David Haugh

You want to physically impose your will, and they got a break in VCU beating North Carolina.

Now, I didn't think North Carolina was going to be much of an issue for Illinois either, but obviously a little bit more talent.

on that north carolina team but uh this is what happens when you get number three seed sometimes you get a break in front of you in the bracket happened two years ago for illinois and both those years illinois has dominated the pod to advance to the sweet 16 and that sets them up to you know potentially make the final four their biggest test of potentially getting there is the sweet 16 game which is basically a final four caliber uh showdown between illinois and houston but

Illinois was physical.

I thought they set the tone from the start.

Even though they had some lulls in the first half, they quickly put those away and just had dominant second half.

That's the kind of mentality you wanted to see.

It's kind of the physicality.

It's kind of the roster flex that you wanted to see Illinois impose on lower-level opponents.

It's something they've done all year.

Against teams outside the top 30 of the Ken Palm ratings, Illinois went 20-0 this year.

Now you get your chance at a premier program in Houston.

Well, hopefully not for Illinois because they went 0-4 in overtime this year.

So their record has not been very good there.

But listen, I thought Houston was the best team in this bracket.

All kudos to Florida for their season.

But I just didn't think the SEC was all that great.

And Florida took advantage of that, and they were the best team in that conference.

But Houston, what they've done through in the Big 12 –

Clearly one of the best teams.