Myron Medcalf
Multiple Authors
HOUSTON — With a net draped around his neck at the Toyota Center following Illinois’ 71-59 come-from-behind win over Iowa in the Elite Eight on Saturday, Brad Underwood thought about the moment.
“When you’re a kid, you dream about this. You see it, you get home and you watch it. I was the kid who stayed up all night watching every game,” said Underwood, who said he thought his team had a shot at the Final Four when the season started. “And you start your journey and you’re a junior college coach and it took me 26 years to become a head coach. You watch everybody do it and you wonder if your opportunity’s going to come.”
Keaton Wagler’s 25-point effort in his team’s come-from-behind victory over Iowa, which led 12-2 to start the game on Saturday, was another breakout performance by the freshman who’s gone from under-the-radar high school prospect to projected lottery pick. Illinois bounced back by playing defense that held Iowa to a 23.1 percent clip from the field after halftime. Underwood’s squad overcame a 3-for-17 mark from the 3-point line by outsourcing Iowa 40-12 in the paint and securing a 57 percent offensive rebounding rate.
But long before that win, punctuated by a 43-point scoring avalanche after halftime made possible by Illinois’ 58 percent mark from the field, there had to be belief. To make a run to the Final Four for the first time since 2005, when Illinois lost to North Carolina in the national game, Underwood had to have a team full of dreamers.
Underwood’s coaching journey included stints at programs around the country, including Kansas State during the 2007-08 season, when Michael Beasley was top-five in scoring nationally. From there, he coached Thomas Walkup (Stephen F. Austin), Jawun Evans (Oklahoma State) and four future NBA draft picks at Illinois. He allowed those players to dominate when necessary, a trait that compelled Wagler to pick Illinois when other schools had passed on him.
Wagler arrived with the idea that he could be the star of this group, including on Saturday night.
“I think they were being super aggressive so I know with them being aggressive, I’ve got to be aggressive back: getting easy paint touches, finishing, kicking out to teammates,” he said.
His teammates had the same confidence when they realized Wagler, a 6-foot-5 wing, was better than they’d expected over the summer.
“When we saw the talent that we had in the summertime, the coaches kept preaching how good we are, how good we can be,” forward Jake Davis said. “And as the season started going on, we really knew we were that good, so it was just about putting the pieces together and coming together as a team and figuring it out.”
Kylan Boswell had begun to figure it all out when he was just a child.
The Champaign native’s mother told him about the legendary Illinois squad that came up short in the national title game in 2005. Growing up near the Illinois campus, he wanted to feel like those “legends” one day.
“That’s always a little kid’s dream to win a national championship or hit the game-winner or something like that,” Boswell said. “So now being in these types of moments where all these things can come to fruition and be a part of your reality – now I get a chance to go play in the Final Four in Indianapolis for my hometown team for a national championship – yeah, that’s crazy.”
Others had similar stories, moments when they thought Illinois – the best offensive team in America for the bulk of the season – had the goods to reach Indianapolis.
David Mirkovic, who had nine points and 12 rebounds on Saturday, said the hard work the team did in the offseason encouraged a “delusional” confidence in its potential to make a run to the final weekend of the season. Zvonimir Ivisic thought his team’s ability to fight through multiple injuries and illnesses – Boswell missed seven games due to a hand injury – and still win key games shifted its mindset into championship mode. And his brother, Tomislav Ivisic, said Thursday’s win over Houston in the Sweet 16, in what was essentially a home game for the Cougars, showed Illinois that “we can play with anybody.”
But you can’t win a national title on dreams alone. At some point, those visions have to materialize on the floor.
In the first half on Saturday, Iowa star Bennett Stirtz – who had been the leader of his program’s Cinderella story and first trip to the Elite Eight in 39 years – scored 15 points and his squad entered the break leading by four points. He’d struggled in the first meeting between the two teams when Iowa lost 75-69 in Iowa City in January. He was determined to keep Iowa alive in the rematch.
Illinois was a different team in the second half, though. They were dominant inside. They also put more pressure on Stirtz, who finished 2-for-8 in the second.
A play near the 12-minute mark summed up Illinois’ sudden turn and all of that championship buzz they’d embraced throughout the season when Wagler dribbled left, spun and stepped back to sink a 3-pointer, as Iowa’s Isaia Howard stumbled and nearly fell. There was a layup after that and a floater that gave his team a seven-point edge too. Mirkovic was also clutch in the second half. Zvonimir Ivisic scored on a couple of late buckets.
Overall, Wagler and his teammates responded to a tough stretch, with their season on the line, to achieve what they’d discussed all year. And when it was all over, Underwood reminisced about the hopes he had when the year started while he enjoyed everything his team had just accomplished.
“You know,” he said. “It’s even better than I imagined it would be.”
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