Hi Loren.  Thanks for visiting.  I’m glad someone pointed you here.

Having read your article, I thought I might attempt an explanation.  After all, I’m not a sportswriter, yet this “era of the internet” allows me to act like one.  Your post (er, article) was directed at me, whether we’ve ever met in person or not (we have). So, I’d like to respond.

It’s natural to be disappointed by the failures of your favorite team. That’s a human reaction and comes with the ticket purchase. But there is a segment growing within each team’s following that, in this era of Internet and non-stop talk shows, carries it to a bewildering level of anger … hostility … misjudgment.

I don’t think the Illini fan has changed all that much over the last 25 years. The conversations I had at CO’s after we lost at home to the Fab Five are not all that different from the conversations I have today on Illini message boards.  We’re angry.  We had that game, and we let it slip away.  Sure would have been a different outcome had Juwan Howard/Evan Turner come to Illinois. And so on.

The difference is, the internet has given nearly everyone a voice.  Even me.  What was once a barroom conversation is now a post – what was once restricted to local Champaign airwaves is now a podcast.  So yes, it’s a different world.

But it’s exactly the same.  I don’t think Illini fans’ expectations have changed much at all in the last 25 years.  We have the 17th most NCAA tournament wins, and we expect to be about the 17th best team in the country.  Anything above that is gravy.  Anything below that, and, well…

Here’s a fact: Since the NCAA started seeding the tournament in 1979, we’ve never had a four year stretch without a tournament win.  So as we creep closer to that likely moment in a few weeks (let’s be honest – it’s either upset a higher seed or 4 years without a tourney win…  if we even get in), you can be damn sure Illini fans are restless.  Why wouldn’t they be?

For instance, Minnesota, having dropped 21 of 22 previous basketball games with Illinois, had somehow lost its right to win what was really a tossup game. Really?

Yes, really.

Since the turn of the millennium, Illinois basketball has lost three home games to teams that didn’t finish in the Top 5 of the Big Ten Standings: January of 2004 (58-54 loss to Purdue), February of 2006 (the infamous “if Rich McBride had only released the ball 0.1 earlier” loss to Penn State), and January of 2008 (another loss to Penn State during our miserable 5-13 Big Ten season). That’s it. 60 or so home games against lower end Big Ten competition, 3 losses.  Make that 4.

So why would you not expect the Illini Fans across the radio and internet to be on edge?  We’re in uncharted territory, and we’re seriously questioning whether the captain has any navigational instincts.

Yes, yes – Jereme Richmond is on the way.  And Meyers Leonard and Crandall Head and Tracy Abrams and a host of others.  Talent-wise, there’s hope.

But maybe this is where Illini Fans of 2010 depart from Illini Fans of 1984.  We can watch videos of the recruits, and we can read scouting reports, and we can follow their Twitter.  We can review game tape, and we can chart substitution patterns, and we can go back and review when and how we used our timeouts.  Yes, timeouts.

And when we do that, we see the reasons for the worst period of Illini Basketball since the 70′s.  I don’t care if the pill says “stupid” on it – it’s difficult to swallow.

“Fire the coach! Fire the AD! The players aren’t trying! Why’d Weber call time out? Why didn’t he call time out? I don’t like the way he looks.” How’d I get locked in with all these loonies?

With all due respect, sir, we’re not loonies. 30 years of winning basketball teams leads to expectations. There are 13 teams ahead of us in Final Four appearances, and all 13 own National Championships.  We’ve moved into the “best team to never win it all” seat, and we for damned sure don’t want to sit there for a Mickelsonian length of time.

When a team builds to the point that we attained in 2005, in no possible way should the worst period in 30 years follow.  But it has.  And every Illini fan from Jim in Rockford to Will in Brooklyn has a right to be disgusted.

(The game against Ohio State) is a tall order. And if it fails against superior talent, step aside or you’ll be trampled by the Running of the Loony Bulls.

It failed. Miserably. On the same night that Minnesota lost by 30 at Michigan.  And now we have to beat Wisconsin at home or we’re likely out of the tournament.

The reason we’d miss the tournament? Our loss at home to Minnesota. Which brings me to my ultimate point.

Illini fans of today are fully plugged in.  We can go to one site and see our projected seed in 74 different brackets.  We can follow dozens of RPI sites, break down multiple probability charts, and predict with nearly absolute certainty what wins are required to gain entrance to the tournament.  Which is why nearly every Illini fan realizes that the Minnesota loss might be the most damaging home loss in a decade.  Which is why nearly every Illini fan was disgusted on Saturday night.  Which is why your Loonometer was going crazy.  Which is why you wrote this article.

Which is why I’m writing you now.  We’re not loony.  We’re upset.  We’re the best team to never win it all, and now we’re enduring our worst stretch of basketball since the Carter Administration.  That wasn’t a tossup game on Saturday, it was win-and-we’re-in.  And we scored 14 first half points against a team that just gave up 83 to Michigan.

I’m writing this because I want you to see that common sense has prevailed.  People with similar interests have reasoned together.  We absolutely love our team, and we’re absolutely disgusted right now.

And we have voices.