Deadspin | Home Sweet 16 Home: Illinois downplays Houston’s hometown benefit

HOUSTON — Illinois is the street group in additional methods than one on Thursday evening when the Fighting Illini play within the South Region semifinal towards the Houston Cougars.

The University of Houston campus is lower than three miles from the Toyota Center, the place Illinois and Houston play in a purported “neutral site” recreation with a spot within the Elite Eight on the road.

Illinois coach Brad Underwood mentioned he cannot complain, partially due to a tough March that featured a loss within the Big Ten match quarterfinal to Wisconsin.

“I couldn’t care less. And I’m going to sound really kind of selfish here. I’m an old JuCo ball coach. I drove 16-passenger vans. I drove from Dodge City, Kansas, to Mesa, Arizona, for a basketball game, for a tournament, in a bus,” Underwood mentioned.

“If you had told me back then that I’m getting to coach basketball in the Sweet 16 and play Houston, I would sign up for it, I would crawl to get there. If we want to beat them, no matter where we play them, we would have to play great. Guess what? We’re going to have to do that (Thursday). And I think they’re going to have to play well if they want a chance to beat us.”

Illinois senior level guard Kylan Boswell believes followers might be there to characterize the Fighting Illini at gametime.

Jake Davis, the shaggy-haired reserve with a clean 3-point stroke, tipped his cap to Houston for incomes the upper seed to arrange the state of affairs. Illinois was seen as a No. 2 seed final month and had an opportunity to hopscotch from Champaign to St. Louis for first- and second-round video games, then to Chicago for a regional semifinal and last. But Purdue’s push to win the Big Ten match and the Illini fade introduced them to Texas as an alternative.

“They’re the higher seed, so it is what it is,” Davis mentioned. “I think we’ve been battle tested throughout the year on the road. I think we played really well on the road against good teams in their place. I don’t think this is anything different. We’re coming here to win with that mindset.”

–Fan response could be a consideration for Nebraska guard Pryce Sandfort on Thursday.

The Cornhuskers’ main scorer (17.9 factors per recreation) transferred from Iowa when the Hawkeyes fired head coach Fran McCaffrey and introduced in Ben McCollum.

Sandfort has 38 factors, and 10 3-pointers, within the NCAA Tournament for the Cornhuskers. Nebraska might need been anticipating to see No. 1 seed Florida on Thursday night, however Iowa pulled an upset Sunday evening to arrange the all-Big Ten semifinal within the South. The winner might play one other Big Ten group, No. 3 seed Illinois, or Houston on Saturday.

Sandfort had 15 factors in Nebraska’s time beyond regulation win on March 8 towards Iowa and was simply 3 of seven with 13 factors in his return to Carver-Hawkeye Arena in February. Iowa gained that one, 62-57.

“I’m not really sure,” Sandfort mentioned of how Iowa followers would possibly react to him through the recreation Thursday. “It’s not something I’m focused on. We’re treating the game as any other game. Same approach as we’ve had all season and just kind of block out that outside noise.”

When McCollum took over, solely two gamers stayed from the 2024-25 roster. But he was born and raised in Iowa and final coached at Drake, not very far faraway from the texture of in-state and border rivalries.

“Growing up around it, obviously there’s Iowa, Iowa State, and Nebraska are all kind of rivals,” he mentioned. “Usually you probably — none of us like any of each other is kind of how it works. So I don’t know that it’s going to excite it any more. It’s one of those things that when you grow up around it, you understand it, you get it.”

–Houston coach Kelvin Sampson has outstanding freshmen in his rotation, a mix Arkansas coach John Calipari can relate to together with his present group and former iterations at Kentucky.

Sampson joked that teaching a group with 4 freshmen within the rotation could be taking years at a day off of his life expectancy.

“This profession does that to you,” Calipari mentioned. “But the reward in it is what Kelvin is seeing, what I see in this team, and the joy I get from what I do is when someone says I knew Darius Acuff was good, but I never realized he was that good. I knew Meleek Thomas was good, but I never knew he was this good.

“I knew Trevon Brazile had this in him, however I had not seen it shortly. Billy Goat, two completely different cities mentioned we watched him and he was good, however he was by no means this good. Seeing D.J. (Wagner), having folks name me and say he is impacting profitable in your group as a lot as anybody on it, having all that — seeing Malique Ewin doing stuff he is by no means finished, effort, vitality, scoring double-doubles in actual video games, nothing makes me happier.

“But winning is the next phase of that. If you get them all right, they will want to win to keep playing. That’s why I always say it’s about the name on the back, not the name on the front. You can say all that stuff, but at the end of the day, it’s are you getting your guys — and Kelvin, who’s a dear friend, what he’s done with those freshmen, I mean, I recruited both of them. They’re good. And they’re even better than I thought they were.”

–Tommy Lloyd hung out praising the “swag” and participant growth monitor file of Calipari, No. 1 seed Arizona’s opponent Thursday in San Jose. But solely after sharing that he was as soon as an aspiring DJ.

“I can talk about that all day,” Lloyd mentioned.

“I have been able to develop a great relationship with Mike Schwartz, AKA Mix Master Mike, who’s a Bay Area guy who will be in the building for the game. He’s one of the best DJs of all time. Happened to run with the Beastie Boys for a lot of years, and it’s no secret I’ve always loved the Beastie Boys. It’s been a little bit of a, I guess — I don’t know if a childhood fantasy but probably a manhood fantasy for me that’s come true. So it’s been awesome to have that relationship.”

Lloyd mentioned he hung out with Schwartz at his studio and his fandom went to a different stage.

“You see a true artist at work, and it’s crazy how talented people are,” Lloyd mentioned.

–Field Level Media