Four seconds left, a road win pretty much in hand. For some reason, Minnesota, down three, decides to attack the rim rather than taking a 3. Instead of conceding the layup, Myers Leonard stands his ground, Hollins gets bailed out with a foul (Leonard's fifth), makes the tough layup and hits the free throw. The Illini go on to lose in overtime and fall to 4-4 in the Big 10.
I went through a lot of stages of anger at that call. I was angry that the ref 35 feet away from the basket made a call that is a no call 95% of the time (though contrary to some reports, Leonard was not straight up and it WAS probably a foul). I was angry at Leonard for even bothering to contest the shot (giving up the layup in that situation probably seals the game for the Illini - and by fouling out, Leonard killed the Illini in OT). I was angry at Weber for not effectively telling his team not to foul under any circumstances. And I was angry at this Illinois team for letting a game they should have won get away... again (same thing I was feeling after both the Penn State and Wisconsin games).
Last night's loss got me thinking about the state of the Illinois program and Bruce Weber's tenure at Illinois. Since Dee and Augustine graduated in '06, Illinois has been a bubble team almost every year. Look at the results:
'07 - bubble team, sneak into the tournament as a 12 seed, lose a heartbreaker to Virginia Tech in the first round.
'08 - No postseason, not even good enough to qualify for the NT.
'09 - 5 seed. Lose to Western Kentucky in the first round.
'10 - NIT.
'11 - 9 seed. Lose in the second round to Kansas.
The reality is that Illinois has become a mediocre B1G program and the Illini are heading to the bubble again this year (for the 4th time in 6 years - '08 and '09 the exceptions). Those results are unacceptable and it's time for the program to head in another direction.
Drinking away another loss, here at Murphy's Pub.
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