Illinois' Final Four marching orders: Have fun, spill guts, no regrets
INDIANAPOLIS — As anyone who has competed in an Olympics, a Super Bowl, a Game 7 or a Final Four will tell you, there’s something about the grandest events in sports that’s just different.
And not “good” different, either.
The big stage can mess with a player’s head like nothing else.
It’s the giant fan interest. And the giant media throngs. And the giant pressure. In the case of this men’s Final Four, it’s the giant football stadium, home of the NFL Colts. It’s the puzzling way these winner-take-all situations tend to go by so fast — too fast, a blink — that certain players and teams get swallowed in the moment, left to regret not having done the best they could.
It’s all those things, and more.
Something like this happened to Illinois two years ago in the Elite Eight, when the Illini were blown out by a UConn colossus on its way to a second straight championship. Marcus Domask hit a jumper to tie it 23-23. Then Justin Harmon made a layup, only it came 10 minutes of game time later and made the score 53-25. Incredibly, the Illini had been outscored 30-0 in between baskets. How on Earth does that happen?
“You definitely could see moments where it was deflating them,” said Alex Karaban, a starter on that Huskies team and now a senior linchpin whose personal NCAA Tournament record is a wildly good 17-1. “It was such a special run. Score, stop, score. And then celebrate after.”
The Illini who will take the floor Saturday inside cavernous Lucas Oil Stadium simply can’t let anything like that happen again. It’s too miserable a feeling. Win or lose Saturday in a national semifinal against UConn (33-5), the Illini (28-8) have to puff out their chests, bow their necks and then spill their guts. And maybe even have fun doing it.
The great Illini team that lost the national-title game to North Carolina in 2005 was unable to locate its very best effort when it mattered most.
“The one that’s going to haunt you forever,” Dee Brown, one of the stars of that team, said last year at a 20th reunion in Champaign.
Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman was the picture of calm and confidence Friday as he watched the team practice with thousands of fans in the stands and hundreds of media and other workers inhabiting the perimeter of the court. Whitman always projects calm and confidence, which must be one of the secrets to his success since returning to his alma mater in 2016.
“I’ll be nervous tomorrow,” he said. “Today, we really emphasized trying to be enjoy the moment we’re in. But we’ve got more work to do, got a couple of big games in front of us. I’ve got a lot of confidence in these guys and our coaching staff. They’ll be ready.”
The sooner they start locking in, the better, and that goes for all the teams here because there are distractions around every corner at the Final Four.
One would think Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd is laser focused on Michigan, but he did manage to squeeze in a nice contract extension, through 2031, before clocking in for press-conference duty Friday. When there’s a huge game the next night and your coach is announcing, “I’m staying!” and discussing the North Carolina opening he could have filled, you scratch your chin just a little.
UConn coach Dan Hurley’s top assistant, Luke Murray — actor and Cubs fan Bill’s son — is halfway out the door to Boston College, where he is the new head coach. Murray has been tasked with scouting Illinois and UConn for a potential meeting on Monday. Meanwhile, he’s trying to pull together a roster at BC, which would be hard and chaotic enough under ideal conditions in these wild-west college sports times.
“He doesn’t sleep anyway,” Hurley cracked.
Hurley knows the Final Four like the back of his hand. Illinois coach Brad Underwood is coaching in it for the first time. Only a newbie would sit in front of a microphone and share, as Underwood did, how “taken aback” he was by the quality of pillowcases and blankets at the team hotel.
“I grew up watching this event,” Underwood said. “You’re the kid that’s in your driveway shooting hoops and you’re going to hit the game-winner in the national championship game. … “You watch it and you dream.”
But it’s no dream now.
There are guts to spill.