COLUMN: Illini Should Give Two Words to Big Ten Tournament - Hard Pass
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The men’s basketball program is an extremely important, valuable commodity for the University of Illinois. Always has been and always will be.
You’d, of course, find it difficult to prove this argument during the mediocre to bad results from the end of the Bruce Weber tenure (2011-12) through the entire John Groce era (2012-13 to 2016-17) and the first two years of the Brad Underwood regime (2017-18 to 2018-19).
However, for several decades Illini basketball is something of a religious experience for those that grew up near the U of I campus, attended the university and/or found some lifelong connection to the program. It’s this understanding that makes special seasons like 1988-1989, 2004-05 and this current campaign all that much more enjoyable.
This current Illini team will likely end up as a No. 1 seed in the upcoming NCAA tournament for the fourth time in program history. Now, Illini fans can’t wait to see if this team can win three games in a row to possibly add another year to its Big Ten Tournament championship banner that hangs inside State Farm Center and already has 2003 and 2005 on it.
And so, there’s very little doubt, at least in my mind, what I’m about to suggest is likely not to be very popular. In the hot take culture of which we live now, the following proposal is for this current Illinois to do something that goes against every nature of a competitive human being but the purpose is much more forward thinking.
So, here’s goes: the University of Illinois athletics department should give a very hard pass to participating in next week’s 2021 Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament. That’s right. Do not go. Politely decline the invitation and if need be, forfeit its first game Friday evening in the quarterfinal round.
B1G letters sit on Monument Circle before the NCAA Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis, Tuesday, March 10, 2020.
Michelle Pemberton/IndyStar/USA Today Sports
Illinois should politely tell the Big Ten Conference officials that no, it’s not a personal attack so there’s no need to worry about the Illini faithful badmouthing your endeavor and we’ll certainly support your money-making enterprise in Indianapolis from afar. However, we’re going to be a little too busy getting prepared for the much more critical postseason tournament in Indiana that is scheduled to begin about a week later. Maybe next year, okay?
In fact, here’s how the conversation should go.
Illinois athletics director Josh Whitman should’ve already picked up the phone and called the folks in charge of the event whose offices likely still reside in Rosemont, Illinois but are likely still working remotely from home (don’t worry Whitman has their numbers) and politely ask the following question.
Whitman: “Yeah, hi. How’s everything going? Oh, us? We’re great. Thanks for asking. Yeah so, the reason I’m calling is I’m wondering what the punishment is going to be if we decline to show up for this league tournament?”
Big Ten Conference official: “(Hollow words and sentences that probably involve concepts like ‘loyalty’, ‘partnership’ and maybe even ‘competition fairness’ that should be important but when properly translated to the reality of this situation actually come across in a similar fashion to the sounds of Charlie Brown’s school teacher)”
And if in the midst of that league office mumbo jumbo nonsense sounding like “wah wa wa wah wa wa" the words “multi-million dollar loss” aren’t uttered, Whitman should respond as such.
Whitman: “Okay. Yeah, so, we’re not going to be able to make it this year. You see, we’re currently having a season that is a once-in-a-generation deal and here’s the thing...judging by how you guys folded to the whims of Ohio State, Nebraska and Michigan football a few months back, I’m not sure if you realize this or not but we’re still in the middle of a pandemic. And so, our department just isn’t willing to accept the idea of risking our players to potentially positive COVID-19 tests that would jeopardize our invitation or our ability to advance in the NCAA tournament the following week. So, you guys have fun in Indianapolis and we’re just going to politely pass. No hard feelings. We’ll see you next year. Okay? Have a great day.”
Whitman should be listening to his coaches, specifically Underwood. The fourth-year Illini head coach has already publicly stated, in a question I asked to him on Feb. 15, his concerns about this league tournament going on as scheduled that need not be described as anything more than a desperate money grab by the conference.
“We’re going to play ours until somebody tells me different (but) I understand exactly what you’re saying,” Underwood said. “We all wrestle with it. I think everybody in this timeframe wants to make sure that if you have a chance to make a deep run (in the NCAA tournament), you just want to be healthy. You want to be as fresh as you can be. That’s my angle at this. We’ve got to make sure our conference, which has teams capable of winning a national championship and we may have five, six, seven teams capable I don’t know, presents the best opportunity for our league to do that.”
And for all those about to suggest that the chances of Ayo Dosunmu testing positive and being forced to sit for 14 days during the NCAA tournament because the Illini played in the conference tournament, I agree. It’s a slim chance. But by the conclusion of simple math, you know what makes the chance of that happening even less? Not going at all.
See, this is an opportunity for those representing the Illini program to show the Big Ten Conference that we can’t be bullied around whenever you feel like. Illinois isn’t going to just roll over and wait for the perceived big boys of the league to thumb their nose in the league’s eye first. When it comes to a valuable basketball program, Illinois can be first in line to say you can’t give just rejigger the end of the schedule in order for the program to play five games in a 11-day period with four of those on the road, be forced to play in this consequence-free tournament the following week, be dead tired and possibly more at risk to COVID-19 spread before the national tournament and once that’s all over expect everybody associated with the Illini program to turn the other cheek and happily shout “Yes, Mr. Kevin Warren, may I have another?”
And for those wondering, where does Illinois get off bullying the league office? The proper response is simple. This fall, Nebraska parents sued the league. Ohio State parents and fans organized a pow wow in an empty parking lot in Rosemont. Michigan parents, fans and players marched on campus. About time Illinois got in on the college tradition of protesting, right?
“You may say Ayo’s a dreamer, but he’s not the only one.”
“A change gonna come.”
“All we are saying, is give Kofi a chance!”
Yes, I’m aware fans of this Illini program are looking forward to any and all chances to watch this team compete. It was announced Thursday, the Big Ten Conference Directors of Athletics and the Council of President and Chancellors (you remember, the governing body group that caved in to the peer pressure of the whining of everybody associated with Ohio State, Nebraska and Michigan football this fall) will allow a limited capacity of 8,000 fans inside Lucas Oil Stadium. So, Illini fans will, for the first time this season, get to purchase a ticket and watch their favorite team live in person. And Lord knows they should get this chance to do so. All I'm suggesting is they wait a week and purchase the tickets from the NCAA and not the league that is claiming another school not named Illinois, which won and played in less games, is their regular season champion.
Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren talks with the media last March about the cancellation of the Big Ten men's basketball tournament effective immediately in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thomas J. Russo/USA TODAY Sports
Illini basketball matters. This season matters. It matters a lot. And why jeopardize anything associated with an upcoming NCAA run for nothing more than a money grab by the conference? And when you come up with that answer, send it over to Underwood's office because he's still waiting for that one.
The simple answer is they shouldn’t. However, the inducement of money and addiction of competition will compel Illinois to be there Friday night when they open up the league tournament. And it’s because of a Big Ten Conference money grab where for one more week, Illini fans must hold their breath and hope this generationally elite team can survive more clean testing and not be completely exhausted of energy before arriving at the tournament that actually matters.