The St. Louis Cardinals are huge in Champaign-Urbana. They compete with primarily the Chicago Cubs, but also the White Sox to be the favorite MLB team in the community dominated by the University of Illinois campus. The Cards do come first though, and perhaps Illini coach Bruce Weber knew that when he made his appeal to Illini Nation that his team’s post-season chances aren’t dead.
“How many times in that last week did you not think the Cardinals weren’t going to make the playoffs?” Weber asked the media following his team’s home loss to the #13 Michigan Wolverines.
“And yet they got in and didn’t even have to play the extra game, and they ended up winning the thing. A lot of things can happen but you have to go earn it,” he continued.
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