Hometown hero appears in the Final Four and Illini basketball great Deon Thomas weighs in on historic season

Reginald Hardwick 
From Illinois. Soul, this is Dialogue. I'm Reginald Hardwick, news, and public affairs director at Illinois public media,

Kimberly Schofield
And I'm Kimberly Schofield. I host Morning Edition, weekday mornings on WILL-AM, 580, Illinois Classical, FM 90.9, and Illinois Soul. FM 101.1. Dialogue is an exchange about culture straight from the soul. This is a year to remember for the Illini nation.

Reginald Hardwick 
For the first time in 21 years, the Illinois men's basketball team is playing in the Final Four on April 4, they will take on UConn in Indianapolis. Here's what students told me as some of their classmates climbed on the Alma Mater statue after seeing Illinois defeat Iowa last weekend.

Damian Thomas 
So proud to be Illini. It's amazing. It's an amazing feeling. It's long overdue to Brad Underwood and company. I'm so proud of this team. 

Laura Mendes
It's super hype. Everyone's coming together. It seems like we're all one big family.

Alex Sellers  
And this is the most electric night I've had on campus ever. Everybody's just going crazy. Everybody's wearing their blue and orange storm in the streets, and it's just a great day to be Illini. 

Reginald Hardwick  
It was so much fun. I was out there getting that sound as students wearing orange held up newspapers that said Final Four. Since we taped this program before April 4, we won't be able to reveal the winner of the Final Four game or the championship game on Monday, but we're happy to talk about one of the standout players on this year's roster. Before he became a point guard for the Illini, Kylan Boswell attended Edison Middle School in Champaign and Urbana Middle School. Mark Chagnon was one of the basketball coaches at Edison. He saw Boswell's potential as soon as he entered the sixth grade, 

Mark Chagnon
I said, ‘I want you to draw with your right hand down the floor on your left hand back.’ And so he looked at me like, ‘okay,’ so he went down the floor with his right hand, came back with his left hand really easily. And I was like, ‘nobody else is doing that.’ 

Reginald Hardwick
And another person very excited for Boswell is his dad, Brandon. I had the pleasure of speaking with him before Saturday's Final Four game.

Brandon Boswell  
Everybody's really excited. Just the buzz in the air right now is overall, general, you know, kind of happiness and for being where we are, and then just excited because we believe we have an opportunity to win this.

Reginald Hardwick
So, does basketball run in the family, or did it kind of start with him?

Brandon Boswell 
Well, it really basketball kind of started with Kylan. Kyle's grandfather attended the University of Illinois and played football there Kylan, being half Samoan and having family who had played football, we all assumed that's what initially, what we're going to do. He played football as a as a youth player as well, but he kind of had a knack for basketball, so we just kept developing that skill.

Reginald Hardwick 
And how early did he indicate that this was his game?

Brandon Boswell   
Probably right around fourth grade. Fourth and fifth grade is when we kind of noticed would take Kyle into little events. And you know, when you see a husky kid on just kind of do a Euro step around somebody and make a layup, it's kind of like, Huh? You know, I never taught him that, so it just looked like something he might be able to do. So we just kept working with it.

Reginald Hardwick 
Was it your favorite sport growing up? Or did you watch the game?

Brandon Boswell  
Absolutely. Yeah. No, no, you absolutely. We loved, obviously, University of Illinois basketball. You know, fun fact, Kylan was actually literally in his mom's stomach in 2005 as we watched that team go on their run and on a little probably two by two television in the kitchen. So, we've always loved Illinois basketball. We've loved Chicago Bulls basketball. So, basketball has kind of always been our first sport. I'm only six foot, so I didn't know if Kyla was going to be able to play basketball at a division one level, but he grew taller than me, thankfully. And, you know, he was good enough to do it.

Reginald Hardwick 
What did he tell you about cutting down part of the net on Saturday? 

Brandon Boswell 
Oh man, he said that was a great feeling. It was an awesome feeling, you know, to be cemented in history for Illinois sports, you know, and have not been here since. Again, he was literally, you know, we were watching that, oh, five team, you know, it's just, it's a blessing and an awesome thing to witness.

Reginald Hardwick 
And last question… was the U of I Kylan’s first choice, or was he, how did he end up here and not going to some other, you know, school that has a big basketball legend?

Brandon Boswell 
So actually, Kylan’s initial out of high school, he was recruited by the university, but he did choose the University of Arizona, So, he played there for two years and then transferred into the U of I this, what, two years now. So, this is his second year here. So that happened, and came to be just because the U of I kept contact once the portal opened. And, you know, we kept watching University. We saw you guys go to the Elite Eight two years ago, and it just looked like a good fit. We never lost ties. We always had an open mind to the U of I at the time, I thought maybe Arizona, or he thought Arizona was a better fit out of high school. But, you know, secretly, as parents, we always kind of want him to take the opportunity to come home, so we're glad when he did it.

Kimberly Schofield 
Reginald, most of the players on the current team were not born when the Illini went to the Final Four. What else was going on in the spring of 2005?

Reginald Hardwick 
Kimberly, let's go into the time machine. George W Bush was president, a lawmaker here in Illinois named Barack Obama was only three months into his first and only term as US senator. He became US president four years later.

Kimberly Schofield 
The O’Jays and U2 were among those inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The movie Ray, which Jamie Foxx portrays the late Ray Charles, wins outstanding motion picture from the NAACP Image Awards. And the show Grey's Anatomy debuted on ABC.

Reginald Hardwick 
Mariah Carey released We Belong Together, which later won a Grammy for Best RnB song and billboard Song of the Year. And North Carolina beats Illinois 75 to 70 in the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship. It's been a long road, but we're back. One of the all-time basketball greats is Deon Thomas. He is the all-time leading scorer in Fighting Illini history and later played for the Dallas Mavericks for the last 10 years. He's been the color analyst for men's basketball and Fighting Illini radio, and he's really proud of how his Illinois team has come.

Deon Thomas  
I think it was an amazing season in the early, early up part of the season, you know, we were dealing with a lot of injuries and illnesses, but the team was and was able to rebound and go on a long winning streak, and then we had another injury with Kyle Boswell and Andrej Stojakovic, and then we were able to rebound from that. I love the up and downs of this season. I believe they were really beneficial for this team. It taught them they could win in multiple ways with all the new players that we had on board. I think those difficult times gave the team a lot of toughness, and I believe that will help us as we move into the NCAA tournament, and then, of course, this weekend at the Final Four in Indianapolis. I think the grit that this team has displayed has been really impressive.

Reginald Hardwick 
As one of the all-time greats of the all time, how do you feel about seeing this team go to the Final Four?

Deon Thomas 
Absolutely amazing. I feel it as if I'm one of the guys that are on the court playing today. You know, after working with coach his entire time he's been here, I've been on the radio 10 years now, and this is his ninth. I've watched him continue to grow as coach, I've watched him, you know, met you know, really change himself, change the program in multiple ways that has led us to today. I've also often said that one of the greatest things about Brad Underwood is his ability to adjust and learn and grow, and it, I think it has come to a head this year with so many new players, so many spectacular players, and they're playing extremely well. And so I feel really connected to these guys, to this program and to this team, that I'm very excited for them this weekend. And like I said, I feel like one of the players. That's how happy I am for these guys.

Reginald Hardwick  
How has the game changed since you were here as a player at Illinois?

Deon Thomas 
Compared to now, basketball has changed period since I was here. I mean, if you were six, seven and above, I mean you were literally a post player. There. And if you look at our team now, with Stojakovic, and you know, at his size, at six seven, I mean, I'm a shade above six seven, close, you know, pushing six eight, but I played in the poster majority of my time. So to see the players at their size, like the v6 brothers and David Mirković, to be able to have the skill levels that they do, and be able to display them the way they have this year. I mean, it's really impressive, but I think that's the way the game has gone to a very skill forward type of play, you know, a little bit faster. And kids are the players are bigger, stronger, faster, as they say, you know. And so it's just really impressive, and I love where basketball has gone. Thank you so

Reginald Hardwick 
much, and we're looking forward to the weekend. Thank you for taking a few minutes to speak with me.

Deon Thomas 
No, no problem. Thanks for calling

Reginald Hardwick
Deon Thomas. He is the all time leading scorer in Fighting Illini history, and later played for the Dallas Mavericks.