O’Donnell: Vegas suggests Illini Final Four hopes boosted by Duke’s fold

IT'S A PENANCE BEING A FAN OF ILLINOIS MEN'S BASKETBALL, like having the backseat overflowing with high hair-era power ballad CDs.

But Sunday, when UConn freshman Braylon Mullins nailed the logo 3-pointer heard 'round the Eastern seaboard and beyond, an odds residual wafted toward Champaign-Urbana.

Earlier in that Elite Eight game, when Duke's lead over the Huskies was fluctuating between 15 and 19 points, some legal national sports books began posting an opening line on a Blue Devils-Illini Final Four semifinal.

Duke was favored at minus-3½ points.

LESS THAN TWO HOURS LATER, when UConn's stunning 73-72 victory was a fait accompli, those same oddsmakers scurried to hang a new number.

And that digit was: Illinois minus-2½ over Danny Hurley and his hurdy-gurdy men.

That's where the spread remained Monday, although close to two-thirds of all early money wagered was on the late brigade from Connecticut.

THERE ARE AMPLE REASONS for that contrarian cash flow.

Among them:

· Since 2023 Hurley and his interchangeables are 17-1 in NCAA Tournament games;

· In the same span, UConn has won two national titles. The Big Ten has won none;

· Since 1999 the Huskies have captured six — count 'em, six — NCAA men's cage championships. The Big Ten has won one, that being Mateen Cleaves, fresh-faced Tom Izzo and Michigan State in 2000.

ADD TO THAT the more recent history of UConn's 74-61 victory over Brad Underwood and Co. last November at Madison Square Garden.

Some will say that game comes with double asterisks. Neither team was near the crescendo-strength outfits that will meet in Indianapolis Saturday (5:09 p.m., TBS; Ian Eagle, Bill Raftery, Grant Hill).

At the Garden on Black Friday, young Keaton Wagler was nowhere near being the flowing scope machine he has become. He started but scored only 3 points in 14 minutes. (Kylan Boswell led the Illini with 25).

For UConn, ferocious center Tarris Reed Jr., once a Michigan Wolverine, slow-danced through a game in which he was plagued by foul problems. He finished with 2 points and 5 rebounds — quite a contrast from his current four-game tournament averages of 21.8 ppg. and 13.5 rpg.

AS THE HUSKIES SHOWED SUNDAY, to win this deep in the madness of March, you not only have to believe, you have to play out all minutes, even if a head coach like Duke's Jon Scheyer spun into some sort of self-stymying zombie zone at the end.

(Why Scheyer didn't used his final timeout with a 72-70 lead, an impending inbounds play and 10 seconds remaining can be discussed but not debated. He was so wrong, especially with a young bunch clearly on the ropes, that there is no debate — only empathy for his players.)

THE NO. 1 THING ILLINOIS HAS TO OVERCOME at Lucas Oil Stadium Saturday is Hurley's unquestionable March mastery. In the season's most important moments, he finds ways to win.

Part of that spring wizardry is to peak a team at the right time and to never stop punching.

His Huskies are in the Final Four despite unsuccessfully chasing Rick Pitino and St. John's atop a soft Big East this season.

UNDERWOOD AND THE ILLINI ARE THERE because they stayed afloat through a challenging February and recorded an impressive signature win over Kelvin Sampson and Houston at Houston's Toyota Center in the Sweet Sixteen.

Wagler has morphed into a hybrid between reliable scorer and increasingly sharp facilitator. But if any Illini is to be a grand “X” factor vs. UConn it will be sub-gunner Andrej Stojakovic.

If the whistlers find Reed again, Illinois could have a surprisingly easy time of it. If they flail beyond the arc, the Illini will get out-mastered inside.

SETH GREENBERG TOLD DAN PATRICK Monday morning that the Illini “have legitimate size.” On any basketball court, that reality beats having illegitimate size.

When Bruce Weber took Dee Brown, Deron Williams and all to St. Louis for Illinois' last Final Four in 2005, there was the expectation of a semifinal win over Pitino and Louisville followed by a battle royale vs. Sean May and North Carolina.

All played out splendidly for the Grange Grovers except the final 2:37 against the Tar Heels.

NOW IT'S UCONN with either Arizona or Michigan to emerge from the TV nightcap.

Uphill, for sure.

But beyond the penance are scissors and a ladder.

And the shearing of bittersweet memories of empty Final Fours and dusty power-ballad CDs.

Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears each week on Sunday and Wednesday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.