Illini 29-1
Well, the streak finally came to an end yesterday. It was a painful loss no doubt (is there any other kind), and one that won't be quickly forgotten. How could we not defend the 3 on that final possession? You know they are going for the win, this is a team with absolutely nothing to gain from sending the game to overtime! And of all people to leave open, you let their one hot shooter get off a clear shot. Obviously not our finest moment this season.
However, after having a day to get over this stunning loss to OSU, I would like to put it all in perspective here. Losing sucks, but it's no time to sit here licking our wounds. There's still plenty to feel good about right now if you're an Illini fan:
- Our 3 guards each had probably their worst game of the season yesterday. That Matt Sylvester kid had the best game of his career. We were on the road and had at least a couple critical calls (or no-calls) go against us in the final minutes. We were up in the score for 39:55 out of a total 40 minutes in the game. Yet despite all those things, in the end we still lost by only one point.
- The Illini had the Big Ten Championship clinched outright for more than a week before this game even started. We've had a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament pretty much locked down for about a month now, and even with yesterday's loss, we will probably still get the best #1 seed overall, in the Midwest region. Meanwhile, Ohio State had no chance at making the NCAA tournament or winning anything meaningful this season. This was also their Senior Night (Day), if I'm not mistaken. So if anybody was going to play with a higher level of emotion, it was going to be the Buckeyes, especially with them being at home and all. They could afford to go for the 3 at the end of the game because if they missed, who cares?
- Before this season started, who could have predicted that this team would be 29-1 right now? And before the conference schedule started, I thought we would lose at least 2 games in the season. This was after we already beat Gonzaga, Wake, and Cincinnati impressively during the non-conference schedule. A 15-1 record in the Big Ten and 29-1 record overall is nothing to cry about. No it doesn't have the ring of 30-0 and undefeated in the Big Ten, but in the recent history of college basketball, not a whole lot of teams can say that they've even had a chance to go 30-0. In all of Division I college basketball this year, for example, the only other team with as few as even 2 losses is Pacific (who plays in the Big West conference, by the way).
- Upsets happen in college basketball, that's a fact. Every other top team in the country has had a loss to a team they shouldn't have lost to. In this weekend's games alone, we saw 6 of the top 10 ranked teams lose (ok, this includes #6 Duke losing to #2, we can probably discount that one, but still, my point stands). #3 Wake Forest didn't lose, but they were taken to the final possession by NC State. That's just how basketball is, all it takes for a good team to lose to a lesser team is a few bounces of the ball this way and that, or a few calls that go one way or another. Even in the NBA, think about the best Bulls teams in the past. When we had Jordan, Pippen, Rodman, etc., we still would occasionally lose to the expansion Raptors. In our best year, we still lost 10 out of 82 games in the regular season. I'm not necessarily saying that the Illini are the Jordan era Bulls, all I'm saying is that even the best teams lose some games. No team is perfect, except maybe the original 1992 Dream Team (and even they had Christian Laettner).
- Which is why my "expectations" for this Illini team has never been an undefeated season or winning the National Championship. Those things would be nice, but you can't really expect them from any team. To get them you'll need a good amount of luck, not just skill. The more realistic goals have always been 1) to win the Big Ten outright, 2) Get a #1 seed in the NCAA tourney, and 3) to make the Final Four. From what I have heard in the coaches and player's interviews all season, those were their goals too. And so far, so good. We're 1 for 1, and, barring a massive screwing by the selection committee, should be 2 for 2 by the end of this week.
- As far as sports superstition goes, I have been hesitant so far to break out my Dee Brown jersey for fear of breaking the Illini mojo. I wouldn't want the first time I wear that thing to be the first/only time they lose this season. Now that they have lost, I don't have to worry about that anymore. Kind of dumb, I know, but hey, just trying to find any silver lining to the cloud here.
- By the way, I believe the latest Coaches poll is out and still lists Illinois as #1 with 21 of the 31 first place votes. Actually I kind of wish they would've moved UNC into the top spot to fire up our players, but that's ok. When was the last time you saw a team lose to an unranked opponent and keep its #1 ranking in the next poll? Not that polls really matter that much, but still, that's saying something.
