Sympathy is not part of any of the madness of March, certainly not from Illinois, which has been snickered out of the NCAA tournament too often not to take anything it can get with both hands and still not leave a tip.
So, when South Alabama has to play on maybe only six or seven sound legs, when its point guard is a traffic cone, when its inside game consists of two fellows with coiffeures so odd they are called the Hair Apparents, when South Alabama handles the ball as if it were wearing oven mitts, when the whole indignant bunch would rather be anywhere than where they are, Illinois shrugs.
“Their point guard was hurt?” asked Illinois’ Kevin Turner. “I didn’t notice.”
Self-absorption is not only expected but necessary if a team plans on going on in these things. The rest of South Alabama’s story would be of little interest to the Illini, now looking ahead to Maryland in the next round of the West Regional.
But, if that game turns out for Illinois as this one did for South Alabama, the Illini had better not even try to come with a tale of woe like this one.
Take South Alabama’s NCAA assigned hotel. Please.
“Good thing the guy running that place isn’t in the tournament,” said South Alabama coach Bob Weltlich, “because he couldn’t pass the drug test.”
While Illinois was ensconced happily in their local digs, worrying about nothing more than screen rolls, South Alabama was scrambling to find some place without holes in the sink, where the sheets are changed, where the toilets work and the furniture is whole and where the complimentary shampoos are not from down the street.
“I knew we were in the wrong place when one of the bottles said `Westin’ and the other said `Ramada,’ ” Weltlich said.
Having to change hotels is not the reason South Alabama lost to Illinois. Illinois’ defense is the reason for that.
“You don’t give up 13 steals and win,” said Toby Madison, who gave up five himself.
“We created our offense from our defense,” Kruger said.
Ah, this was just another indignity for South Alabama, a team whose coach, Bill Musselman, quit mere days before the season, a team that lost its best player for the season after two games, a team that won its conference and was sent, in its mind, to the end of the earth.
And seeing Arco Arena for the first time, a lonely pile of mortar in an empty wheat field, had to further confirm it.
“You tell me how sending us way out here helps anybody,” said Weltlich.
Maryland had to come just as far. Illinois State faced the same disadvantages Weltlich complained of, high air fares, lack of support, inconsiderate lodging. And Illinois State managed to nip Tennessee.
“Even our local media couldn’t come because they couldn’t afford it,” Weltlich said. “Our pep squad had to draw straws.”
Weltlich’s solution would be for a more geographical dispersal of teams, especially teams that qualify by winning. He would send the at-large teams–like Illinois–far from home.
“I can’t think of one endearing quality for us being here. We met every criteria for making the tournament,” Weltlich said. “We play 12 of our last 15 games on the road and we come here and get an early draw. Why penalize us?”
Illinois would have been playing UNLV under Weltlich’s plan and South Alabama would have been in Lexington, or in Atlanta. And still South Alabama would have lost.
“The rich get richer,” Weltlich said. “Programs like Illinois can just keep getting kids that we have no chance at. High-profile programs are on TV all the time and kids go where they can get on TV.
“Our fans follow us all year and then when we play our biggest game, financially, they can’t follow us. Is that fair?
“I think we have lost the sense of what this tournament is all about.”
This tournament is about winning. This tournament is about money. This tournament is about pretending every team has an equal chance but using low-profile programs like South Alabama until the high-profile programs like Maryland and Illinois can play each other.
“We get to stay a couple more days,” said Kruger, pleased to be here.
With running water too.
