And the last shall be . . . well, no worse than second, anyhow.
Illinois will enjoy this eventually, I suppose, this jog through glory, this found weekend in Chicago, snow and slush aside. Four games in four days, three ranked teams down and another to go. Forty minutes from the unthinkable.
“It’s a one-game season right now,” Illinois guard Cory Bradford said. It has been, of course, ever since the Illini treated the regular season like it was a rental. The Illini have only themselves to blame for where they were and where they are.
No consolation prizes ahead, no NIT, not even a police escort home. Win one more game and join the banquet of college basketball. Lose a game and return to the kiddies’ table. Without dessert.
Maybe that is why it is so hard to get the mind around, because Illinois is no better off, realistically, than when the team arrived for the Big Ten tournament, the 11th seed in a league that has, by letterhead, at least, only 10 teams. They were so far down they had to get a whole other number.
“They were in their locker room a week ago looking at an abysmal season,” said Jim O’Brien, coach of Ohio State and latest victim of the Illini road grader, wiping aside all before it. “Now they are one game from the NCAA tournament. A monumental accomplishment.”
Weird is as weird allows, and lots of unusual stuff has happened at the United Center the last few days. So it should not be strange that O’Brien is more enthusiastic about what Illinois is doing than anyone in the Illini locker room seems to be.
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“In my mind,” O’Brien said, meaning it in only the kindest way, “they are the best last-place team in America.”
From Illinois, not a “Wow!” Not a “Whew!” Not a “Way to go!” Not a “Pinch me to make sure I’m not dreaming.”
“We’re excited,” Illinois center Victor Chukwudebe said. “But we’re not surprised.”
Believe what you will. If the Illinois team is not surprised, it is not breathing. And I know that is true because they panted and puffed and held their breath while Ohio State’s final shot clanked harmlessly off the basket at the buzzer for a 79-77 victory.
Now Illinois is sitting there with one number yet to be called in the lottery. How can they not be surprised?
“I know this doesn’t happen very often,” Illinois coach Lon Kruger said, allowing at least that much.
There’s more excitement at an open grave. Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio State. Those three teams are very likely to be invited to the NCAA tournament, and Illinois has knocked them off in a row. Without a day off, without a good reason anyone can think of.
“This is a huge growing-experience opportunity,” Kruger said.
This guy would look at found money and see wallpaper.
This is the good and the bad of these conference tournaments. A team like Illinois, a season-long footwipe, gets a bad bounce here, a buzzer failure there, and the next thing you know, someone is scrambling around making road reservations for the NCAA tournament.
Conference tournaments are concocted just for this sort of thing. And for the money, of course.
“This just tells you how deep and how good our conference is,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien is rooting for Illinois to win because it could mean that the Big Ten would get an eighth team into the tournament, seeing the invitation list as more than half full rather than, as logic and fairness demand, half empty.
“Purdue and Minnesota deserve to be in (along with MSU, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Indiana),” O’Brien said.
Dream on. Accepting that logic, Michigan State beating Illinois would be like mugging Cinderella. This suggests that the Spartans not even try to win.
If Illinois wins, some other Big Ten team gets knocked out. Michigan State had better win, had at least better play to win. Otherwise the whole thing gets an aroma. Is Michigan State playing for a No. 1 seed? It doesn’t think so.
“I think we’ve earned it,” coach Tom Izzo said after MSU had disposed easily of Wisconsin. “Our winning streak, the things we’ve accomplished, hanging in there with everyone picking at us. We deserve the shot.”
Just in case, Michigan State had better do the expected, get it over with and let Illinois find some joy in what has been a remarkable run after a dismal season.
“We play with emotion and enthusiasm,” Kruger said.
Ah, so that’s what they’re saving it for.