this year. I'm grateful to the boss for giving me the green light and a ton of creative freedom, and for those of you who have read these articles along the way. It's been a heckuva ride.
Go Illini.