On last night's game...

I’m going to try to explain what I felt while watching the Illinois game last night. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to put it in perspective or explain what it means to me. Let’s just say that outside of Duke-Kentucky, that was the best game that I’ve ever seen.

You see, even though I wear my Notre Dame t-shirts and my Duke sweatshirts I am still an Illinois fan. It’s my alma mater, it’s my school, and I spent many a day wandering the cornfields of its hallowed campus. And if there is one thing that I’ve learned, it’s that when we’re down 15 with four minutes to play we are not going to find a way to win.

See, when I went to Illinois it was a few years after their final four berth, where they missed making the championship game because no one bothered to box out Sean Higgins. And I was there during the probation years where I got to watch in awe players like Tommy Michael, who was a dead eye three point shooter as long as no one was in front of him and he didn’t have to dribble. And the legendary Andy Kaufmann, who one a game would grab a rebound drive the length of the court, running over defenders, neglecting three open teammates, and miss an uncontested layup. In my four years at the school we made the tournament twice and got past the first round once.

In the following years the teams got better and we gained more and more faith in them. We picked up the entire Illinois high school champion Peoria Manuel team and they became the starting lineup (Frank Williams, Sergio McClain and a host of others). You had the fighting Scotsman Robert Archibald, possibly the best basketball player ever to come out of Scotland. And you had Lucas Johnson, who shaved his head bald and specialized in starting fights. That squad made the elite eight only to lose to Arizona, in a game that made me hate every member of the Walton family.

That’s what makes last night’s game so special. That is a game that Illinois is supposed to lose. We don’t pull off miracle comebacks. We lose to the Governors of Austin Peay. It’s a school made up of Cubs and White Sox fans. We know how the story ends. That’s why last night watching these guys show so much heart and determination and just not giving up is astounding. I was watching the game at home with my family and it really turned into one of those special moments. There’s just something special about watching your school pull off the miracle comeback to win the game and have your four year old niece running around saying “We won! We won!” It just gives you the feeling that nothing is impossible.

I can’t wait until Saturday night when we get our shot at Louisville. This is going to be a great Final Four.

The five random CDs for the week:
1) Joe Ely “Live at Antones”
2) John Hiatt “The Best of John Hiatt” (Microsoft, please fix your random number generator. I’m begging you)
3) Sheryl Crow “Tuesday Night Music Club”
4) C.J. Chenier “Hot Rod”
5) Neko Case “Furnace Room Lullaby”