Another abrupt end for Illinois in March
Mar. 16—DES MOINES, Iowa. — Coleman Hawkins sat slumped in front of his locker.
The more he discussed the end of the Illinois men's basketball season — another abrupt end for a team wanting so much more — the worse his posture got. The beginnings of unshed tears just taking shape in the corner of his eyes.
The weight of another early exit in the NCAA tournament was situated squarely on Hawkins' shoulders, and the burden seemed to get heavier after every question asked and every answer revealed by the 6-foot-10, 225-pound forward
Just 15 minutes had passed since Arkansas fended off what had become a typical Illinois second-half rally for a 73-63 victory at Wells Fargo Arena. The eighth-seeded Razorbacks move on. A couple more days in the Iowa capital and a Saturday matchup in the second round against top-seeded Kansas.
Illinois goes home — season over — with Hawkins shouldering a third straight postseason disappointment. Not that any of the Illini coaches or any of Hawkins' teammates put it there. The junior simply felt that particular burden was his to own.
"For me to come in a little short as far as really holding guys accountable and being a leader, I think that can really hold the weight," Hawkins said. "I'll put this on me because I'm capable of doing that. I'm in the situation to do that. I wouldn't want to blame anybody else for that.
"Frustrating. Not for our team. I think it's frustrating for me. I'm upset because I had really high expectations for this team. I feel like we could have been so much better than what our record showed. I feel frustrated that we let our fan base down and the University of Illinois down. I think this team was really good. We just didn't live up to any of the expectations. That's on me."
Hawkins' frustrations didn't just appear as Illinois' season reached what seemed like an inevitable conclusion given the series of ups and downs from November through March. Hawkins, the only true returning rotation player from last year's Big Ten championship team, said he struggled finding the right approach to lead this team all season.
It's something Hawkins discussed in December as the cracks in Illinois' armor started to appear despite wins against UCLA and Texas. And it's an issue he revisited Thursday night with a tumultuous season in the books.
"That's who Coleman is," Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. "Coleman's not a freshman anymore. Coleman doesn't act like a kid who cares about himself. Coleman cares about us. Your best players have to play their best in big games. It makes me ecstatic that he feels that way, but it couldn't be any further from the truth. If Coleman Hawkins isn't out there, this team isn't anywhere close to where we were.
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"It was not our day. In the NCAA tournament if it's not your day, you go home."
They call the NCAA tournament March Madness. It might as well have been March insanity for Illinois. As in, doing the same things over and over again and expecting a different result. What tripped up the Illini against Arkansas wasn't any different than the same stumbling blocks they faced all season.
A slow start that created a deficit that reached as many as 14 points in the first half and was still at double figures at halftime.
Turnovers galore.
Poor shooting.
A second-half comeback interrupted at key moments by all of the above.
"It's kind of expected when we don't run anything and turn the ball over," Hawkins said after the Illini finished with 17 turnovers, with six by Hawkins. "We just don't know what we're doing on offense. We're not sharing the ball. You can't just come in and expect to win. It's not hard to swallow. It's expected when you don't execute and don't do the right things.
"It's on us. I feel like we never were held accountable to wanting to stop making mistakes. I think we make the same mistakes all the time. We all make the same mistakes — I make the same mistakes — and we never learn from them."
In typical fashion, though, Illinois gave itself a chance. Arkansas' lead ballooned to 17 points, 55-38, at the midway point of the second half, but the Illini cut their deficit to five at 62-57 with 2 minutes, 29 seconds, to play following a dunk by RJ Melendez.
"Our guys are competitive," Illinois sophomore guard Luke Goode said. "There's no quit in anybody. ... We've been getting off to slow starts for whatever reason. We haven't been showing up in the first half, and that's difficult to do in the tournament against a team with a bunch of NBA guys."
"When we went on that run, bought in defensively," Illinois freshman guard Ty Rodgers added. "We had the ball flowing and the ball moving. We lost the game, though. It doesn't really mean anything."
That's the feeling Illinois will be left with for the next several months. The abruptness of the end. A season that had its successes but weighed down by another March disappointment.
