I used to care about team sports, but being a fan of the University of Illinois sports teams cured me of that some time ago.
Reading the paper this a.m. I see that they have continued their ways, losing to a 12th-ranked powerhose of Western Kentucky School of Truckdriving or somesuch. Ahh, brings back wonderful first round exits against the likes of Austin Peay or Dayton, or second round swoons to Tennessee-Chattahootchie.
Even when they made it past the first couple of rounds they always managed to find some way to seize defeat from the jaws of victory.
And don’t get me STARTED on their football program.
So, is there any other school whose teams purport to participate in “major-college” athletics who have failed to seal the deal as consistently as the Frightening Illini?
Yeah, there are schools whose teams are perennial dormats. And I hope those schools don’t pour the amount of resurces into their athletics as the Screw of I. But U of I purports to compete with the big boys, on every level including stadium building, recruiting, cheating and probation!
Yeah, they make it to the playoffs and bowl games regularly. Someone wanna remind me how many championships they have won?
I followed them to Pasadena in 84 and can still hear the chants of U-C-L-A ringing in my ears after every touchdown they scored. And how the hell do you not box out Higgins? Yeah, Winston Bennet carried the damn ball, but those are pretty much your highlights right there.
Seriously, did anyone really think they were going to beat NC? Or Duke before that? Or AZ? Do you think that combied those 3 teams have bowed out in the 1st and 2d rounds as often as the Illini?
No matter how good the Illini are, they ALWAYS manage to find a way to lose the big game! Betting against the Illini in big games is money in the bank.
Yeah, I hear that school actually requires that their kids attend classes and such, and has never been given the death penalty by the NCAA. What a bunch of schmucks those guys are! :rolleyes:
Because having attended and taught at the U of I, I am very aware of the resources that are poured into athletics, and the treatment afforded athletes. If the school is willing to go to such incredible lengths, then why do their teams never win the big game?
Hell, I’m no longer a sports fan - of that school’s or any other teams. But I sure admit to being whiny. And I’ll be cutting them checks for the next 4 years until my youngest graduates …
I found this an interesting question, so I decided to look it up. The answer is yes, those 3 combined have lost more often in the 1st and 2nd round than Illinois. Since 1980, U of I has lost 16 times in the First or Second Round. Duke and UNC have each lost 7 times in one of those rounds and Arizona has lost 13 times in the first or second round.
At least Illinois has been to a couple of Final Fours – look across the river at Missouri for a program with a decent history of quality teams that has never made it out of a Region.
Arizona in particular used to be notorious for having a good team that lost early in the tournament every year. Can you compare the number of times those three teams made the tournament at all?
Ah - you fell for my clever trap. I didn’t say “combined”!
AZ does seem pretty adept at bowing out early. But at least they’ve got a championship to soften the sting.
I don’t really know much about MO, other than I remember they had cuter cheerleaders/dancers than UofI or any other school! I didn’t know what their pretensions were. I’m biased because of the news coverage I get in IL, but it seemed the Big 10 (or however many they are up to now) were a slightly bigger thing than the Big 8 or wherever the Tigers tussled. Who was their longtime coach? Norm Kruger? Seemed like quite the hard ass. I liked him.
And I’m not sure AZ or MO can match UofI’s suckitude at both hoops and football. My impression is those 2 are primarily hoops schools, with considerably lower profile football programs.
As a St. Louis resident I’d say that Mizzou and UofI put similar emphasis on both basketball and football, with better results at UofI over the last decade or so. Mizzou actually has a very solid baseball program also - Illinois doesn’t as far as I know.
Mizzou football has been more successful the last few seasons, but the basketball team is only recently coming out of the Quinn Snyder-imposed wilderness. Both school have had some recruitment/behavior issues that have resulted in NCAA investigations. Neither school has won a championship of note, although Mizzou came somewhat close in football two seasons ago and Illinois was in the title game in basketball in 2005.
Oh, and the old basketball coach you’re thinking of is Norm Stewart.
Thanks. I don’t follow college sports anymore. And all I knew was that UofI played Mizzou in hoops every year, but I didn’t remember seeing them on TV or in the rankings. Was a bit of a fan of the Big Red and the Huskers back in the 60s-70s, and I don’t remember hearing much of Mizzou back then. Seems odd that “Hook em Horns” would have been so much more familiar to a kid in Chicag than the school from a neighboring state. Thanks for the info.
Just within the Big Ten, the combined football-men’s basketball performance of Iowa, Minnesota, and Purdue over the past 20 years is in no way superior to that of Illinois. (Likewise for Northwestern, although they’re apparently exempted from caring because it’s a good school. Of course, U of I is a good school, too.) Indiana has a glorious past in basketball, but has performed no better than Illinois since 1987, and has a chronically atrocious football team. So about half the teams in the Big Ten are no better than Illinois.
I have never experienced such heart wrenching losses until I went to the U of M.
I was at the game when we were beating Michigan by Like 21 in the fourth and lost.
I was at the game when we were beating Wisconsin by 3 with under a minute and lost when our punter fumbled in the endzone.
How about 2006 when we were on the losing end of the greatest comeback in history at the insight bowl? (we were up 38-7 with 7:47 left in the third quarter)
