{"id":215718,"date":"2026-03-22T19:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T19:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/215718\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T19:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T19:02:11","slug":"illinois-ncaa-path-blocked-by-houston-a-powerhouse-that-will-hard-to-handle-in-sweet-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/215718\/","title":{"rendered":"Illinois’ NCAA path blocked by Houston, a powerhouse that will hard to handle in Sweet 16"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s shoot first, ask questions later for Illinois\u2019 men\u2019s basketball<\/a> team in this NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re talking Super Soakers in the locker room, of course. After a 76-55 win against VCU<\/a> in Greenville, South Carolina, the Illini sprayed at will, the Sweet 16 beckoning. There would be time to discuss the next opponent, South Region No. 2 seed Houston, over the coming days.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, you\u2019ve just got to stop and drench the roses first.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is why I came here,\u201d coach Brad Underwood told reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s what we work for,\u201d said guard Andrej Stojakovic, who led the Illini (26-8) with 21 points.<\/p>\n

Seven more Sweet 16 matchups were to be determined on Sunday, but by the end of tournament play Saturday night, the only one set was Illinois-Houston \u2014 and, at least for those on the outside looking in, it felt almost as big as it gets.<\/p>\n

The No. 3-seeded Illini have arrived as a tournament regular under ninth-year coach Underwood and clearly possess the talent and size to have a shot at the Final Four. The Elite Eight in 2024 is the furthest the program has gone since the national championship near-miss of 2005.<\/p>\n

The Cougars (30-6), in the Sweet 16 for the seventh straight year under Kelvin Sampson, have ascended to superpower level. Last year, they blew a double-digit lead against Florida in the title game and lost by a whisker. They reached the Elite Eight in 2022 \u2014 beating Illinois 68-53 along the way \u2014 and the Final Four in 2021. In three regular seasons since joining the Big 12, arguably college basketball\u2019s best conference, they\u2019re a startlingly great 48-8.<\/p>\n

After demolishing Texas A&M 88-57, the Cougars are the first team since 2008 to win its first two tournament games by 30 or more points. They\u2019re a guard-driven crew offensively \u2014 Kingston Flemings, Milos Uzan, Emanuel Sharp \u2014 that leads the nation in fewest turnovers committed, yet the defensive end is where Sampson\u2019s teams shine even brighter. An 18-0 run over 6:25 of the first half against Texas A&M was almost jarring to watch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s an incredible defense,\u201d Aggies coach Bucky McMillan said.<\/p>\n

The Cougars have a reputation for playing harder than most everyone else, too. Case in point: In the second round, they missed 38 shots but had 19 offensive rebounds.<\/p>\n

It might be hard to admit for Illinois fans who still hold a grudge against Sampson from 20 years ago, when he was at Indiana and flipped Illini commit Eric Gordon, but advancing to the Elite Eight is going to require outlasting one of the best-coached teams in the country. One thing that couldn\u2019t be more obvious: The Cougars are going to go at Illini freshmen Keaton Wagner and David Mirkovic extremely hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year\u2019s team is no different than last year\u2019s team,\u201d Sampson said. \u201cIt\u2019s just we have different players on this year\u2019s team. We got four freshmen that had to learn how to play Cougar basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n

And what is that, exactly?<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t turn the ball over,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen they shoot and miss it, rebound it. Make sure the right people are taking the shots. It doesn\u2019t matter who we\u2019re playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

It does, of course. They\u2019re playing the Illini, who won\u2019t be pushovers, though the Cougars opened as 2\u00bd-point favorites and the game will be in Houston.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust let it rip,\u201d Underwood said, his postseason mantra.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to play that way, and we\u2019ve got to play loose and we\u2019ve got to play free.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s shoot first, ask questions later for Illinois\u2019 men\u2019s basketball team in this NCAA Tournament. We\u2019re talking Super…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":{"0":"post-215718","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-houston","9":"tag-houston-headlines","10":"tag-houston-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}