Celebration ends long and satisfying day

Posted In: Herald & Review Mark Tupper Illini
Date: Saturday, February 6, 2010

They partied like it was 2005.
Seconds after Mike Davis’ throw-down dunk that put an exclamation point on Illinois’ 78-73 victory over fifth-ranked Michigan State Saturday night, I saw something I’ve never seen before.
I saw a kid wearing only brown bikini underpants – with a big block-I centered squarely on his skinny butt – lift D.J. Richardson in the air as the Orange Krush rushed madly onto the Assembly Hall floor. Then I saw Demetri McCamey leap onto the scorers’ table and pump his fist into the air. I saw associate head coach Wayne McClain hug Brandon Paul and given some of the plays Paul made, I’m guessing many of the sellout crowd wished they could have hugged him, too.
And I saw Mike Tisdale risk his aching left knee by standing tall amid the chaos.
Some might quibble that it’s only a Big Ten game in early February, that it’s much too early to be rushing the court. Sure, I get that. But at the end of a very long day, and following a team that has not always played a full 40 minutes to win a game like this, I’m willing to excuse the crazy celebration.
Besides, this is college basketball, isn’t it? Let’s have a little fun.
“I don’t think we needed to do it, but the whole day, the buildup, and some kids were there at 7:30 this morning,” said Illini coach Bruce Weber. “They probably had a bunch of Red Bull and had so much energy they didn’t know what they were doing. Our kids loved it.”
And if it indeed did feel a little like the 2005 run by the Deron & Dee crew, maybe it was because this was the first time Illinois had defeated a top five team since April 2, 2005, when the Illini beat Louisville in the Final Four.
As expected, Michigan State played without their fine point guard and leading scorer, Kalin Lucas. He could not go after spraining his ankle Tuesday at Wisconsin. So put an asterisk on this victory if you’d like. No doubt Michigan State missed him.
In his absence, Draymond Green did much of the heavy lifting for the Spartans and that dude is a man. He had 17 points, 16 rebounds and played like a guy possessed. Gotta love Green.
“He is a warrior,” praised Sparty coach Tom Izzo. “He just grits his teeth and doesn’t care about all the flash and dash. He’s the perfect Spartan. I’m going to ride him like a jackass. Winning matters to him, it really does. We need a few more of those right now.”
Izzo also had plenty of praise for McCamey, who made six of nine 3-pointers and finished with 22 points and 11 assists.
“He’s twice the player he was when he was at our place,” Izzo said. “More under control, a bestter passer. I was very, very, very impressed.”
Mike Davis delivered with 16 points and a big deflected shot near the end when Durrell Summers was trying to snap off a 3-pointer that could have tied the game.
D.J. Richardson added 14 points and Paul’s line of eight points and six rebounds does not adequately describe the big plays he made. Included was a steal and dunk that electrified the crowd, another steal that resulted in a fast break dunk by Richardson, and an important defensive tie-up late when he confronted Raymar Morgan in the post.
I’m not sure I would ever attend the morning ESPN “Game Day” event, as 4,143 fans did in a nice show of enthusiasm and support. But there’s no denying that it turns the day into an event. It raises the hype meter considerably and you could feel it the minute you walked into the Assembly Hall bowl Saturday evening before the one-hour “Game Day” pre-game show tipped off.
Dick Vitale caused a stir when he waded into the Orange Krush. The Illini team warmed up in “Game Day” T-shirts and on the back coach Bruce Weber had one of his slogans printed. This one: +defense, +energy, + smarts = Magic Level. That’s what he wanted his Illini team playing at, not only for this event against a top 5 team and a national TV audience, but what he no doubt hoped might be the start of a string of “magic level” performances as Illinois dives head-first into the most difficult part of the schedule.
Big Ten Conference officials were all over the place. It was a big day for the league as well as Illinois, the conference’s first exposure on “Game Day.” The crowd went wild as Illinois staged a slam dunk contest in their pre-game warm-ups, especially when Jeff Jordan nailed a wild, windmill throwdown.
And there was a buzz when Michigan State’s Kalin Lucas came out wearing black velour sweats, a clear indication that he would not play on his sprained ankle.
One of the biggest pre-game ovations came as Illinois was preparing to leave the floor and head back to the locker room. That’s when Dominique Keller banked in a half-court shot.
All the “Illini” celebs were in attendance with AD Ron Guenther pressing the flesh, as well as football coach Ron Zook. And there was a very nice moment when Lou and Mary Henson made their way along the scorers’ table. Lou and Mary, by the way, looked fantastic. It was like the Red Carpet show prior to an awards celebration.
There were recruits (Meyers Leonard the first to arrive), former players and the feeling that something big was about to happen.
For an Illini team trying to make progress and show it against a quality team on a big stage, something big did happen.
“We played two halves in a high-level game and we didn’t have any real bad droughts, which we have struggled with,” Weber said. “Some little droughts, but nothing horrible. We were talking that Vanderbilt was probably our best (start to finish) game of the year and this has probably topped that.”

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