There’s not a lot of patience right now within Illini basketball nation. There’s three main reasons for that. First, you have the reality this team does not close games. They are like Shelly Levine in Glengarry Glen Ross, can’t close. That consistent tendency to blow double digit leads in games has led to their inability to close the deal on a NCAA Tournament berth.
In our latest bracketology, we have Illinois in the “first four out.”
Secondly, Illinois fans are beyond weary of the bubble status storyline. This song has been more overplayed than “Shake it Off” in 2014 and 2015. Actually, it’s been pretty much the same thing since 2007.
Third, and probably most important, is that none of us have attention spans anymore. Social media has killed that off in most of us. The news cycle now moves in minutes and hours; not days and weeks.
At 2013 NFL on CBS Media Day, a New York based reporter asked Phil Simms about the Jets starting quarterback, about 2-3 weeks before the season was to start.
“We have to know now, don’t we? We, can’t wait until after the third and fourth preseason games. It has to be now,” said Simms.
Damn right it does.
Rayvonte Rice is one fine college basketball player. He’s what Illini basketball has had going for it the past two years, and if he never gets to play in one single minute of March Madness that would be a crying shame. Especially given the fact that no one seems to think he has a future in the NBA.
So we’ll make it cut and dry. This is it Illini basketball fans. It comes down to this. Anyone who tells you anything that contrasts the three scenarios I’ve outlined below is either a.) lying to you or b.) tremendously stupid. Like as stupid as the “John Groce should be fired” crowd, or even dumber the “Illini basketball is better off without Rice” crowd.
This is it plain and simple.
1. Lose to Michigan on Thursday morning.
NIT; the bubble bursts
2. Beat UM on Thursday morning, but lose to Wisconsin.
Right back on the treadmill, exactly where they are now. sweat it out and wonder in limbo until Sunday evening. This is why blowing that game at Purdue on Saturday was so huge. Being in the #7 slot instead of the #8, and getting to face Maryland again, instead of the Badgers, would have been very advantageous.
3. Beat UM, beat UW.
They’re in. Saturday would see this Illini basketball team “playing with house money” at that point.
Here’s our Big Ten Tournament predictions and preview.
So that’s it. The NCAA Tournament versus the NIT is like binary code (or recruiting for that matter) you’re either a 1 or a 0; no other outcomes are possible. Getting another signature win by upsetting an elite team in Wisconsin would show us that Illinois truly belongs in the big dance. Enter through the front; kick the door down with authority. That’s a lot more respectable than slipping in through the side door, on the backs of Baylor and Maryland’s achievements.
If Illinois is eliminated from the BTT before the weekend…they’re then relegated to hoping the Bears and Terrapins carry them into the tourney like the North Carolina Tar Heels did for the Illini in 2010-2011.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital. You can read Banks’ feature stories and op-eds in the Chicago Tribune RedEye newspaper and hear his regular guest spots on numerous sports talk radio stations all across the country.
Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)