Illinois basketball reaching new level with Sweet Sixteen berth
WCIA — Illinois is headed back to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time in 19 years after beating Duquesne in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday.
Illinois head coach Brad Underwood finally made it to the second weekend in his seventh year in Champaign. Underwood didn’t build the program in a day, and had to make others see the vision of what was possible at Illinois. For the highly touted recruits turned college stars, seeing the vision become reality has been the ultimate payoff.
“Coach Brad’s a winner, you know?” Ty Rodgers said. “I think that was one of the main things, you could just see those things and you could tell who’s a winner and who’s not. That culture that he has and the culture that he preaches to all those guys and, just like the guys in the previous years, Trent, Ayo, Kofi, those type of guys, they’ll tell you so much about the culture and everything.”
“That’s definitely been something that I dreamed about it,” Coleman Hawkins said. “I thought Illinois was a great choice for that to happen. And we accomplished a lot of good things in my last three years and it’s time to take another step in this last year.”
Illinois takes on No. 2 Iowa State in Boston on Thursday at approximately 9:10 p.m. on TNT.
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