Just my two cents... Illinois "Loyalty" does not mean Illinois "Homerism"
The vast majority of people who come to this site love this team or they wouldn’t be here. And there is a great passion for this program and what it stands for.
Everyone has every right to how they feel. Our feelings come through the heart and are not filtered through our head. And sometimes our heart makes ‘sense’ and often it doesn’t. Sports has a large meature built in of not being rational but purely emotional.
What everyone shares is that losing games hurts. And having disappointing ends to seasons hurts more. And nobody likes or reacts well to pain.
But pain is part of this and every other game and sport. We risk pain so that we can enjoy success and the thrill of winning. Nobody hands out victories at the beginning of games. Two teams just go for it and everyone lives with the results.
No one in the Illini program is trying to lose. Because no one involved in Illini basketball likes losing any more than Illini Nation does.
The point is to get out of the hurting mind set and do the work necessary to get that winning feeling and confidence that champions have. We have a right to feel bad at times but we accomplish nothing by lingering in that frame of mind. Games are won in the mind before ever winning them on the court. And they are lost there, too.