by: Kerry Lippold Jr.
The Men’s Illini Basketball team has gained the attention of many as they discover success and become one of the most exciting teams Illinois has brought to the Big Ten Conference in years. During a portion of the season, the team was ranked number one in their conference, nationally ranked at number 19, and managed seven straight wins.
The last time the Illini had achievements of this caliber dates to the 2004-2005 team, which carried some incredible and unique talent through the program. This previous team succeeded with a record of 29 wins and no losses during the regular season and won the Big Ten Conference 15 games to one. ‘Sports Illustrated” also voted this team as the best college basketball team ever to not win a national title.
Although the current team is hardly comparable as far as their record this season, there are some notable talents reminiscent of this team. Kofi Cockburn with six Big Ten Freshman of the Week awards is a hard one to miss at seven feet tall.
I had the opportunity to personally attend the Illini win over Minnesota. The energy and eruption of the 15,544 fans as the team earned their seventh straight win can hardly be described with words. The Orange Krush, Illini’s student section, supports and pushes the team to the next level as they cheer just feet away from the players and coaches. The Prospectus caught up with one of Illini Basketball’s biggest fans who also happens to be an Orange Krush Captain.
Kilton Rauman, a Recreation, Sport & Tourism major at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has a fandom which he considers to be an obsession. His fandom dates to the iconic Illini Basketball team of 2005. The team had beat out the competition to make it to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament where they overcame a 15-point deficit to beat Arizona and move onto the Final Four. From this point on, Illini has “… meant the world …” to him, as Rauman explained.
As an Orange Krush Captain, Rauman acts as part of a team under the Executive Board to ensure game day runs smoothly. He helps facilitate other tasks from handing out line cards and carrying food offered in the Krush club to fan engagement.
Rauman also stated that their main overarching goal of the student section is to, “do whatever we can to help the team win. The best way is to make State Farm Center a truly raucous environment for the opponents by doing our best to make sure every seat is full of someone ready to scream and shout while we are on defense. I think Coach Underwood’s impressive support of us makes getting others to support the team rather easy.”
“Students began lining up as early as 2 p.m. for the doors to open at 5:45 [p.m.] and the stadium was near capacity already during warmups”
As the basketball team’s success has prospered throughout this season, the support has increased tremendously to the point of which tickets have sold out multiple days prior to the games.
Rauman explained how the student section has experience a similar result at the games against both Minnesota and Maryland at home. For Minnesota, “We were both astonished and overwhelmed by the rush of people into Krush club as soon as doors opened for the Minnesota game so much so that the entire system was overthrown,” Rauman stated. He explained how some changes were made for the Maryland game, but they also experienced something a bit out of the ordinary. “Students began lining up as early as 2 p.m. for the doors to open at 5:45 [p.m.] and the stadium was near capacity already during warmups,” he said.
Men’s Illini Basketball is now on track to make a long-anticipated return to the NCAA Tournament, so be sure to your grab seats early at the next home game or catch their exciting games on the road on TV.
