Despite being a high seed, UofI was not allowed to host their first NIT game due to long scheduled renovation work being done on Assembly Hall, err, SFC. So they were shipped out to Boston. Not an enviable situation against an always dangerous Patriot League team, you say? Well, that disadvantage was greatly diminished when the crowd turned out to be in favor of UofI. One estimate put the crowd at 1,000 Illini fans, with the remaining 327 cheering for BU. How is that possible? I don't know. 327 would seem to be a really weak turnout for the hometown school, especially one who should have developed a solid following thanks to a 24-10 record. Some of the Illini fans must have traveled, but I doubt that number could have been very large as Boston just is not a great vacation destination this time of year. The vast majority of the fans must have come from UofI's local alumnae base in the Boston area.
Did it actually matter? Don't underestimate the power of crowd support, especially when your team is trying to come back from 17 points down.
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