For this Illini team, the game remains the key focal point

PASADENA, Calif. -- We'll soon learn whether Illinois improves on its previous Rose Bowl appearance.

But one thing's already clear: Ron Zook's crew did a far better job than Mike White's 1983 Big Ten champs of keeping the game as the main focus.

When fourth-ranked Illinois came out to Pasadena that year to face unranked UCLA, it showed up more than two weeks before the game because it didn't have an indoor practice facility in Champaign.

With so much time on their hands, the Illini went nuts. As Big Ten MVP Don Thorp, a Buffalo Grove High School graduate, told me for a 10-year retrospective article in 1993:

"We partied for two weeks straight," Thorp said. "We were out until 3 in the morning. On New Year's Eve, since the game was on Jan. 2, we had a big party. Guys were passed out on the floor in the hotel at 4 or 5 in the morning."

Thorp also claimed some of his teammates fell asleep on the pregame bus ride from the hotel to the Rose Bowl.

"I remember sitting on the field before the game," wide receiver David Williams said in 1993, "and saying to either Vince Osby or Dwight Beverly, 'I can't believe I'm so tired before the game.'

"I asked both of them if they were tired and they said, 'Yeah.' "

Illinois trailed 7-3 early in the second quarter that afternoon, but surrendered 31 straight points in the middle quarters en route to a 45-9 decision that represents the worst Rose Bowl beating in 60 years.

"If we had gone 'business-only,' I think we would have beat them," Thorp said. "Too much fun, not enough game."

Zook's goal this week? Fun and game in equal amounts.

But compared to White's no-curfew preference, Zook has been positively Draconian.

"They understand why we're out here," Zook said. "In fact, I said it on the airplane when we landed, 'Remember, guys, this is a working vacation.' "

Zook gave the Illini a 2 a.m. curfew their first night, which enabled some guys to visit some nightspots and make some minor mischief, but he pushed that deadline up quickly.

Bedcheck was midnight for several nights before being bumped to 10 p.m. on New Year's Eve.

"Since the last game of the season, they haven't let up on us at all," said junior running back Rashard Mendenhall. "'We have another game. We have another game to win.' This is about business."

Some of the Illini, including Mendenhall, found an innocuous outlet in the Century Plaza's game room, where they had raced each other on the Cruiser USA video game.

"I feel like it's been a pretty good mix," Mendenhall said. "When we've been at practice and we're at meetings, we're at work. But there's a lot of time to relax and take everything in."

Will this style of preparation help Illinois with its steep USC challenge? It certainly can't hurt.

"You want your players to enjoy it, to remember it," Zook said. "But on the same token, they know there's a job at hand.

"I was excited about the way we prepared, the way our players are focused and dialed in."