Will Leitch on this Illinois basketball team —
This weekend, we will find out how, exactly, we will talk about this team, a team that we have obsessed over all season, for the rest of our lives. This team has the talent to be a Flying Illini team, the sort that makes your kids slobber all over a 45-year-old Jake Davis when they run into him in 25 years. This team also has the inconsistency–and the occasional struggles with embracing prosperity and opportunity–to be one that breaks our hearts. I’m pretty sure that, at its best, this is the most truly talented Illini team since the Dee-Deron-Luther team. (It’s more talented, top-to-bottom, than the Ayo-Kofi team. I’m not sure it’s that close?) But that doesn’t mean we’ll forever talk about them that way.
They have three days, two games, to be legends here forever. It really is just about these three little days. By Sunday, we will know. And so will they.
This is it.
In three months, Keaton Wagler is going to be chosen in the NBA Draft, almost certainly among the top 10 picks. (I keep dreaming the Spurs get him and he gets to play a decade with Wemby.) He will have that “6-foot-6 guard from Illinois!” roared before his name for many, many years to come; Keaton Wagler will be representing the Illini when Brad Underwood is in his 70s, when Tommy DeVito turns 40, when the kindergarten children in your house leave and go off to college. His name is going to be in the rafters of the State Farm Center. We will talk of him for the rest of our lives.
So I would love it if, before he leaves, he sends us off with something truly glorious. It’s all setting up for him. The rest after the Big Ten Tournament seems to have invigorated him: The shoulder is healed, he’s making the right passes in space, he’s handling the physicality everyone’s throwing at him, that incredible, signature stepback 3-pointer has returned to its inherent perfection. I want him to have his Deron Williams moment, his Nick Anderson moment, heck, his Kemba Walker moment. He is a truly special player. All we can dream of is him giving us, before he goes, a truly special moment. So he will become a legend–the sort of legend that, years from now, makes us all want to faint.
I’m ready. Are you?
I’m not sure I can handle watching the game on Thursday… so… no.
J.J. Wetherholt will be on the opening day roster and most likely the lineup for the St. Louis Cardinals. While he is a John Mozeliak recruit, he stands as the first big prospect to launch in the revamped Chaim Bloom era. He will have a bevy of instructors at his disposal, unlike previous prospects like Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman. Thankfully, his .386 OBP and high walk rate this spring already proves that he won’t chase sliders like Walker continues to do at the plate. His power and average will come in time, but he’s someone that baseball (not just St. Louis) is raving about. It’s an exciting element in an otherwise dismal (winning wise) period of baseball around here.
As the great Joaquin Andujar would say, “you never know,” especially when it comes to prospects. Wetherholt may be different.
For the last six weeks, I’ve been a bad fan.
I had decided somewhere in that fuzzy space between the Michigan State overtime loss and the early exit in the Big Ten Tournament that nothing this team did in the regular season would count unless it was validated by the NCAA Tournament. Specifically, by getting to the Sweet 16.
That’s a terrible way to watch basketball. I know this. And I knew it then.
This Illinois team finished 13th in the country. They won 15 Big Ten games. They played through injuries and the accumulated weight of expectation and still earned a 3 seed. Objectively, that’s one of the best regular seasons I’ve watched as an Illini fan, and I’ve been watching for a long time. Believing that it didn’t matter unless they reached the second weekend was the wrong kind of thinking, but it was there in the back of my brain.
This anxiety wasn’t born from doubt. It was born from belief. This team went on a 12-game win streak in December and January that made me think, genuinely think, they had the kind of mettle you need to win a national championship.
Excitement became expectation. Expectation became dread. Somewhere along the way I stopped having fun watching a really good basketball team. Those damn overtime losses just beat me down.
Then came Illinois versus VCU for a berth to the Sweet 16. Then came Zvonimir Ivisic.
The dunk happened with the score at 46-32. There were fifteen minutes left. The game wasn’t over, technically speaking. But it was over. Anyone in that building knew it was over. And what struck me in the moment is that it wasn’t that whole sequence itself that broke something loose in me. It was the reaction. His brother’s face. His teammates on the bench. The pure unfiltered joy of it.
Man, I needed that.
The Illini handled VCU the way good teams handle opponents they’re better than. The defense was relentless. VCU shot 35% and scored their worst offensive total of the season. More of that please.
Brad Underwood earned his 300th career Division I win. The numbers are good, the wins are real, and next Thursday they play Houston in the Sweet 16.
And I plan to enjoy every second of it.
That’s the thing about letting go of an outcome you’ve been white-knuckling. You remember that you actually love this. The game. The team. The watching.
How sweet it is.
“There is a dynamic quality about enthusiasm which nothing can resist. You can see it in the street orator, whose whole heart is in his argument, swaying a crowd. You can feel it in the work of any artist—painter, writer, musician, or whatever he be—if he has put himself into the thing he has wrought in, felt it enough, suffered it enough. And the beginning of the year is a good time, it seems to me, to set about enkindling our enthusiasm afresh. For life is a dead thing without it. Make it woodwork, if our tastes lie in that direction; make it stamp collecting; make it anything in the wide world so long as it is alive and vital.” — Charles Hayward
The Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer dropped this week and I’ve watched it a couple of times now, which probably tells you everything you need to know about where I’m at with this.
Four years after No Way Home wiped everyone’s memory of Peter Parker, we find him doing the only thing that makes sense: being Spider-Man. It’s an interesting starting point, but seems about right.
And then the trailer gives you approximately forty other things to think about.
The Punisher’s back, in his battle van. The Scorpion shows up. I’m pretty sure that was the Tarantula for half a second. There are Hand ninjas, which means maybe we see Daredevil? Peter has a class with the Hulk. Tramell Tillman from Severance is in there too.
I have no idea how this all comes together but it looks great.
Illinois put up 105 points against Penn. That’s the most any Illini team has ever scored in the history of the NCAA tournament. The previous record was 96 points, set back in 2001 against Northwestern State. Illinois also poured in 65 points in the second half Thursday night, which shattered the previous record for most points in a half in tournament play. That record was 53.
Those are team records. There are more.
The winning margin of 35 points is second all-time. Thirty-seven field goals, third all-time. Fifteen three-pointers, second all-time. Forty-eight rebounds, fourth all-time.
And then there’s Mirkovic.
He dropped 29 points — fourth most ever by an Illinois player in the tournament. Eleven field goals, third all-time.
The 17 rebounds he pulled down Thursday night are the most any Illini player has ever had in an NCAA tournament game. Let that sit for a second. Not James Augustine. Not Brian Cook. Not Roger Powell. Mirkovic. He owns that record now. The double-double he put up also slots him fifth all-time in NCAA tournament double-doubles for Illinois.
This is what a prepared team looks like. For one of the first times in a long time, Illinois came ready. They looked like one of the best teams in the country.
Let’s see how far they can go.
Since Selection Sunday, I’ve been sitting in my feelings about Illinois Basketball. So, here are my three seasons why Illinois makes the Final Four.
Yes, I’m going there. Here’s my case:
One: this team has been built for March. The Illini have gone through enough adversity this season to know how to respond when things get hard. Tournament basketball rewards teams that don’t panic. This group doesn’t panic.
Two: Keaton Wagler just won Big Ten Freshman of the Year. You don’t win that award without being something special. A freshman who performs at that level in a conference that hard is exactly the kind of player who outperforms expectations in the tournament, because he has nothing to prove and everything to gain.
Three: the bracket will break right for someone. It always does. This is a team capable of beating anyone in the country on a given night. That’s all you need.
I’m not predicting a championship. I’m predicting a run. There’s a difference, and right now, the difference feels significant.
Please let this be the year…
You’ve likely heard it all before, but it’s good to remember…
You don’t own shit that you put on social media platforms. You don’t own your follower counts, you don’t own your posts. Stop giving away all of your shit to data harvesters and advertisers for free in exchange for the illusion of importance that comes with likes and a follower count. Set up a website — and while you’re at it, start a mailing list, because email is basically the only means of reaching your contacts that can’t easily be taken away from you.
“If you aim to be something you are not, you will always fail. Aim to be you. Aim to look and act and think like you. Aim to be the truest version of you. Embrace that you-ness. Endorse it. Love it. Work hard at it. And don’t give a second thought when people mock it or ridicule it. Most gossip is envy in disguise.” ― Matt Haig, The Midnight Library
Well, I was right.
It was never going to be a live-action reboot, but something that makes way more sense: animated Firefly.
Firefly fans are in for a treat.
Nathan Fillion has just revealed at Awesome Con that an animated Firefly series is in advanced development based on the beloved cult sci-fi franchise—and Deadline has the details.
Fillion spoke on a panel at the Washington, D.C. event and live taping of his “Once We Were Spacemen” podcast alongside co-stars Alan Tudyk, Gina Torres, Jewel Staite, Morena Baccarin, Sean Maher, and Summer Glau, all of whom are expected to reprise their roles. Adam Baldwin, who played Jayne Cobb, will also lend his voice to the project.
Everybody’s back, except, you know, Joss Whedon, for obvious and unfortunate reasons.
I don’t want to get my hopes up. I am absolutely getting my hopes up.
Nathan Fillion has been posting a series of amusing videos recruiting his old Firefly castmates, Gina Torres, Morena Baccarin, Summer Glau, Jewel Staite, Sean Maher, Adam Baldwin, for… something. One by one. There’s a countdown. The announcement is due tomorrow.
He’s specifically ruled out convention appearances, podcasts, and crossovers.
Firefly ran for one season in 2002. Eleven of its fourteen produced episodes aired before Fox cancelled it. It developed a cult following that has refused to let go for over twenty years. There was a movie in 2005. There have been comics. The cast has spent two decades doing convention panels together.
Whatever this is, it looks like the whole crew is in.
I will be genuinely shocked if it’s a rebooted series or another movie mostly because many of these actors are committed to other shows.
What do I think? It’s going to be something animated.
The harsh reality from today is Illinois basketball is going nowhere in the NCAA Tournament. Up until today, I still felt the team was capable of making a run. Today took the wind out of my sails. It seems painfully obvious we will have an arduous time closing out a close game against a good team and that we’re going to blow a big lead. And we’ve shown basically no ability to rally from any sort of sizeable deficit.
This team just has a lot of hallmarks of a second round ouster. I didn’t really feel that way until today. I’m still just so confused how you can go from 60-45 with the ball to 62-60 in just four minutes. It is incomprehensible to me.
I honestly worry about the team’s mental state at this point. I know they’re a lot more resilient than fans give them credit for, but they can’t be in a very good place. Again, at some point, doubt has to creep into the psyche when you lose close game after close game to good teams.
Illinois has not played well for a month now. The team has lost 4 OT games…some with missing players, but this team is healthy and somewhat rested, and still couldn’t harness the mental and physical toughness to close a game.
As I’ve said before, the BTT is meaningless. What matters is next week and how they play there. Losing in the first weekend in an upset would make this season a failure. Lose in the S16 isn’t a failure, but it will feel like it.
A week ago, something pretty remarkable happened in the golf world that, if you’re not a die-hard golf fan, you almost certainly missed.
Shane Lowry, a former major winner, led the Cognizant Classic by three strokes with three holes to play on Sunday. And then, on back-to-back holes, he hit shots into the water. He went from being a near-certain tournament winner to finishing second.
A few days later, I was listening to “The Tony Kornheiser Podcast,” when Steve Sands, a golf commentator, told this story about chatting with Lowry after the tournament:
He told me a cute story on Tuesday. He said, “We’re headed home, we’re getting to the house, and everybody realizes how upset Dad is and how upset I am. Nobody’s saying anything, and my 9-year-old daughter looks at me and says, ‘Daddy, what’s wrong with second?'”
When we get lost in the details of our work, sometimes we need an outside voice to reset things. We need someone to ask us: “Why does this really matter?” An outside perspective can reset things when you get too inside your own world.
As for Lowry: Yes, it was a tough way to lose the tournament. But he still won $726,400 for finishing in second place.
To which I’d say: There doesn’t seem to be much wrong with that.
When Keaton Wagler committed to Illinois, he was the 150th-ranked prospect in the country. Two high-major offers. That was it. Most programs didn’t give him a second look. Tyler Underwood saw something the rest of college basketball missed and then showed his Dad.
Keaton Wagler just won Big Ten Freshman of the Year.
The 6-foot-6 guard from Shawnee, Kansas averaged 17.9 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 4.3 assists while shooting 41 percent from three. Remember when he scored 46 at Purdue? He broke the Illinois freshman scoring record with 555 points on the season. He was named First-Team All-Big Ten by both coaches and media. He is one of only two freshmen in the entire country averaging at least 18 points, five rebounds, and four assists. The other guy is Duke’s Cameron Boozer, one of the most recruited players in recent memory.
Wagler is only the fifth Illini since 1986 to win the conference’s freshman honor. He joins Corey Bradford, Brian Cook, D.J. Richardson, and Kofi Cockburn.
That is a very short, very good list.
I look forward to seeing his jersey in the rafters next year.
I’m tired this morning. I’ve been tired a lot. It likely means I need to go to bed earlier, but I’m not tired so much at 9:30. Good lord that seems like an early time to go to bed. I used to start my evening out at 9:30 and now I go to bed at that time.
When did I become an old person?
I was having a bad morning. Nothing major, just several things not quite working right. I was getting in my own way.
At work, I started listening to Deraps new album, Viva Rock N’ Roll. While it was very good and very Van Halen-ish. I needed something else.
I started listening to one of my favorite recordings of all time, Miles Davis Kind of Blue. I decided what I needed was several listens of “Blue in Green.”
I wondered if someone had created a way to listen to it over and over again without breaks and, of course, someone had. I then proceeded to listen to two hours of “Blue in Green” on YouTube.
After about 40 minutes I was calmed down and ready for the rest of the day.
So, if you need a mental reset, I highly recommend listening to “Blue in Green” and letting it wash over you.
Will Leitch on the World Cup and Summer Olympics –
You cannot separate sports from politics because you cannot separate anything from politics. It’s all connected, whether we want it to be or not. But I will say that when you spend your time watching a sporting event wondering whether the person you’re cheering for is a supporter of a fascist regime, you are not, in fact, having a very good time. And sports is supposed to be a good time! This is supposed to be a diversion! We’re supposed to be enjoying ourselves! But this isn’t fun for the athletes, it’s not fun for those trying to make these games happen (and make money off them), and it’s certainly not fun for the fans. Do you want to tune out the noise of the madness of living in 2026 for a few hours and just enjoy a game? Do you want to escape? You can’t. Trump won’t let you. That was how it played out at the Winter Olympics, and that’s how it will be at the World Cup. Jack Hughes may indeed never have to pay for another drink the rest of his life. But if so … he better make sure he picks the right bars.
During his first press conference of the Iran war, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth explained that Operation Epic Fury is not a so-called regime change war. That may surprise many observers because the first salvos of the operation decapitated the regime. No, the war is about denying Iran’s nuclear ambitions. But we were told that America’s bombing runs in 2025 obliterated that nuclear program. America and Israel chose this moment to attack Iran because, since October 7, Iran has shown its military and intel weakness, and has become increasingly isolated in the region. Of course, Iran’s weakness could also just as easily be used as a reason not to attack them now, at a moment when the overall risk they present is relatively low. Trump has told Iran’s security forces to surrender, but it’s unclear that there’s anyone to surrender to. Trump told the Iranian people to rise up. But the attack comes after thousands of them were killed by the regime while doing just that. At different points over the weekend, we were told to expect this war to last days, weeks, months or some other amount of time, but that it definitely won’t be endless. We’ve been offered no such duration assurances when it comes to how long the contradictions will continue. Most administrations spend a lot of time justifying and explaining their strategies before taking the country to war. This administration isn’t giving clear explanations even after starting one. Maybe that shouldn’t come as a surprise. Our Contradicter in Chief ran on an agenda that called for an end to global interventions, and yet, “no president in the modern era has ordered more military strikes against as many different countries.” During the 12 day war, Iran was outed as more of a paper tiger than anyone in the Middle East imagined; one that had been fully infiltrated by foreign intelligence. The fall of the regime has seemed more likely than ever. Whether this is the right way to get rid of the regime, or whether Bibi, Trump, and Hegseth are the right guys to do it, is a different matter. Here’s what we know so far. The leaders of an evil and destabilizing regime behind much of the world’s terrorism have been eliminated and that is a great thing for the region and the world. Unless something worse follows. So let’s hope this is a so-called regime change war and not an endless, destructive quagmire that recent history suggests is a very real possibility. How will it turn out? Don’t ask me. And don’t ask the Trump administration, either.
There’s no plan. This is all a distraction from the Epstein files.