No. 3 seed Illinois prepares for No. 11 seed VCU in second round of NCAA Tournament
The Fighting Illini are dreaming of a trip to the Sweet 16 after a dominating win Thursday night against Penn.
Next up for No. 3-seeded Illinois is a showdown with No. 11 seed VCU on Saturday night at 6:50 p.m. on CBS.
The Illini are in full game-prep mode already. After a late night on Thursday, there wasn't a whole lot of time for the Illini to celebrate their crushing 35-point win over Penn before starting to prepare for VCU, with a spot in the Sweet 16 on the line.
"We can't get too high after a game like that. We've got to come back in and know that we've got a really good team that we're going to play next," guard Keaton Wagler said. "They have a lot of confidence, too, coming in after having a comeback win like that. So we've just got to stay prepared."
Freshman David Mirkovic had a dominating March Madness debut, with 29 points and 17 rebounds against Penn, both program records for the NCAA Tournament.
Now Illinois is focused on history not repeating itself and not blowing anymore big leads like they did in their four overtime losses this season.
"That's all we've been talking about, the sense of urgency, one game at a time, that stuff's the main mentality, but having that opportunity to be there, we want to go get that, and I think we've done a great job so far," guard Kylan Boswell said.
VCU proved how Ram tough they are with their first-round tournament-record 19-point comeback to upset North Carolina in overtime.
Reserve guard Terrance Hill Jr. led the rally with a career-high 34 points.
"Going into this last game, everybody was saying upset alert. I don't think it was really an upset, because I feel like we've been proving ourselves all year with the non-conference schedule that we played," Hill said.
The Rams have long been a mid-major powerhouse going back to the Shaka Smart days. Just don't tell them they're another Cinderella story.
"I mean, yeah, you know it is always a great legacy of being VCU and in the tournament, but I wouldn't call us a Cinderella. I feel like we have equal matched players to anybody we play. So I feel like we're really just going out there with a chip on our shoulder, just ready to prove everybody wrong," VCU guard Nyk Lewis said.
VCU has 28 victories, so they know how to win and won't be scared of their Big Ten foes. But the Illini have a decisive size advantage, and if they attack the glass and rebound like they did against Penn, they should be dancing to Houston and the Sweet 16 in the South Region.