Illinois Murdered Duke In Front Of A Live National Television Audience Tonight
This wasn't Wake Forest November 2004 but it also isn't far behind in terms of season momentum. Easy to say in hindsight of the 2005 season but even objectively you can't deny the importance of a colossal road win against one of history's premier college basketball program. When you consistently rely on two freshmen and a sophomore in your mix, this is the kind of win that moves the entire team 85 steps forward (in honor of the 85 Bears). They woke up today #6 with potential. They will go to sleep in the dicussion for best teams in the country and at this point all you Iowa fans can save it. We'll get our chance to dance.
For now let me just enjoy this one. So many Illini fans have been starved over the last year across all sports. If you're from Chicago and a Cubs' fan like me, it's been a complete wasteland. And if you want to isolate it to just Illini athletics, we've got one notable achievement in the last 7 calendar years: a two touchdown loss to California in the 2019 Redbox Bowl. Before that you'd have to dig into a 2014 Heart Of Dallas Bowl appearance or the basketball's 2nd round loss in 2013 to Miami to literally feel anything at all. Almost nine years since firing Bruce Weber and I'm back to feeling alive. It took a 15 point road win at my darkest hour as a sports fan but we're back.
And not to add pressure, but realistically this is all we have for at least another year. This is the squad. Everyone else is busy figuring it out from the Bears to the Cubs to the Bulls to the Hawks. But for now we have our top ranked Illinois basketball team and that gives me hope that I'm not destined to be a miserable loser for the indefinite future. For that I'd like to thank Brad Underwood as well as Ayo, Kofi, Da'Monte, Trent, Ace, Giorgi, Curbelo and everyone else wearing orange on that bench. From the video guys to the grad assistants to the social team. This is new age Illinois basketball and it feels so fucking good to be back where we belong.
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