It’s now or never for Illinois, which opens NCAAs against similarly flawed Arkansas

DES MOINES, Iowa — OK, so Arkansas, Illinois’ first-round opponent in the NCAA Tournament, is somewhat long and athletic.

Take freshman guard Anthony Black, for example, who stands 6-7, has a 42½-inch vertical jump and is an expected 2023 NBA lottery pick.

Or freshman guard Nick Smith Jr., who’s 6-5, matches Black’s 42½-inch ups and likewise is projected for the lottery.

Or junior guard Ricky Council IV, the Razorbacks’ 6-6 leading scorer who — with his 46-inch vertical — makes Black and Smith look, well, maybe a hair less spectacular.

Or freshman Jordan Walsh, a 6-7 swingman who jumps as high as Council, and, dear lord, what the heck is in the water down in Fayetteville, Arkansas?

“Arkansas is a different type of team than what we see in the Big Ten,” Illini coach Brad Underwood astutely observed.

No, the Iowas, Wisconsins and Minnesotas of the world generally don’t fly like these Razorbacks. The Penn States, Michigan States and Northwesterns don’t, either. Let’s just expand the list to all 14 Big Ten schools, come to think of it.

Fortunately for the ninth-seeded Illini, Thursday’s matchup won’t be a jumping contest. At least they’d sure as heck better hope not. Eighth-seeded Arkansas is a wildly athletic team that nevertheless has all sorts of flaws, among them being very young, being very inconsistent and not being particularly adept at shooting the basketball.

The Illini can relate to all those characteristics themselves.

The Illini have lost six of their last 10 games. The Hogs have lost six of nine. If one of these teams is supposed to feel superior to — or be afraid of — the other, it’s pretty much impossible to understand why.

“I think we’re still evolving and still improving,” Arkansas coach Eric Musselman said.

“It’s never easy to come together in a very quick amount of time,” Underwood said.

It’s March, isn’t it? Seems a little late in the season to be referring to what hasn’t happened yet.

Each coach did throw a lot of new pieces together, though, and that was always going to come with challenges in both cases. Illinois lost not only All-Americans Ayo Dosunmu and Kofi Cockburn the last couple of years, but all five starters from last season’s team.

Whether or not this Illini roster makes good sense in regard to “fit,” it sure looked like it didn’t back when the team was getting off to an 0-3 start in Big Ten play. A 7-1 conference stretch appeared to right the ship, but it didn’t last, and the Illini are somewhat stumbling into Wells Fargo Arena with marks of 3-7 on the road and 2-3 at neutral sites.

“If I’m answering truthfully,” said Coleman Hawkins, who was the Illini’s most experienced returning player, “I would say the beginning was very frustrating for me. I was used to guys who kind of knew what they were doing. That isn’t anyone’s fault. . . .

“Last year’s team and the year before did a great job of closing out games . . . [and] I was used to a team who went in and we were road warriors. We were tough. We were veterans. We knew what we were going to go out and do. We were locked into attention to detail. There were very limited mistakes.”

Sounds kind of like night and day, doesn’t it?

For Hawkins — who saved last March’s tournament-opening victory against Chattanooga with a last-second blocked shot — it became a personal struggle, too.

“I think with that frustration, there was kind of a loss of motivation for myself,” he said. “I wouldn’t say for anybody else, [but] I was just kind of lost as far as, ‘Is it my fault? Am I not leading those guys the right way?’ ’’

But Hawkins has come back around and says the Illini are “going to shock some people.”

Matthew Mayer, a senior who transferred in from Baylor, where he won a national championship, expressed a calm confidence in the team.

“You see those barriers of ‘Sweet 16,’ ‘Elite Eight,’ all these labels,” he said. “Just win another game and keep advancing. Like, there’s no secret to it.”

What does Underwood want to see?

“Belief,” he said. “You’ve got to believe you can win. . . .

“This team has a great personality to handle that, and I really believe it.”

It’s March, isn’t it? Now had better be the time.