Boswell, a junior and one of only three Illini players on the active roster with NCAA Tourney experience, is urging the newbies to embrace the moment but also have a sense of urgency — because it's one-and-done with the next loss.

Illinois women’s basketball has passed a milestone years in the making. Eight-seed Illinois defeated nine-seed Creighton 66-57 in the opening round of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. The win marked Illinois’s first tournament win since the 2000 tournament,