Legendary Illinois basketball shot in the NCAA tournament came from a teenager

Illinois basketball fans got to experience another special moment on Friday night.

Brad Underwood has the Illini in a good spot right now, as we took down No. 11 seed Xavier in the first round of the NCAA tournament. This marks Underwood’s sixth NCAA tournament win in the last five seasons, and we have won an NCAA tournament game in four of those years.

Just let that soak in for a second. In the last five seasons, the Illini have six NCAA tournament wins. In the prior 15 seasons, we had three NCAA tournament wins.

Friday night’s win over Xavier was particularly special, though. Illinois was coming off a pounding at the hands of Maryland, and things didn’t seem right. The Illini had some time to practice, and this was clear from the jump against the Musketeers.

This win was a true team effort, as four players hit at least 15 points in the game, and seven out of the eight players who got minutes had at least two rebounds. But at the end of the day, I am not sure this game would have gone in the favor of the Orange and Blue if it wasn’t for one big shot.

With 6:29 to go in the game, Illinois took a 76-61 lead. This was a good position for the Illini, but Xavier would soon make a charge. Over the next 2:25 of the game, the Musketeers went on a 7-0 run that was capped off by a bucket and a foul. Momentum was clearly in Xavier's favor, and they had narrowed the lead down to just eight points with 4:04 to go in the game.

The very next play down the court, Illinois looked a little frazzled. Kasparas Jakucionis missed a three-point attempt. Kylan Boswell fought for the rebound, and the ball was going out of bounds off of Xavier. Instead of letting it go out of bounds, Tomislav Ivisic saved the ball. That set the next series of events into motion.

Ben Humrichous received the pass from Ivisic. He then dished it to Jakucionis out on the three-point arc. Xavier players were scrambling to stop the ball. Jakucionis then saw Will Riley alone out on the wing. And then it happened.

Will Riley hit one of the biggest shots for the Illinois basketball team in recent memory.

The result of the Will Riley shot changed the game for the Illinois basketball team

I still get goosebumps watching the video. Riley, a freshman who should be thinking about his final summer of high school life, is hitting a massive shot in the NCAA tournament for a college program.

That is ice in the veins if I have ever seen it. The moment wasn’t too big for Riley, and let me tell you, that moment, that shot, shouldn’t be undervalued. The result of that shot changed the game completely.

Let’s think about the scenario. Riley makes the shot and puts Illinois up by 11 points, 79-68, with 3:31 to go in the game. That is a big margin for Xavier to erase, and it was a clear gut punch to their program.

But what if Riley misses? A miss there from Riley would have kept the game at an eight-point deficit. Xavier would have still been on a 7-0 run with possession of the ball looking to make it a nine or 10-0 run. If Xavier gets the ball back and they knock down a two or three-pointer, the game is then potentially 76-71 with over three minutes to go. It would be a completely different game.

What an incredibly big shot by a player who just turned 19 years old a month and 12 days ago. This kid is a teenager hitting that big of a shot. The ramifications of the shot, the player who hit the shot, the result of the game, the magnitude of the game, all of it goes into the recipe of one of the biggest shots for the Illinois basketball program.