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Illini Fan shares experiences during basketball season
With college basketball starting up again, students reminisce about their time cheering on their favorite teams last season. For Jorie Ryan, a senior studying Accounting at the University of Illinois, the Fighting Illini are her pride and joy.
With a peak high of 12,146 COVID cases in Illinois in November 2020, it was a stressful time for students who constantly had to get tested in order to go to class at the University of Illinois. “I had to get tested twice a week. Every time I got an email, I would panic and think I was getting a positive COVID test result,” said Jorie.
One of the things that Jorie looked forward to during COVID was the Illini Men’s Basketball returning to the State Farm Center in Champaign. “I have always been a huge Illinois fan,” said Jorie. “At the start of the 2020 season, I could not wait to watch every game with my roommates and friends.”
Jorie and her friends came up with a ritual for every game. It was necessary that everyone wore Illini gear to Jorie’s apartment to watch the game. Everyone needed to be there before tip-off to ensure the Illini would win it. They even had a halftime ritual: At every half time, no matter the day or time, everyone at Jorie’s apartment watching the game took part in halftime shots. Everyone took a shot of their choice after cheering “ILL-INI” together.
Being able to bring a small group of people together to watch the games helped Jorie and her friends feel normal in a not so normal time in their lives. “Everyone was pretty bummed that we couldn’t physically go to any of the games,” said Jorie, “but we made up for it with our game day traditions all season.”
By watching the games and keeping up with social media, Jorie and her friends were able to tell that each player really cared about the other. To them, it seemed like they were a family. According to an ESPN interview with Illinois head coach Brad Underwood, athletes were sacrificing a lot to play. They were not able to see their families all year because of COVID. Because of this and the other stressors that COVID brought to campus, Coach Underwood wanted to make the arena and practice facility a fun place for his athletes. “The one thing we’ve tried to do is really celebrate winning.”
At the beginning of March, the Fighting Illini played one of their biggest rivals: the Michigan Wolverines. Star player Ayo Dosunmu was out due to a broken nose, so all Illini fans were very not confident that the team would be able to pull off a win without him. On the Illinois campus, bars had just started to open back up due to COVID, making people very weary about going.
The Michigan game was different from other games for Jorie and her friends. Unfortunately, Jorie had an exam the next day while all but one of her other friends went out to the bar to watch the game. Going to the bar made Jorie nervous, but she really wanted to go. The game was also pretty special: it was the day before Jorie’s 21st Birthday. Jorie and her friend sat on the couch watching the game and studying during commercials. They even participated in the halftime shot as a study break.
After a stressful first half, the Fighting Illini persevered and beat the Michigan Wolverines. Jorie was ecstatic. “After that amazing win, I needed to go out and celebrate.” This was Jorie’s first time back at a school bar since the beginning of COVID. Jorie was able to celebrate an Illini win and her 21st birthday at midnight. After this, going to the bar to watch the games became the group’s new gameday tradition.
After a bummer of a loss to Loyola in the March Madness Tournament, the Fighting Illini were done for the season. There was much uncertainty about who from the team would return for the following season and who would graduate or go to the NBA draft.
After the unfortunate end to the season, senior Trent Frazier made the decision to come back. During his BIG TEN NETWORK interview with Andy Katz, Trent officially announced he would be returning for his fifth season with the Fighting Illini. Frazier had high hopes for the 2021 season--wanting to win the Big Ten Tournament again. Trent talked about his teammates and how proud he was of their season. “He [Andre Curbelo] is going to be an All-American point guard.”
With a stellar 2020-2021 season, the Fighting Illini Men’s Basketball team and their fans are holding out for an even better 2021-2022 season. According to Jorie Ryan, “I am very excited to see how the team is going to come together after Ayo Dosunmu left. After watching preseason games, it looks like the team is working really well together. I cannot wait to see what they are going to do this year.”
Data illustrates deeper divided within partisan sides
In history and society, it has been a shared belief that democrats and republicans have little in common in all aspects of politics. After viewing the 2021 political typology, there are nine different sides: Faith and Flag Conservatives, Committed Conservatives, Populist Right, Ambivalent Right, Stressed Sideliners, Outsider Left, Democratic Mainstays, Established Liberals, and Progressive Left. To put this into perspective, both the Progressive Left and the Faith and Flag Conservatives are far less persuaded by the other sides.
Racial injustice, along with several other issues, is still a dividing line in politics. More conservative sides do not value the importance of racial issues in politics compared to more liberal sides. More conservative sides, such as Faith and Flag Conservatives, put more emphasis on religious values when deciding about politics. To go in the middle of both extremes, Stressed Sideliners have the lowest level of political engagement and are most swayed by everyday issues when deciding about politics. Similar to Stressed Sideliners, both the Outsider Left and Ambivalent Right can also be swayed more easily.
According to University of Illinois senior, Jorie Ryan, she found it interesting yet not surprising about the deeper divide in partisan politics. “I have noticed with the last presidential election that there has been partisan divides between friend groups in college. With two very different candidates, I think that it really made people think more about who they wanted to vote for and which values were more important than others when deciding.”
Within the republican coalition with the exception of the Ambivalent Right, the majority of republicans are conservative ranging from 56%-33%. Data shows that the Ambivalent Right that the majority are moderate. The more conservative voters such as the Faith and Flag Conservatives would be considered more old fashioned conservatives in terms of politics. They are more likely to vote conservative on issues such as health, economy, and social issues.
University of Illinois senior Paige Kaminski made the observation that more and more today on social media, it has become common for influencers and famous people to openly state their opinions on political and social issues. “It seems that if you are not openly liberal or supporting the majority the celebrity will be “cancelled” by the media.”
Even within the Republican Party many groups are divided over many social issues. That ranges from people saying people are taking offense too easily to these issues or that some people say things that are or can be offensive to others. The same goes for the Democratic Party.
All in all, with today’s social climate, the divide between partisan sides has become deeper and deeper. More and more conservative groups have started to change gears towards the more moderate or liberal side, as only 23% of Republicans are made up of the Faith and Flag Conservatives. This gap has definitely had an impact on the way college students are deciding their political values and it has divided the gap even further.