I’ve always had this weird memory thing. Even back in high school, my friends used to make jokes about how I would recall certain things. {Nerdvoice} “And on October 23rd in 1989 at 4:30 in the afternoon we all went to Hardees and I ordered the Frisco burger…” I can get annoying sometimes.

I don’t really look at it as “memory” though. I simply recall the emotions of certain moments. My memory isn’t photographic – it’s biographic. You know the whole “where were you when you heard the Space Shuttle blew up” thing? That’s how I go through life. I can place myself in certain moments.

So to make a list of the best and worst Illini moments of the year, I thought I’d simply list the moments as I remember them. I could make this a clean “top 5 and bottom 5″ list, but that’s not any fun. I’ll just go through the year.

Worst: Second half of the Northwestern game in Assembly Hall.

The win over Michigan State earlier in the week had made me wonder if we had actually turned things around. Sure, we lost at Penn State after beating Ohio State at home, but beating Michigan State as well meant that yes, we could beat just about any team in the Big Ten. And then we lost. At home. To Northwestern.

It was Super Bowl Sunday. I want to say our game didn’t get over until just an hour or so before the Giants and Patriots started. And I remember watching the game and thinking about our loss – wondering what the firing and hiring would look like. Would we get a good replacement? Are we headed further down before we climb back up?

The Super Bowl was a great game. And I didn’t really enjoy it. We had lost, at home, to Northwestern, and that meant there was only ugliness ahead – a really dark road between that moment, the end of the season, and the firing of our coach. Gross feeling.

Best: Aaron Bailey to Illinois

I was at Steak N Shake. My son was having a difficult time with some decisions he was making, and so we made a pact that week. We’d have dinner together – just him and me – all five nights that week. I think this was the Thursday night. Hmmm… I remember I was wearing my softball jersey, which would mean it was a Thursday night. Nerdvoice!

We had a good conversation and a good meal and I went up to pay. While standing in line I checked my email on my phone and I had an email from my friend Carmen – Aaron Bailey to Illinois. That was as excited as I had been about a football recruit since Martez signed on in late 2006. I checked three websites to make sure it was true (I always worry until I get confirmation). Yes, Aaron Bailey wants to be our next great quarterback.

Still, to this day, I’ve placed 84% of my future hope for Illini Football in Aaron Bailey’s hands (er, feet). He’s a crazy good athlete, and crazy good athletes don’t choose to play their football in Champaign very often. Man, I need more Steak N Shake moments.

Best: John Groce Interview

I could describe my emotions leaving the John Groce interview, or I could be lazy and just cut and paste what I wrote as the intro to that post back in June:

I talked to John Groce for 20 minutes on Friday. And then I chatted with Mike Thomas for 10 minutes. Then I sat down with Tim Beckman for 20 minutes. And then I spent the next 4 hours thinking about my conversation with John Groce.

He’s ridiculously impressive.

This is not to disparage Mike Thomas or Tim Beckman. Both had great things to say, as you’ll see later in this series. But John Groce was simply ridiculously impressive. So much so that I began to self-loathe during the interview itself, hating myself for not being 100% on board the moment he was mentioned as a candidate.

Talk to him for three minutes and you can see why Groce was such a hit as a recruiter at Ohio State. He looks you in the eye, he speaks with conviction, and he’s delightfully candid. Ever talk to one of those people that leaves you feeling inadequate because they appear to have put hundreds of hours of thought behind their opinions? That’s John Groce. Ridiculously impressive.

I really haven’t changed at all from then until now. I’m still so very impressed.

Worst: Last six minutes of the first quarter vs. Louisiana Tech

I had predicted a loss, but we actually came out very strong in that game. I want to say our first four plays were all 10+ yards. Josh Ferguson fumbled, but then we forced a turnover and Nathan hit Ryan Lankford in the endzone to give us a 7-0 lead.

And then the wheels fell off. Louisiana Tech scored three touchdowns in six minutes. After the third touchdown, I think we all realized where the season was headed.

Well, I didn’t. I never do. It always takes me a few weeks to catch up. I can usually tell when we’re going to have a bad season, but it’s very hard for me to see that the wheels are coming off and we won’t win another game. I did it in 2003 and I did it again in 2012. I’m so frightened of going there again that I fight against it. “We’re not THAT bad”.

We’re that bad.

Best: Kendrick Nunn to Illinois

This was supposed to be chronological, but I need to back up one week. The La Tech game was the 22nd, so this would have been September 15th. We had just beaten Charleston Southern, and I stopped at the McDonalds at Kirby and Duncan on my way out of Champaign. I needed to get on I-72 West, and I seemed to remember there was a way to do that by heading west on Kirby, crossing over 57, and then taking the country roads up to 72.

I found my way. But the grid of country roads can get confusing. I stopped at one intersection to check the map on my phone, and a tweet pushed to the front screen. Kendrick Nunn to Illinois. Boom.

It said so much. A top-50ish Simeon player picked Illinois. With very little time to work, John Groce had won his trust. And his father’s. And, OK, fine, it just so happens that I’m a little bit encouraged by the fact that his father coached an AAU team last summer with two national top-25 players in the 2015 class and that maybe speaks well of our future recruiting as well.

Maverick Morgan canceling his visit to Wisconsin and verballing to Illinois meant that John Groce can close. Kendrick Nunn to Illinois meant that John Groce gets it. From day one after getting the job, Groce focused on Nunn as his main target. A Simeon kid, a connected father, and, oh yeah, a sweet shooting lefty who will fly through the lane and dunk with his left hand and you swear you just saw Kendall Gill reincarnated.

Of course, Kendall Gill is still alive so this is all getting weird. Moving on.

Worst: Big Ten Championship Game

Odd choice, I know, but here’s the scenario. I met some buddies at a sports bar to watch the B1G title game. Seeing the game and remembering the date made me think of the 12-1-12 bracelets that the team wore all summer. As an Illini fan, at that moment, those bracelets felt so embarrassing. 12-1-12… and then winless in the Big Ten. We were so far from 12-1-12 that it might have well been 1-12-1. (No idea what that means, but it felt right.)

As I sat there thinking about how the players had a picture of Lucas Oil Stadium in their lockers and the retrospective silliness of it all, a much worst thought hit me. This was our best opportunity at reaching the title game for maybe the next 20 years. This was a chance to jumpstart recruiting. And we couldn’t even win a single Big Ten game.

But it gets worse. When I got home, I looked up what it would have taken for us to reach that title game. Ready for this? Three wins against our Leaders division competition. Beat Wisconsin, Purdue, and Indiana (and still lose to everyone else) and we’d tie Wisconsin at 3-5 in the Leaders, own the tiebreaker, and head to Indy. But it even gets worse from there.

This Illini team – this one-of-the-worst-Illini-teams-in-the-last-50-years team – was fairly close to pulling that off. Yes, really. Going into the fourth quarter of the Wisconsin game, we trailed 10-7. Going into the fourth quarter of the Indiana game, we trailed 24-17. Going into the fourth quarter of the Purdue game, we trailed 20-10 (lost 20-17). This team – this catastrophically flawed team – was relatively close to the Big Ten title game. That’s how bad the Big Ten was. That’s how open the door was.

And we went winless in the Big Ten.

Best: The splash of Brandon Paul’s three with just over a minute to go at Gonzaga

This was probably the best moment of the year. I watched the game at home, and I stood for most of the second half. Our television in the main room is above the fireplace. So it’s eye level if you want to stand. Most games, football or basketball, I end up standing about 3 feet from the television. My sister is an Optometrist. I’m sure she’d have something to say about my viewing distance and future farsightedness. Wait, nearsightedness? Not sure. Ask her. She’s the successful one.

If it’s a big game, I stand. I just have to be closer, you know? So as we kept pushing out leads after Gonzaga would fight back, I had to be right next to the action. And when Brandon’s three splashed – I swear the net moved in slow motion – my brain lost it. I can’t remember what I did on the outside, but inside I ran through about a thousand scenarios of what Illinois Basketball being BACK would mean. Our future flashed before my eyes. And it was really, really bright. I’m legitimately excited about Illini Basketball again. And, given the walkup crowd at the United Center Saturday, so are a lot of you.

OK, so how can I sum up the year? Easy, I think. In football, worst Big Ten in maybe 20 years. And somehow we went winless. In basketball, best Big Ten in maybe 20 years. And somehow, as we start conference play, we’re right in the thick of things.