After years and years of Illini futility, I’ve had three general reactions to losing if I feel anything at all.
- The first is probably the best one, and I’ll call it the “aw shucks” response. Basically, I felt the Illini gave it their all but came up short because the other team was just better. The best example of this I have is the men’s basketball team taking Gonzaga down to the wire in Maui. Yeah, we lost, but you couldn’t help but feel some pride in putting one of the top teams in the nation on the ropes.