NCAA Tournament V: Expectedly Sweet

I’m not a “Hot Take” guy. I never want to risk tempting karma and I just don’t have the energy for social media squabbles. It’s not that I don’t HAVE hot takes mind you, I just don’t generally air them for public consumption. As it were, ever since the Illinois win at Nebraska back on the first of February, I’ve been grappling with an internal Hot Take which has frankly been making me miserable. The take? That this Illinois basketball season would be a failure without a Sweet 16 appearance.

Admittedly, it’s the dumbest of takes. By any measure of success, the regular season lived up to (if not surpassed) every rational expectation. Illinois was ranked 17th in the AP preseason top 25 - and finished 13th in the final regular season poll. Illinois was picked to finish fourth in the Big Ten - and finished in a tie for 2nd at 15-5 alongside Michigan State and Nebraska. They earned a 3 seed in the NCAA tournament. Objectively, it was one of the ten best regular seasons of my Illini fandom life.

And yet, as it would turn out, my lizard brain wanted more. The worst part of it is that this inescapable notion was actually born out of the joy of the 12 game win streak this team threw down from mid-December through early February. That stretch solidified in my mind that at this team had National Championship mettle. Subconsciously, though, that realization was growing poisonous. Somewhere along the line, my excitement devolved into expectation.

So after consecutive losses in OT to Michigan State, Wisconsin, and UCLA, I stopped having fun. After the UCLA game I was downright inconsolable. The loss at home to Michigan and a second OT loss to Wisconsin in the Big Ten Tournament did nothing to ease my anxiety.

I’m usually the ultimate “ENJOY THE MOMENT” guy, but instead I’d become the fan I hate - the one who boils four months of basketball down to a binary notion of success based off a famously random tournament.

So tonight in Greenville was such a Sweet release. All those internal demons immediately exorcised - and it happened while the game was technically still in doubt. Watching THE Zvonimir Ivisic sequence in the second half (more on that later) unfold right in front of me eyes basically shocked me out of my funk. Seeing his reaction and that of his brother and the rest of his teammates on the Illini bench was like 20,000 joules of pure basketball joy zapped directly into my soul.

The game was far from over at that point (it was just 46-32 with 15 minutes still to play), but really - the game was over. That dunk was the most vicious of daggers. That 14 point lead would eventually stretch to 25 with under two minutes to go and it was all over but the Super Soaking:

And I was doubting this group? How silly in retrospect. I can‘t go back to erase the negative vibes I was feeling for the past month, but you can be 100% sure I will be enjoying the heck out of the next week and appreciating the heck out of this team regardless of what happens in Houston.

So thanks to you Big Z, and to your brother, and Keaton and Kylan and Andrej and Mirk - for releasing me from basketball purgatory. This outcome may have been expected, but it doesn’t make it any less Sweet.

OTHER STUFF

+Let’s get this out of the way right now. And mind you this is coming from someone who watched every one of the Flying Illini dunks in 1989 - but this may well have been the best in-game dunk I’ve ever seen in my Illini lifetime…

Talk about your One Shining Moment. Combined with the block on the other end of the floor - it’s at the very least the best singular sequence I can remember. After the game, I literally had to interrupt Zvonimir from watching the highlights of his dunk on his phone to ask him about it. He just smiled and replied with one word: “Nasty”. He also said it was the best dunk he’s ever had in a game. I’ve watched it a dozen times already - and you can guarantee it will be on High Five as well.

+Illinois imposed their will on their opponent in both games here in Greenville, but via two completely different pathways. Against Penn, they did so on offense while tonight it was the defense’s turn. VCU shot just 35% from the floor and managed only a feeble 0.83 points per possession - their worst offensive performance of the season by a mile - against a choking and surprisingly aggressive Illinois defense. We saw as much hedging on ball screens and disruption of VCU ball handlers as we’ve seen since Brad Underwood’s first two seasons. Were it not for a slew of first half turnovers from the Illini, this game would have been over by halftime.

+VCU came into this game getting over 20% of their scoring from the free throw line while Illinois is literally the best in all of college basketball in defensive free throw rate (not allowing free throw attempts). Illinois dominated this “game within the game” as the Rams only made two free throws (on just six attempts) on the night - just 4% of their 55 point total.

+Tomislav Ivisic is surging at exactly the right time. He followed up his 12 points/7 rebound performance on Thursday with 14 points and 11 rebounds tonight. Maybe he was just on a self-imposed load management program during the regular season. I kid, I kid.

+Just watched the end of the Illini women’s opening round win against Colorado in the media, work room here along with some other assembled Illini media. Nice work ladies! Go make some history. how are you?

+Count VCU coach Phil Martelli, Jr. as a big Illini fan after tonight. He had this to say after the game: “We got to the highest peak I think we could get to this season, and while it would have been nice to win tonight, the reality is that team (Illinois) has a National Championship-level pedigree and I’ll be rooting like heck from them to get there.”

Coaches know ball.

His dad and Brad Underwood had a nice moment after the game as well - with the senior Martelli and Underwood sharing an hug and wishing each other the best.

+Speaking of Brad Underwood. Tonight was his 300th career D-1 coaching win and he’s also 6-2 in last eight NCAA Tournament games. Take that Hot Take guy.

+The early line for next Thursday’s game: Houston -2.5. Bring. It. On.