Memories of a brief courtship turned sour, one man’s word shoved against the other and the reality of a season on the brink brought Illinois fans into Thursday night’s matchup against Indiana filled with bad blood from the beginning.

Through two overtimes and until the final seconds rolled off a 83-79 loss, Illinois fans came ready to trash one player in particular, Eric Gordon, while upsetting a few cultural norms at the same time.

All the familiar faces showed up – Dee Brown, Kenny Battle, Deron Williams and Luther Head (sort of), and even Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti. All saw Gordon get rolled under the bus for what transpired last October, when Gordon retracted a verbal commitment to play at Illinois only to accept an offer from home-state school Indiana.

Evidently, he should have waited a bit longer to show his face in Illinois again, unless chants of “f*** you, Gordon” and “a**hole” mean something different across the border. The Orange Krush didn’t hold back, despite pregame efforts to remain civil, and clearly rattled Gordon in the first half.

With every slip, stumble and even after falls that could have injured the first-year college player came rumbles from the stands that multiplied tenfold in seconds until even the upper deck was on its feet yelling.

Every time he touched the ball – boos. Every time fans even looked at the baby-faced guard, they let him hear about it, especially those in the first few rows. One of the all-time great Illinois men’s basketball players, Kenny Battle, said Illinois fans’ verbal abuse was definitely getting to Gordon in the first half.

“Illini nation came out tonight, they really came out in support – it’s loud, you know Gordon is really feeling it and it’s definitely showing in this game,” Battle said. “If they can continue to be loud and annoying, it’s a good thing.”

Gordon scored only one point in the first half, added 17 in the second, but drilled a three-point shot with 23.4 seconds left to even the score at 63 and send the game to overtime. He finished with 19.

Frazier hurt

Illinois guard Chester Frazier was helped off the court with 3:56 left in the game after appearing to have injured his ankle on an attempted rebound. He briefly came back in but had to leave shortly after.