I wasn’t there to hear it, but when I think about the Illini basketball team I imagine Bruce Weber’s statement at Northwestern. When Weber addressed the media following the Wildcat win, he characteristically pondered out loud. Will this team accept that they are good, and feel content or put in the work to be special?

By special, you have to figure Illinois is thinking Big Ten Championship and a deep tourney run. But, currently, when I think of special, the Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers come to mind.

For 40 years the NFL has wholeheartedly believed that the winner of the Super Bowl was its best team, arguably not always the case, but the Steelers, without a doubt, were the league’s most special.

With four games left in the regular season, the Steelers were 7-5 and penciled out of the playoffs. If at that point you were predicting Pittsburgh to win the whole thing, you are a better person than me.

But Pittsburgh is the kind of special that Weber was hoping his verbal challenge could turn his team into. Every coach dreams of its team coming together and playing as one, taking the long road and facing every peril along the way and then, finally, hoisting a trophy at the end.

Pittsburgh had to play on the road every week of the playoffs, against the most accomplished teams available, and still it fought and moved on.

The ’05-06 Illini put themselves in great position by taking the road game against Wisconsin, but then destroyed what they had fought for in Madison by losing at home to Penn State.

Now Illinois is in second place in the league and facing the hardest stretch in its schedule. But heading into it, the choice is theirs. With a magic Steeler-type run the conference is theirs, and it starts this weekend at Ohio State – realistically the toughest regular season game left.

A week ago sports analysts were singing Illinois’ praises and penciling them in for the final No. 1 seed in the tournament. This week the Illini aren’t mentioned unless it’s to poke fun at the Nittany Lion loss.

The disbelief bandwagon certainly picked up a few passengers, but Bruce Weber is certainly not one of them. He speaks mostly about Saturday being a learning experience and doesn’t view his squad any differently than he did Tuesday night in Madison; listen to Bill Cowher circa Week 13 and it’s the same story.

The experts who predicted the Steelers to win the Super Bowl before the season were asking for do-overs and wondering where everything went wrong. Tune in to a historic sports talk show and this black and gold squad was considered dead and buried.

Now it’s a different story, they get to parade along the streets of Pittsburgh, while all the people that wrote them off get a crow dinner. To me, Pittsburgh was very good, maybe even a little lucky as it went through the AFC playoffs.

That was until I saw every Steeler arriving in Detroit wearing a Jerome Bettis Notre Dame throwback. This team wasn’t lucky at all, it was a team – a special team – and it realized what was at stake and who it was fighting for.

The Illini are not without leaders. Their captains alone make up a great nucleus. They are not without close calls – it doesn’t get any closer than North Carolina’s final seconds. What they are lacking is that feeling you get when you look at a group as a whole and realize they have done everything in their power for each other and for the wins.

That is what I feel Weber meant as special; you give that, and the championships will come. There is a very tough road ahead, but ask Jerome Bettis if not retiring last year was a good decision. It’s tough, but it’s been done before.

Ian Gold is a senior in Communications. He can be reached at [email protected].