Illinois prepares to take on Penn Quakers in first round of NCAA March Madness tournament
The Illini held their final open practice session ahead of Thursday's first-round NCAA tournament games in Greenville. They appeared to be well rested after their quick exit from the Big Ten tourney last Friday.
Some of the players said that the overtime loss to Wisconsin, their 4th since February, had lit a fire under them, knowing there's no more margin for error if the South region's #3 seed is going to make the Final Four, let alone a national championship run. It all starts against Ivy League champions Penn Quakers.
"You know, everyone is getting excited for March. That's what I came here for, you know, this program is going to help me achieve to play at this level, and I came here to help this program take it as far as we can, and so are the other guys, so we're vary excited for that," said Illini guard Andrej Stojakovic.
"Our goal is to win national championship, and if you're first-seed, third-seed, five- six-seed, you gotta be the best, you got to win every game, doesn't matter who you're going to play, and the best team should beat any other team," center Tomislav Ivisic.
It's the Illini's sixth tournament appearance under head coach Brad Underwood, but for the first time in program history, the Illini are led by a freshman all-American.
First-year sensation Keaton Wagler has achieved consensus all-American status after being named to the Basketball Writers Association second-team.
The ever-humble Wagler was also at Wednesday's open practice. Despite racking up a slew of accolades, the unheralded recruit from Shawnee, Kansas, said he's more excited about making a splash in his March Madness debut.
"I got all type of emotions going on ... got some nerves, but mostly I'm just excited, cause this is what I dreamed of my whole life is to play in this tournament. I'm just ready to go," he said.
Wagler is just 19, but plays with maturity beyond his years. The Big Ten freshman of the year likes to shine under the bright lights like the 46 he put up at Purdue, but there's no bigger stage than the NCAA tournament.
The Illini will be seeing a familiar face in Penn head coach Fran McCaffery, who spent 15 years at Iowa before returning to his alma mater.
There are five Chicago-area players on the Quakers' roster. They've heard all about the David vs. Goliath matchup from family and friends since Selection Sunday.
"As soon as that selection got made, I immediately got a bunch of texts, none of them positive, all of them saying I'm going to lose, but it's really cool," said Penn forward/Lane Tech alum Dalton Scantlebury.
"Literally like half of my school goes to Illinois out of high school, so it's just like, it's surreal. Everybody is texting me ... my high school coaches like, I mean, it's just crazy," said guard/York alum AJ Levine.
"A lot of my friends go to Illinois, or go to all the Big Ten schools ... they've been texting me. It's just been exciting to see Penn be so prominent back in college basketball," said guard/Hersey alum Ethan Roberts.
Unfortunately, Penn's leading scorer, Ethan Roberts, who played his high school ball at Heresy, is out with a concussion.
Illinois is already a 25-point favorite to advance to the round of 32, but after blowing so many leads lately, they aren't looking past the Ivy League underdogs, knowing there's always a Cinderella who crashes the March Madness party.
