It Turns Out The Big Ten Title Mattered To Illinois After All
Illinois' 1989 basketball team was one of the best in its history, doing the school proud in making the Final Four before getting beaten by a U-M team it handled twice during the regular season. Kendall Gill, Stephen Bardo, Nick Anderson, Lowell Hamilton and Co. never quite seemed to get over losing to the eventual National Champions, some of them still insisting that even though the Wolverines beat them when it mattered, they were the "better team."
The 'NCAA Champions 1989' banner that hangs in Crisler Arena tells a different story, of course. You can't change history, even by saying 'but ... but ... I want it so bad!' like a kid who didn't get what he wanted for Christmas.
To their credit, the '89 Flyin' Illini (minus the occasional 'we were still the best' dig) accepted it like men and took their place as one of the best teams to have fallen short. They've since been joined on the list by 1991 UNLV, U-M's Fab Five in 1993, 2015 Kentucky and others, squads that will be remembered even more fondly than some forgotten champs.
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This year's Illinois team would do well to follow their lead. After all, the Big Ten decided in November that, due to likely COVID pauses and the like, the title would go to the team with the best winning percentage, and they didn't have it. Michigan did.
Again — the criteria was decided in November. When it became clear to head coach Brad Underwood that was probably going to prevent his team from winning a title — and this was before his team handled Michigan in Ann Arbor — he turned to page two of the whiner's handbook, which also happened to coincide with the "denial" stage of grief.
"These games mean nothing," he said. "There’s no Big Ten championship that means much. These games don’t mean much. They really don’t. Yet, we’re part of something that’s much bigger. I try to be all about character. The league’s provided these games for us.”
Part of character, of course, means acting adult when things don't go your way. The rules were made, Michigan played three less conference games (that they very likely would have won against Indiana, Northwestern and Penn State) and didn't choose to miss the games. Just the opposite, in fact. They were playing great basketball and were devastated by the shutdown.
They didn't touch a ball and did very little conditioning for 14 days, but still came back and won the games they needed to in order to capture a championship.
Still, after rightfully celebrating a title on Thursday night and exhaling, losing to Michigan State Sunday in a game that meant absolutely nothing to their championship hopes or seeding — senior forward Isaiah Livers admitted yeah, they might have been a bit complacent, and how could you blame them? — they had to listen to more chirping from Underwood's not Flyin', rather Cryin' Illini about how they should be the rightful champion.
Michigan head coach Juwan Howard wasn't having any of it. As he and everyone else outside of Champaign knows, you don't change the rules after an election.
"I don’t get into that stuff, man," Howard said emphatically. "You’re not going to get any sound-bites from me or any bulletin board [stuff]. I don’t care about any of that stuff ... just care that we’re Big Ten champs, and I’m so proud of our guys for working their butts off since June and grinding.
"All the unknowns, being able to pivot and sacrifice what their college life is supposed to be like, but still manage to have a season and then star in their own role? That’s amazing what our student-athletes were able to endure and overcome, and then at the same time accomplish something special ..."
He said it again to make his point clear.
"That’s the Big Ten title," he said. "So I’m not going to let anyone — I repeat, anyone — try to ruin it for them. They earned it."
And after they did, Illinois moved on to stage three of grief — bargaining. Illini athletic director Josh Whitman made one last plea, got denied ... and then made sure everyone knew about it by sending out an open letter to the Illinois fan base.
"For several weeks, I have been in ongoing conversations with Big Ten colleagues and officials about the methodology we are using to determine the men's basketball regular-season champion – discussions that have only intensified since the final horn sounded in the Michigan-Michigan State game on Sunday afternoon," it read. "Despite our university's best efforts to achieve an equitable outcome that fairly recognizes the performance of our men's basketball team, we know now that nothing will change.
..."We should not have had to advocate for ourselves – this is the right outcome for the Big Ten and one that it should have proactively sought. But nonetheless, we were left to fight our own battle, and despite our advocacy, I learned late yesterday that our efforts were unsuccessful. Michigan will remain outright champions."
As it should, of course, by the rules established heading into conference play.
As for Underwood and his team, they'd do well to move past the depression stage and (finally) to acceptance. They're playing great ball, have an outstanding team — yes, perhaps even the best in the Big Ten. They have a chance to prove it by winning the "other" championship and making a run in the tournament, and that's probably what they should focus on now.
As former Michigan coach John Beilein always used to say, "control the controllables."
There are other banners still out there, after all, and the one they keep talking about will soon be hanging in Crisler Arena and nowhere else ... right next to the 1989 banner that's not in the State Farm Center.
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