Two games to immortality.
Last weekend, it was REO Speedwagon. This week it’s Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers with “The Waiting.”
As the lyrics go, “The waiting is the hardest part.”
It has two meanings for me. Waiting for Illinois to get to another Final Four and waiting for the game this evening to start. In my waiting, I think back to the previous seasons of the modern era that made it to the Final Four: 1989 and 2005.
I wasn’t following college basketball that closely in 1989, but Illinois had made six straight NCAA Tournaments before making the Final Four. In 2005, they’d made five straight. I’m not sure about after 1989, but after 2005, the feeling in Champaign was that it was the start of Illinois Basketball having great teams year after year.
That did not happen, and Illinois remains the best program never to win a title. Sigh.
Things worked out about as perfectly as possible for Illinois in the tournament this year. As nice as it would’ve been to be in the Midwest region, the path the team ended up with was the most ideal and, honestly, may have been a blessing in disguise, as the squad plays better in road environments.
Illinois was in the South Region as a #3 seed and the bracket broke favorably:
- Penn without Ethan…
