This reminds me of all the close losses the Illini had before last year. In my opinion, the close losses hurt more than the blowouts. Although the Illini had no business beating Penn St, they made a furious comeback, locked down defensively, and their shots started going down. To see them make mistakes like they did in the final 1:30 is rough to see.
One thing I became accustomed to seeing was the Illini lose close games or play in many close contests that are decided in the last 2-3 minutes throughout the last decade. It hurts when they lose. I'd almost they rather just lost by 15 and moved on. But, to get to within 3 pts. and not execute in the crunch is disappointing. If you basically make up the whole deficit, finish it off. This was a must-win game and they lost. Now, they have to win a game they have no business winning vs. Wisky.