Illinois vs. Iowa: a rivalry so Elite, it might as well be 1989

Illinois men’s basketball career scoring leader Deon Thomas recently spotted a fan in a T-shirt emblazoned with the message that, to paraphrase, the Illini are friends to no foe and rivals to all.

Indiana, Michigan, Purdue — they and others have been high on the friction list at times over the years.

“But your biggest rival would probably have to be Iowa,” Thomas, 55, told the Sun-Times.

In Houston for Saturday’s NCAA Tournament South Region final against the No. 9-seeded Hawkeyes (5:09 p.m., TBS, truTV, 890-AM), Thomas, a radio analyst on Illini games, was still buzzing from the No. 3-seeded Illini’s 65-55 upset of Houston in the Sweet 16. He isn’t taking anything for granted against the Big Ten’s lowest-seeded team to make an Elite Eight since full seeding was implemented in the tournament in 1979, but he’s certainly picking up the scent of the Illini’s first Final Four since 2005.

“I do not have a score, but I do believe we win this game,” Thomas said. “I think we’re the better team. This team is good enough to win a national championship. It doesn’t mean we will. But we definitely have the talent, the scheme, the coach and the defense if we continue to play on that end like we did [against Houston].”

The Illinois-Iowa rivalry has often run hotter than most. Recently, it has been all Illini; they’ve won five straight head-to-head and 10 of the last 11, contributing to last year’s firing of longtime Hawkeyes coach Fran McCaffery, a frequent target of Illini fans’ derision and whose current team, Penn, the Illini (27-8) dismissed in the first round of this tournament.

But the true genesis of the rivalry goes back to 1989, when Thomas was a 6-9 star recruit from Simeon who got caught up in an infamous scandal involving then-Iowa assistant Bruce Pearl. In a sordid maneuver, Pearl secretly recorded a conversation with Thomas in which the coach asked if then-Illinois assistant Jimmy Collins had offered $80,000 and a Chevy Blazer as illegal inducements to sign with the Illini. Thomas offered no denial in a tape Pearl later forwarded to NCAA investigators.

Pearl has since apologized to Thomas, who calls it “water under the bridge for me now.”

“But it was a lie, nowhere near the truth,” Thomas said, “and people got really hurt.”

Thomas was unable to play as an Illinois freshman as a result, ruining what he believes would have been a “march back to the Final Four” in 1990 for the Illini, who’d gotten there the year before. Collins might have become Lou Henson’s successor as coach, but, his reputation tarnished, that didn’t happen, either.

“I want to beat Iowa and love beating them, but I don’t necessarily blame the university for what Bruce Pearl did,” Thomas said. “But I do understand and appreciate the way our fan base feels.”

Still feels, to be clear, even though the combatants in this game — the 173rd between the schools — had nothing to do with any of it.

The Hawkeyes (24-12), in the Elite Eight for the first time since 1987, have been one of the best stories of the tournament. They grabbed control of a two-point game with a 16-4 second-half blitz against No. 8 seed Clemson, stunned No. 1 seed Florida with a last-ditch three-pointer by Alvaro Folgueiras — the shot of the tournament so far — and rallied to beat No. 4 seed Nebraska despite not leading until the final two minutes.

“March is for the dreamers,” Folgueiras said, “and there’s no better dreamer than us.”

First-year coach Ben McCollum won four Division II national championships at Northwest Missouri State. Now, he’s gunning to bring one home to his birthplace, Iowa City.

“Cinderella, whatever they want to call us, we’re in the Elite Eight,” McCollum said. “That’s what they need to [say about] us.”

The Illini keep marching. They had it easy against Penn, overwhelmed VCU in the second round and outplayed Houston so convincingly, it had to blow the hair back of many watching. This is a team peaking at the perfect time, and what could be more exciting than that?

“It’s not often you get two conference opponents playing in the Elite Eight to go to a Final Four, but it’s fabulous for the league and it’s fabulous for our programs,” coach Brad Underwood said.

Iowa’s best player, guard Bennett Stirtz, began his career at Northwest Missouri State with McCollum. In the Illini’s 75-69 win in January in Iowa City, they harassed Stirtz into 5-for-17 shooting. Rugged senior guard Kylan Boswell will be on Stirtz duty again, but now he has locked-in defenders — notably all-Big Ten guard Keaton Wagler — all around him.

In a college season packed with marquee freshmen, Wagler and do-it-all forward David Mirkovic — each coming off a scoring and rebounding double-double against Houston — have been hoarding attention. They have a chance to be the last ones standing. Kicking an old rival to the curb to reach the Final Four would be an epic next step.