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.