When I was asked to write a season wrap-up post for Illinois following the regular season, I decided to wait until after the Big Ten Tournament in order to see if anything major could happen to change the story of the season. Even after that, I wanted to wait a few days in order to let my thoughts ruminate and try to come up with what this season all meant, but I grew to finally accept what is obvious about this season — and what is also true of last season.
It didn’t matter.
Illinois was never making the tournament this season, and only the most optimistic or — dare I say — ill-informed fans thought there was a shot.