How a $34 cowboy hat, David Mirkovic and a lot of fun took Illinois to the Final Four INDIANAPOLIS — It was the best $34 David Mirkovic ever spent on Amazon. Shortly after Illinois touched down in Houston last week for the NCAA Tournament’s South Regional, teammate Keaton Wagler shared a social media post with Mirkovic. In it, a local television anchor wrote that if the Illini’s Montenegrin sensation showed up to a media availability wearing a cowboy hat, the anchor would buy his jersey and frame it on his living room wall. It took Mirkovic about two seconds to decide and three clicks to order a cowboy hat to be delivered to the team hotel. After Illinois punched a ticket to its first Final Four in 21 years, Mirkovic sat at his locker in Houston addressing the media while wearing the hat. “Why not? We in Texas,” he said with a Mirk smirk. Assistant coach Orlando Antigua added, “Mirk is 19, but he’s really 8.” The celebration leading up to the moment was just as chaotic. In the moments before the Final Four run, Mirkovic had been perched atop his locker with a pump-action water gun trained on his head coach, who’d just burst through the door with his own Super Soaker howling, “We’re going to the Final Four!” Before that liquid shootout, Mirkovic had nearly wrecked the longstanding tradition of cutting down the nets after a regional final. When it was his turn, he took one step up the ladder, grabbed the bottom of a still very attached net, and tried to rip it down with both hands. Teammate Kylan Boswell stepped in to stop him. “Holy s---, bro! What the f--- is wrong with you?” Boswell yelped. Then Mirkovic grabbed the ladder and shook it playfully — while Boswell stood atop it with scissors.#david_mirkovic #brad_underwood #keaton_wagler #orlando_antigua #tomaslav_ivisic
