NCAA Tournament II: Delivering Blows

”Illinois is like a prizefighter - they stick and jab and then pound you to finish the deal”

-Bill Raftery on the TNT broadcast with 11:12 left in the second half last night.

I’m actually going to start this post-game fun-fest with a painful memory. Back on February 27, Michigan’s Morez Johnson set the tone of a game the Wolverines would control for most of the night by slamming into David Mirkovic on the first Michigan offensive possession of the game and drawing a foul. He was seeking contact - and Mirkovic got every bit of it. Afterwards, Brad Underwood said something to the effect that Morez “knocked David into next week” and there was a lesson to be learned.

Message sent and message received. In Illinois’ tonight’s opening round NCAA Tournament game against Penn, David Mirkovic was like a heat seeking bowling ball from the opening tip. Off the dribble, on cuts, on blockouts - he was delivering blows and obliterating Penn players everywhere on the floor. One might say he left them Quaking in their boots. After just one half of play, Mirkovic already had a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds - on his way to a record setting 29 and 15. As Brad Underwood would say in his post game press conference: “David Mirkovic was the best player on the floor tonight”.