on April 5, 2026, 18:28:00, in reply to "Illini Basketball vs. UConn Final Four Pre-Game and Game Thread (Saturday 5:09pm on TNT)"
or he's a hell of an actor.
Kids see that level of commitment and emotional investment in them and it has to resonate. I haven't seen a video of his postgame locker room talk to the team, but if that's how he was around reporters afterwards, I can only imagine what the message to the team looked like.
Pretty glad he's our coach. 
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Holy shit, my friends. We are here.
21 years since the last one. A team that hasn't played its best game in the tournament yet, by far. A huge ORANGE crowd. And an opposing coach that all of America (other than Connecticut) will be rooting for us to beat like a drum.
Let's fucking go, you boys from Illinois.
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