Jed Hoyer

It's a hard part.

You have to build up a lot of depth and we just have to have a next guy mentality.

I mean, I think with a bunch of those guys, Steele, Wicks, they're throwing live VPs.

They're moving forward.

And, you know, I think that we're excited to get those guys back at the right time, but also we're not going to rush them.

And so it's just, you know, they're trending in the right direction, and hopefully this continues to trend that way.

I think a player like Nico, I think that it was very clear early on in the negotiation that that was going to be important.

You know, there's going to be no deal without it, which I get.

You know, he was going to get that in free agency if he went to free agency from a team.

And so for us, that was a pretty easy decision.

And obviously, he's a guy that...

Given who he is as a person, he's a guy we want to be here for a long time and want to be sort of a core part of our organization.

So that wasn't a hard decision.

But like I said, obviously he was going to get that free agency for sure.

Also, sorry, go ahead, Marshall.

Final 19 seconds, and that is going to do it.

The celebration.

here in Houston by Illinois' faithful has begun.

Brad Underwood embraces his assistants in front of the Illini bench.

Final two seconds as the party in Champaign has begun.