“Just wait,” said Josh Whitman. “We’re going to write one of the great stories in the history of college athletics.”
Illinois’ athletic director, then in his third year — second full year — on the job, was speaking to a crowd of loyal supporters of the Orange and Blue at a small bar in downtown New York. The next day, the Fighting Illini, led by a pair of freshmen named Trent Frazier and Mark Smith, would open the 2018 Big Ten Tournament at Madison Square Garden.
“Just have patience,” Whitman told them.
On Wednesday, Feb.