Dateline: Kansas City.
Your Cincinnati Bearcats spent the days before their matchup with the University of Illinois drinking protein shakes, eating broccoli, devouring boneless, skinless chicken breasts, and working on their outlet passes.
The University of Illinois’ much heralded basketball team spent that time looking inward, thinking about the history of their state and the history of themselves while listening to Sufjan Stevens’ 2005 masterpiece Illinois.
My invisible friend Kevin told me that Brad Underwood put the album’s opening track on repeat in the locker room before the Cincinnati game to get his team pumped up.