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Tom and I met in Champaign Saturday to watch Illinois upset #5 Michigan State. This was one of the most anticipated games of the year for the Illini Nation (even if most people thought we’d be doing a little better at this point in the season…). We were tied for second in the Big Ten going into the game, with eight games left (six of which were against ranked opponents) and work to do lest we miss the NCAA tournament. Beating Michigan State was a statement that certainly bodes well for the future of this team.

Both of us arrived in Champaign around 5 p.m., and we checked into the Hampton Inn on University. (I like staying in that hotel because it’s within walking distance of campus-town and earns me Hilton points. It’s also fairly nice and inexpensive.) Somehow we were assigned the jacuzzi suite, which was the size of about three of their standard rooms and had a jacuzzi in the bathroom with a shuttered window into the room itself. Unfortunately, it also had only a king bed, not the two queen beds I had requested. I went downstairs to ask about this, and talked it over with the beautiful hotel manager. After I told her the situation, she reduced our room rate, which seemed a fair compromise considering the hotel was full that night.

After getting situated, we met Bean at Murphy’s for dinner. The place was packed, so we sat at the bar while we enjoyed our sandwiches (A mega-bacon burger for Tom, a pork tenderloin for me) and pitchers of Bud Light. Denny Meyer and his wife Paula (college friends of Mom and Dad) spotted me sitting there, so they stopped by to chat as they were headed out. By about 7:40 p.m., we were ready to go.

We settled into our seats a couple minutes before tip-off, and the Hall was rocking. ESPN brought their GameDay crew, and despite no official announcement, there was orange everywhere. Illinois jumped out to a 14-4 lead, but the Spartans hung in there and closed the gap to one point at halftime.

We had a few Michigan State fans sitting immediately behind us, which wasn’t as bad as it might have been. They seemed fairly reasonable in their interpretation of the game, and we even managed to empathize with each other a bit during any questionable calls. (Incidentally, I found the game to be very well-officiated. Kudos to the refs for doing a good job and letting the teams play.) However, there was one point when they were discussing the size of Assembly Hall, impressed with how loud it was. They thought it held about 11,000 fans. Tom corrected them, and I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from saying “It’s no surprise you can’t count—you support Michigan State.”

In the second half, MSU managed to take a couple early one- or two-point leads. There was a stretch from about 11:31 through 9:30 when I remember thinking to myself, “If State manages to get a lead larger than two points, that might be the beginning of the end.” It seemed like every time State made a push, we had an answer, and we were able to overcome any miscues.

The freshmen all played very well. Griffey got the start over Davis, and put in a solid twelve minutes. He subbed for Tisdale when the latter tweaked his knee, although that stretch was short-lived. D.J. and Brandon, however, were outstanding. D.J. had 14 points in 32 minutes, played solid defense, and got one of his two assists on an amazing fast-break pass to Brandon, who threw it down emphatically. Brandon also had a great game, showing the athleticism that earned him last year’s Illinois Mr. Basketball award. He had the aforementioned fast-break dunk, and also had a key steal that led to a fast-break dunk for D.J.  Those two are going to be fun to watch together for as long as they play at Illinois.

McCamey took the game over, scoring 22 (including 6 for 9 from behind the arc) in his 39 minutes. While he did have a couple of questionable shots, for the most part his play was outstanding, and he was clearly the MVP of the game.

We missed some free throws early, (Is it telling that Weber got rocked by Izzo in their pre-game Coaches Against Cancer free throw contest? Gotta give them credit though, they both donated $50k…) but made them when they counted, and managed to hold on to the lead. Davis threw down a buzzer-beating dunk to cap the game at 78-73, and the Orange Krush rushed the floor.

The last few seconds of the game were as loud as I’ve seen Assembly Hall, including the thrashing then #3 Illinois gave then #1 Wake Forest back in 2004. We weren’t up by enough to see the wave sweep faster and faster around the arena, like we were then, but the exuberance was undeniable and it’s not surprising the students flooded onto the playing surface. While I agree with Dickie V and Dee Brown that a program like Illinois should act in accordance with having been there before, I also know that had I been down there, I would have done the same thing. Rich Mayor blogs for the Daily Illini that this was the signature win for the students currently on campus, so I’ll forgive them this time.

That was one heck of a game, and definitely one I’m happy to have attended. I was cautiously optimistic going into the game—I thought we’d give them a game, and if we lost, it would take a last-minute effort on their part. Tom told me afterward that he woke up Saturday and thought about calling the trip off. “I woke up and started thinking, ‘we’re going to get killed, I have to go back to New York Monday, I have laundry to do—maybe I should stay in Chicago and take it easy.’” Thankfully, Tom made the right choice and came down to Champaign.

Now, there are seven more regular season games. If we can get at least three of those, I’d say our chances for the NCAA tournament are fairly solid. Beating Michigan State was a huge step toward that goal.