Champaign Still Good ‘TIl Last Drop

About a month ago, some friends and I were sitting around discussing sports over some beers. The subject of the then undefeated Fighting Illini came up — what are their chances? Who could beat them? Is there a point at which you can wear too much orange?

We debated over these questions over a couple of hours, and over a couple of more beers, and then my friend made one of the most bizarre statements uttered in recent memory:

"Illinois isn't going to lose until the last game of the year. They're at Ohio State, and OSU will be geeked up because their season is already shot, and they've got nothing to play for except pride."

This statement had a little bit of truth in it. Yes, Ohio State had a miserable season, trying to rebuild a program that hasn't been good since ... wow, it's been awhile.

Yes, the school's self-imposed one year ban on tournament play meant that the wily bunch would have even less pressure on them to compete against the No. 1 team in the land.

But, come on! The undefeated Illinois Fighting Illini were not going to let months of talk and pressure and history-making play be ruined by losing to the Buckeyes.

I was sure my friend either made this outrageous claim because of his affinity for Ohio State, or because of his apparent affinity for Guinness.

Either way, this sentence disappeared from my memory until Sunday, when I saw the score: Ohio State 65, Illinois 64.

In fact, it wasn't just Illinois that suffered a surprising loss that day. Four of the top-10 ranked teams went down, including Duke, Kentucky, and Kansas. (Although Duke did lose to North Carolina, a team just a few levels above the likes of Ohio State.)

But calling the Illinois loss a month in advance? That'd be like telling me in 2000 that Martha Stewart would be spending her time behind bars, not a television camera, in 2004-05.

Now, I don't follow college basketball that diligently, and I must admit that the NCAA tournament is about the only thing that keeps my interest from falling off the scale completely (although, gambling may have something to do with that). However, my family grew up not far from Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, and besides being proud of the ability to recite the hometown of the Fighting Illini (and spell it correctly), this has also been one of my only reasons for following college basketball this season.

For the record, Hakim Warrick is another.

Matt Sylvester is not (although now I know his name.)

So Illinois lost its last regular season game. So what? They will still go into the NCAA tournament as a number one seed, and they're still going to have to live up to expectations and beat some very good teams if they hope to come out on top. The loss, despite its effect on their drive for perfection, doesn't mean much.

All year long, people have debated whether it would be better if Illinois lost a game before entering the tournament, and although I'm a firm believer that that is a stupid question, we no longer have to guess. They lost. They lost a game they shouldn't have. And now we get to see how they respond.

Coach Bruce Weber is telling his team to remember the bitter taste of losing and use that as motivation as they enter March Madness. It's about the only thing a coach can tell a team that put up a performance against Ohio State that was more Gigli than Good Will Hunting. But, I'm sure Coach Weber would rather not be having that conversation right now.

Even this late season loss, however, is not enough to move Illinois from the No. 1 spot, or derail them from being the favorite to win the championship. They won 29 games in a row, went undefeated in non-conference play, and have two fewer losses than the next best team.

Why then, when the polls were released this Monday, did North Carolina have more than a few votes for the No. 1 spot? In the ESPN/Coaches poll, Illinois only got 21 of the 31 available votes, with the other 10 going to UNC. In the AP poll, Illinois got 48 nods, while UNC pulled in a surprising 22.

What gives?

Even though they retained the top spot, it seems that the Illini are fighting for a little amount of respect heading into the postseason.

Illinois has had just as many games against top-25 ranked teams as North Carolina this season.

(Number before team is rank at the time of the game, number after indicates ranking as of week 17.)

Illinois:

(25) Gonzaga (13)
(1) Wake (4)
(17) Cincy (21)
(24) Iowa (NR)
(19) Wisconsin (23)
(10 Michigan St. (12)
(21) Wisconsin (23)

North Carolina:

(8) Kentucky (4)
(21) Maryland (NR)
(8) Georgia Tech (NR)
(3) Wake (3) LOSS
(8) Duke (5) LOSS
(14) UConn (14)
(6) Duke (5)

At first glance, and last glance, it doesn't seem that North Carolina played an extensively harder bunch of top ranked teams. If anything, one would have to give Illinois the edge for beating a then ranked No. 1 Wake team that in turn defeated the Tarheels.

Perhaps those casting votes for North Carolina to move into the top spot felt that the ACC was a tougher conference to play in than the Big10. But it's hard to make the case that there was a sizeable chasm between the two. Both conferences ended the year with only three teams a piece in the top 25; however, besides UNC, the other two for the ACC were Duke and Wake, whereas the Big 10 had Wisconsin and Michigan State.

Despite the fact that the numbers seem to indicate that the ACC was stronger and more competitive than the Big 10 this year, it should be noted that Illinois did beat Wake, and Duke did lose to a couple of unranked teams, even if they played UNC tough twice. The disparity between the two conferences isn't what one might expect it to be — we're not talking about the difference in quality between the Sports Guy and his intern finalists, or PTI and I, Max.

Not including Illinois, the Big 10 amassed a non-conference record of 83-41. With the Illini that record bumps up to 97-41, for a decent .702 winning percentage.

The ACC was notably (but not exceedingly) better, going 95-25 in non-conference play, not including UNC's record, and 107-26 taking the Tarheels into account an .804 winning percentage.

These are things to take into consideration when trying to differentiate between two teams with identical records; they are, however, not so important when simple wins and losses can put distance between the No. 1 and No. 2.

Illinois only lost one game, the last game of the season, after marching through 29 games of dominance, including tough games against Michigan State, Iowa, Wisconsin, Cincy, and Wake (a team that UNC couldn't beat.)

North Carolina, on the other hand, had three losses: Duke, Wake, and Santa Clara in their first game of the year.

Sure, Illinois is the prohibitive favorite going into March, and they'll have the opportunity to put it out on the court and prove that they are the best team in the land, but they'll also be fighting for a little bit of lost respect: specifically 10 and 22 votes worth.

After the Ohio State game, my friend, the same one that had predicted the upset, asked, "If UNC beats Duke, are they the number one team?"

In my opinion, this question ranks right up there with, "Would it be better if Illinois lost one game before the tournament?"

Although the general feeling may be that North Carolina is the better team, and that they had a tougher schedule, and their wins came against higher quality opponents, there is still a number three in the "L" column.

You can't take away what Illinois did this year. Even after the perfection-ending trey by Matt Sylvester, at the moment, they are still clearly the best team in the land.