INDIANAPOLIS — The Illinois fans at Indiana Farmers Coliseum spent the bulk of the second half in quiet appreciation of what they were witnessing in front of them.
The top-seeded Illini men’s basketball team doubled down on their impressive finish to the first half against 16th-seeded Drexel with a full on beatdown to start the second half. The rout was on, and the pressure was off.
An arena-wide “I-L-L … I-N-I” chant reverberated through the venue at the midway point of the second half. Then, the Illinois fans in attendance saved their final cheers for the closing seconds of a 78-49 NCAA tournament first-round victory against Drexel.
The Illinois players reciprocated, sending the love back into the stands.
Giorgi Bezhanishvili raised his arms in appreciation as the team headed toward the locker room. Andre Curbelo blew kiss after kiss to the limited number of fans actually present in the stands.
A different NCAA tournament environment, for sure, but enough for the Illini.
“You’re used to running out in, for the most part, packed houses,” said Illinois coach Brad Underwood, who had previous NCAA tournament experience as a coach before Friday. “Obviously, that’s different. I think we’re grateful for the fact there are fans here, and we had a lot of them here (Friday). Once the ball is thrown up, the game’s the game. I’m just ecstatic that we’re playing. Our players are ecstatic we’re playing. There’s going to be a champion.”
The smaller venue and smallish crowd — Indiana Famers Coliseum set an attendance maximum at 1,200, which is 18 percent capacity — didn’t phase Illinois. The Illini (24-6) have sort of seen it all throughout the 2020-21 season while playing in a still ongoing pandemic.
“I think we were cool either way,” Illinois sophomore center Kofi Cockburn said about the unique NCAA tournament experience. “We’ve seen all the different environments we could see. This whole year we haven’t been able to play in front of anybody. We know how that feels. This was a little bit like the Big Ten tournament. I feel like the bench does a really good job of connecting with us and giving us energy. It doesn’t really matter what environment we’re in.”
Regardless the number of fans or how nontraditional Friday afternoon’s experience was compared to a normal NCAA tournament, the end result was a matter-of-fact victory for Illinois. Underwood used that phrase multiple times in his postgame Zoom press conference. The Illini simply took care of business against Drexel (12-8). Four players in double figures, led by Cockburn with 18 points and five rebounds and Ayo Dosunmu with 17 points, 11 rebounds and five assists, and two more just missing that mark.
“The one thing we’ve talked about in the last few days is you can’t get to two without one in terms of victories,” Underwood said. “If you’re not dialed in and not on point with our execution and with your game plan, you go home. We’ve had that mindset here in the last three weeks to a month. It’s been good for us, and it has to continue. It only gets more difficult from here.”
Illinois wasn’t always working toward a matter of fact victory. Drexel hung in early, taking advantage of an Illini offense that hadn’t yet hit its stride. Once Illinois did find its footing? The Dragons didn’t have much of a chance.
One NCAA tournament win for Illinois, five more to go until the Illini reach the goal they’ve been pursuing since Dosunmu and Cockburn both announced their return for another season last summer instead of leaving early for the NBA.
“That’s one of the things we’ve been striving for all year,” Underwood said. “This was the goal. Every kids dreams about playing in the NCAA tournament. They do that since they’re 5 years old. Sure, there was a little anxiety, a little nervousness. But it’s nice to get back to where I think we belong, and that’s the NCAA tournament. We did that in a very matter of fact way.”
Illinois will play either eighth-seeded Loyola Chicago or ninthe-seeded Georgia Tech on Sunday in a second-round game at a site to be determined in Indianapolis and a time to be determined.
Not that the time and location details mattered all that much.
“We’ll go play at the park as long as we’re playing for something,” Underwood said. “This is the NCAA tournament. We’re going to show up.”
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