Column: Illinois basketball's March Madness exit was as frustrating as its season
March Madness: Illini's season ends with loss to Kentucky
What happens now that the Illini's season is over?
MILWAUKEE - Tomislav Ivisic had the best assessment of this Illinois basketball team.
A team with future NBA players and the right mixture of talent and college experience to make a deep run in March lost to another team with future NBA players and the right mixture of talent and college experience.
After the buzzer sounded following No. 3-seeded Kentucky's 84-75 win over No. 6-seeded Illinois, I asked the Croatian center how history will remember this 2024-2025 Illinois team.
"A team that could," Ivisic said, "But didn't."
A locker room exuding heartbreak that was physically wearing the anguish of a frustrating season was all that was left Sunday after the Wildcats bounced an Illini team that epitomized its season on Sunday.
Coming off an emotional and physical high vs. Xavier, Illinois' mistakes and cold shooting kept them from a second-straight Sweet Sixteen.
The Wildcats put 24 points off turnovers on the board. The Illini lost by nine. That math isn't hard to figure out.
It was a frustrating way to lose for a team that had all the talent in the world with two potential first-round NBA Draft picks in Kasparas Jakucionis and Will Riley, but never truly saw that materialize this season.
Injuries and illness struck this Illini team in a way that still baffles Brad Underwood.
"I don't think we reached our ceiling," Underwood said. "I think with everything that happened with the injuries, the sickness – in 38 years I've never seen anything like what we went through and they could have folded. They didn't, and I will always remember this group and those guys for their love of the game."
The potential truly was limitless. All that's left now is the frustration in how in never came together.
That frustration doesn't take away from how this team will remember itself.
"I hope they were fun to watch," Underwood said. "I hope they have an appreciation for how smart they are, how good of human beings they are. As I told them in there, they've got my number and at the end of the day we lost a ball game. We're in the NCAA tournament and it's something they can be remembered by."
The public will remember how this team was battered by illness and injury. Fans will recall the frustrating losses to teams they should have beaten. Everyone will remember the promise this team had.
Illinois climbed back into the Associated Press Top 25 four separate times this season. They climbed as high as No. 13. They sustained a ranking for seven weeks.
Then, the mono hit Ivisic. The broken wrist hampered Morez Johnson Jr. The cold shooting lent itself to losing streaks.
All of that doesn't describe this season.
"Just how much perseverance we put together to each other," guard Kylan Boswell said. "We bonded. One another, chemistry on and off the court. I just think everybody understands how much has gone into this team and this one game doesn't at all say who we are."
Soon, we'll see how much the core of this team will change.
Underwood has to keep recruiting, even in the midst of the heartbreak. There's no time to dwell on what could have been.
The portal decisions will also depend on what Jakucionis and Riley decide to do: Stay or go? Ideally, Jakucionis and Riley make their decisions and then Underwood can react accordingly.
That's not how it goes in the Wild West. The transfer portal opens on Monday.
"You've got a timing of the portal and you've got a timing of the draft that don't jive," Underwood said. "We'll have decisions to make and as they will too."
Still, both Boswell and Tre White, both who said want to be back at Illinois next season, both said Jakucionis and Riley should chase their NBA dreams.
"They're ready," White said. "They're supposed to be in high school right now and dominating March Madness, so it kind of shows you the work that they put in, the potential that they have. I encourage them to go, man. If you put in your work like that, go. You deserve to reap the benefits. I'm proud of all of them."
Both Jakucionis and Riley said they weren't thinking about those decisions Sunday night. That couldn't come while they were in mourning.
Especially because this season – as toiling and frustrating as it was – had a chance to shine bright.
It's fair to look at both ends of spectrum. The players aren't shying away from it. We shouldn't either.
This team should have been seeded high in the tournament. It should have competed for a Big Ten Tournament title. This team should have had All-Big Ten players and been ranked in the top 25 all year long.
They weren't.
A team that could have been wasn't.
Now, it's back to the drawing board to try and find a team that can.
"It just hurts," Boswell said. "It stinks."