Illinois on early exit prediction: 'It's extra incentive'

CHAMPAIGN - You'd have thought Illinois had missed the NCAA Tournament for the last 10 years, not just the last one.

The Illini cheered so loudly in their Memorial Stadium suite when their school's name popped up on TV Sunday afternoon - Chester Frazier screaming that he wanted to remove the cast from his right hand right then - they missed the immediate diss from CBS' Seth Davis.

The network's resident expert predicted Illinois, the No. 5 seed in the South regional, will go down in the first round against 12th-seeded Western Kentucky (approximately 8:55 p.m., Channel 2).

Considering the Sun Belt champs (24-8) rode the 12th seed into the Sweet Sixteen last March, it's not a far-fetched fancy.

But to the Illini, it's a full-fledged boon to their fortunes.

"Oh, you know we love it," sophomore center Mike Tisdale said. "We like being the underdogs and people doubting us. We had that all year."

"It's extra incentive," Illinois coach Bruce Weber said. "If anyone else wants to keep predicting it, please do it and I'll keep using it."

But these Illini (24-9), who hope to have Frazier available after he visits the doctor Tuesday morning, don't seem to need Weber to keep them on the right path anymore.

Hours after their humbling Big Ten semifinal loss Saturday to Purdue, Frazier and junior forward Dominique Keller brought the team together in Keller's Indianapolis hotel room for this season's first players-only meeting.

"Basically, everybody gave it to everybody," Keller said. "It was quiet at first and Chester told me to start. I said what I felt I had to say, that we didn't come out ready to play and we did it against Penn State at home.

"It's just little things like not coming out to play, not practicing hard sometimes and just being lazy."

Keller asked if anyone had a constructive idea for him, then had Frazier cast the first stone when nobody else came forward.

"I knew once he did it, it'd be like a domino effect," Keller said. "He told me he thinks I should front the post more, run faster and be more physical and grab more rebounds."

Then Keller suggested Tisdale and fellow sophomore Mike Davis should be more positive, then they offered a suggestion to someone else and a giant healing seemed to take place.

"We really just had to let it all out," Tisdale said. "We weren't trying to mean, we weren't trying to criticize, and it was good for us. We all came out of there even closer together, I think."