HOUSTON — The Illinois men’s basketball team was in the airport in Champaign, Illinois, preparing to board a flight to Houston for the NCAA Tournament regional, when Illini freshman forward David Mirkovic made a prescient purchase.
Mirkovic’s teammate, Keaton Wagler, sent him a link to an artificially generated photo of Mirkovic wearing a black cowboy hat. It was meant as a joke, but Mirkovic found a similar looking hat on Amazon and ordered it for $34. It was delivered to the Illini’s hotel in Houston on Friday, the day before Illinois played Iowa in the Elite Eight.
Mirkovic only intended to wear the hat if the Illini won. They did, 71-59, and after the team celebrated in the locker room by spraying each other with water guns – a program tradition that began two years ago in the NCAA Tournament – Mirkovic proudly donned his new headwear.
Asked if he felt like a cowboy, the Montenegro native paused and replied, “I don’t know. What does it mean, being a cowboy?”
He paused and reconsidered: “Yeah, why not. We’re in Texas.”
Mirkovic scored nine points and had a team-high 12 rebounds in Illinois’ Elite Eight win, coming just one point shy of his second consecutive double-double. He was still named to the South Regional All-Tournament team and his performance helped Illinois advance to the Final Four, where it will play either Duke or Connecticut.
None of Mirkovic’s Illini teammates joined him in buying cowboy hats, but he retained hope that he could start a new NCAA Tournament tradition.
“Maybe for next season,” he said, smiling.