Robert Rosenthal of IlliniBoard.com checks in from the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis on whether the Illini can make a run in the conference tournament and what their prospects look like for the NCAA tournament.
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We're pleased to welcome Robert Rosenthal, who writes the IlliniBoard.com website and newsletter that goes along with it. Robert, good morning. How are you, friend? I am good. I'm holed up in my Indianapolis hotel room. Unlike Chris Collins, you've got one that has an actual working thermometer and stuff. Yeah, I still don't understand. I mean, I know it's been warm. Has it been warm enough for hotel rooms to be 85 degrees if the AC is not working? Yeah.

I've stayed in that hotel. It's a perfectly lovely hotel. He was just being – that's a guy that likes himself a Waldorf Astoria when he can get one. What was his quote? The Big Ten's out to get us. Out to get Northwestern. Yeah. Sissy. All right, let's talk about last night's game. I am always nervous about Iowa just because of the way that they –

just throw the ball up like that what's that division three team is it Grinnell that just goes and scores 200 points a game Iowa's offense is sort of like that so I'm always worried going in but man that that Illinois offense last night just looked untouchable yeah I mean and how good is it to see right yeah we know that Iowa has a terrible defense like that's

It's not that they don't try. It's just that their defensive philosophy is, well, shoot so we can get the ball back. You know, like, hurry up and shoot. If you make it, that's fine. We want the ball back. So, yeah, you have to take advantage of that. You have to get to the rim. They lost their big man, the guy from...

The guy from Illinois, Owen Freeman, he got injured halfway through the season. And so without him, they just didn't have much protection anywhere around the rim. So you have to take advantage in Illinois.

layups and dunks were 20 for 23 on the night. So that's getting to the rim and score. Iowa, though, not a great team. I mean, obviously they're going to put up points, but you can't. I mean, I've had this fear at times that, I mean, remember, it's the inverse of the old Bruce Weber teams where all they did was play defense and couldn't buy a basket. And now it's almost we're starting to get that.

that that playground basketball where it's just up and down the floor and up and down the floor and and at some point those shots aren't always going to go in so are you worried about the illinois defense at all you know it's interesting if you remember last season about halfway through the year um underwood made kind of a tempo shift

you know, it's not that you're not trying to play defense, but you start emphasizing like runouts on offense are more important to us than, you know, than battling down low and everything else, you know, and everything's a trade off. So about halfway through last season, we saw that from Illinois of like, look, we're just going to try to outscore you. And it worked all the way to the elite eight. And, you know, that sweet 16 matchup last year with Iowa state was, uh,

the number three offense in Illinois against the number two defense in Iowa State or whatever. It was, you know, immovable object, unstoppable force kind of thing. It feels like Underwood has somewhat done the same thing since putting Will Riley in the starting lineup. It feels a lot more like last year's

Okay, yeah, we can be a good defensive team, but we're going to emphasize scoring points here, even if it means we give up some of this, that, and the other on the defensive end. So it's been an interesting shift. And look, they're 4-0 since Riley went into the lineup. They beat...

Purdue, they beat Michigan. And, and so, you know, whatever it is, it's working. Robert Rosenthal from Illini board.com joins us here on 92, seven WMA. Why wouldn't, when you, you and I were here last week, you know, we, we talked last Friday ahead of the Purdue game and, and talking about the momentum that could be coming after if Illinois were to win those last three games of the regular season to get into the big 10 tournament, make a, make a run in the big 10 tournament. Uh,

what kind of confidence does this team have right now? I think the biggest thing is, you know, after everything they've been through, one is just the mentality of being healthy, like having everyone it's been since January, since they had everyone, 100% in, in, in the games, you know, you get Merez Johnson back from his broken wrist last night, you get,

You know, Trey White is obviously healthy. So there is a definite mental shift you can see. Just watch their post-game interviews. Watch everything. There's a real shift to like, okay, we made it through all of that. Now we're focused on this. I was still at the Duke game. I still remember what it looked like when Illinois looked bad.

clueless and losing by 43 to a good team. So I'm not here to say, oh, it's all fixed and they figured it out and they're healthy and they're good. There's a lot to work through, but you can just see a pep in their step, you know, even more than some of the winning streaks of late in previous season. These last four games have been like

okay, we've got all of that behind us. Now let's go play, you know, the way we were supposed to play all year. Yeah. They certainly look more like the team that played Oregon than the team that played Duke at least last or last few days. Right.

Yes, absolutely. And that's, I mean, and that's, you know, I mean, you've started to see the media buzz come back, right? That that's, well, this is the best team you haven't heard of yet, you know, sort of thing from some of the national media. I know Underwood really plays that down, but, but certainly, you know, the media starts to show up in Indianapolis Friday, Saturday, you've got Maryland tonight who embarrassed Illinois a couple of months ago now, uh,

How do they move past the hype and the talk and refocus on that game tonight? It's very interesting because if you remember, you know, last time playing Maryland, Ivisich was out. Did Merez miss that game as well? You know, the memory from that game. Didn't KJ miss that game?

Yes, maybe that's it. I'm trying to remember what the, you know, there's so many like, okay, then Ivicic had Mono and then KJ the arm and then Merez broken wrist. And I think Merez was sick for a game as well. And, you know, Trey White missed three games. Anyway, the memory from that game is Derrick Queen and Julian Reese scoring at will in the paint because our bigs were out.

And it was just kind of a pointless exercise to try to stop their two big men. Now with a healthy roster, that's the story of this game is can it be a different picture playing Maryland when you do have a

your full complement of players. You do have Merez back who can, you know, play some defense on Reese or play some defense on queen. So this will be a totally different kind of game than the last time we saw Maryland. And it'll, it'll be interesting. I pulled up the box score. It was Evie sitch out. Johnson was ineffective. And KJ did play that game, but so Robert, before we, before we let you go is, is,

Is Illinois in a position they can win this tournament? You know, it's... They're a really good team. Since I moved to Champaign, yes. Since I moved to Champaign, let's see, the first year the tournament was canceled in 2020. Illinois won the Big Ten Tournament in 2021, lost in the first round in 2022, lost in the first round in 2023, won it all, won the tournament in 2024. So look, if they win a game, it's math, right? They win a game, they're going to win it all.

So, you know, it's the hardest thing about this one is it's, you would have to win four games instead of three. You know, the last two games, the last two, two times they've won it, they've been, they had a double buy and they've just won Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Winning four in a row is really, really difficult. It's usually one of those top four seeds that,

that pulls it off. So I do think they could beat Maryland, but I'm not sure if this team has four wins in four days in them. To be fair, though, of the eight remaining teams, Illinois beat seven others. I think they beat five of the seven this season. So, I mean, that's...

You know, it's not like they can't beat them. That's certainly a good thing. Real quick, Selection Sunday, obviously Illinois is going to be in no matter what happens tonight or through the weekend. Are they going to be able to sneak into the six line, or do we think this is a 7-10 or 8-9 game?

I think it's a six right now. You do? Wow. Even if they lose to Maryland today, yeah. That's huge. Yes, it is. It is. You've got to stay out of the 8-9 game. And I think...

The only risk of that would have been an Iowa loss, and then maybe you'd be risking being an eight. The biggest issue right now is that there are so many teams right on that five, six, four, five line in the Big Ten. Wisconsin's right there. Purdue, their resume is similar. Michigan's resume is similar. Oregon's resume is similar.

So, you know, when the committee seeds all their teams and then they put it down on paper and they see the order of teams, they have like six Big Ten teams across those eight spots or whatever. Well, then they got to move everybody around because Big Ten teams can't play each other in the first two rounds.

So the risk there is going to be a whole bunch of them are on the three line or the sixth line or the four line or the five line. And then they have to be, oh, hey, let's see, we got to drop them to a seven so that they don't play another Big Ten team in the next matchup who's a two, whatever. So that's going to be the interesting thing is how the entire conference is seated, not just how how Illinois finds that scene.

It's going to be a fun weekend. And after the years of leaving Indianapolis, not knowing if they were going to make the tournament one way or another, it's nice to know they're in. It's nice to know you're kind of playing with house money and getting ready for the tournament itself. So, Robert, it'll be fun.

Yeah, I mean, you said it earlier. I've been at Big Ten tournaments a game that were 54-52 slugfest while on the bubble. So scoring 106 while safely in the tournament, I'll take it every year. Absolutely. Robert Rosenthal, IlliniBoard.com. Go read his stuff. Go subscribe to his stuff. It's the best Illini stuff out there. Robert, appreciate your time as always, my friend. Have a great weekend. All right. Thanks, Patrick.