When Trent Meacham’s last two free throws swished through the nets with two seconds left in overtime Friday night, clinching Illinois’ 58-54 victory over Indiana, more than cheers were audible at the United Center.
That also was one giant exhale you heard from the pro-Illini crowd of 22,081.
The victory landed the sixth-seeded Illini (23-10) in Saturday’s semifinals of the Big Ten tournament against No. 2 seed Wisconsin (28-4), but more importantly ended any reasonable doubt about the Illini’s postseason fate.
The question quickly became whether Illinois can come out of the Midwest neighborhood gathering with something better than a No. 10 or No. 11 regional seed in the NCAA tournament when brackets are announced Sunday.
“We talked about if we got to Saturday we’d feel pretty comfortable about the NCAA bid, but you never know,” coach Bruce Weber said Friday night, refusing to loosen his collar and claim victory. “If we can find a way to beat Wisconsin and get to Sunday (Big Ten title game), then you know you’re guaranteed of something.”
“We still have to have a sense of urgency,” said Meacham, whose eight points off the bench is the kind of production the Illini will need if they hope to pull off some March surprises.
“Today was a big day for the NCAA bubble. I just want to help the team any way I can.”
He already has.
“It seems like we just keep getting knocked down and they don’t quit,” Weber said of his team.
In the first two games of the Big Ten tournament, the Illini have shown their versatility. In Thursday night’s closer-than-it-should-have-been 66-60 victory over Penn State, Chester Frazier drilled five three-pointers on the way to 21 points.
Friday night neither of the starting guards–Frazier and Rich McBride–scored until the second half, and Frazier finished with only six points and McBride with one. Instead, the front line carried the load. Warren Carter had 17 points and seven rebounds. Shaun Pruitt had 16 points and 12 rebounds.
Their was plenty of heart on display for the Illini faithful, such as the time Pruitt followed his own miss three times before scoring.
“My legs were kind of dead,” said Pruitt, who is shooting only 51.4 percent from the free-throw line and made 4 of 10 free throws against the Hoosiers. “I really thought they were going to foul me and I didn’t want to go to the free-throw line.”
The United Center feels like home to the Illini. The victory over Indiana (20-10) was Illinois’ 18th straight on the West Side and the NCAA tournament is coming to this building next week, though they Illini know they will be sent elsewhere.
“We always have a great crowd, we have a pretty good record here,” Pruitt said.
“We can’t play in the NCAA tournament here, but we just want to take advantage of being here.”
Illinois has made the NCAA tournament the last seven seasons, so the anticipated good news Sunday is nothing new. But in a season marred by a spate of injuries and the DUI arrests of McBride and Jamar Smith, it figures to be a relief.
The Illini will have their lowest NCAA regional seed since they were shut out of the ’99 tourney, but they have known it would be that way for weeks.
“It has been a long, hard season. It was a long, hard game,” Weber said. “But it’s not over yet. The Illini are hanging in there, they have 23 wins and they’re playing on Saturday in the Big Ten tournament.”
And, it would appear, a while beyond that.
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tabannon@tribune.com
