Maybe you could say the Illini fandom was something I was born into. And I guess that would be true, but I didn’t start to actually bleed orange and blue until one night over 13 years ago.
I was only five when Dee, Deron, Luther and the rest of the Illini made one of the greatest comebacks in NCAA Tournament history. I was sitting at my grandma’s house with my parents, uncle and my grandparents finally starting to comprehend what I was seeing.
Down 15 with four minutes to go it seemed like all hope was lost for the greatest team in Illinois Basketball history.