TCF GIF Tournament: Sweet 16 (Day 1)

It’s summer, we’re bored, you’re bored, and we all like GIFs. What better time to have the first-ever TCR GIF Tournament!

After four days of voting last week, we’re into the Sweet 16 of our 32-GIF tourney, and today we’re going to focus on the left side of the bracket.

Here are today’s four matchups, and voting will conclude tomorrow at 9 a.m.

Beckman Happy vs. Beckman Listening

How many times do you go back to the Tim Beckman Era of Illinois Football and think about the good times, like bowl games? We’re usually really pessimistic about his time with Illinois — and for good reason (i.e. scandal, setting it up for a decade of failure) — but you can think happy thoughts sometimes. And when that time comes, think of Happy Beckman.

If you read the above paragraph about Tim Beckman and thinking happy thoughts about his time with the Illini, you probably look like the Beckman Listening GIF. You’re probably trying to follow along, but you can’t because either A) The argument is dumb. B) You don’t understand.

Groce Mic Fail vs. Underwood Tie Flip

John Groce might be saying something really insightful here, but then the mic falls off its stand and he, for a split second, looks down as it falls. Of course this kind of thing would happen to Groce. Can you imagine Tom Izzo sitting there and the microphone so rudely falling down. Absolutely not. It’s ironic gold.

In the program’s first year with Brad Underwood as the coach of the Illinois basketball team, we saw a lot of personality and animation from the sidelines. Either Ted Valentine missed a push off call, or Brad is reminding Da’Monte how to throw an inbounds pass — we aren’t sure.

HAT Nutshot vs. Malik’s Dancing

In the ‘cheap shot of the year,’ Jonathan Brown took his knee and sent it to the groin of an unsuspecting Northwestern offensive lineman, Pat Ward. Was it warranted? Sure. Was it worth it? Probably not. Illinois had Northwestern pinned inside their own 10 in the HAT game.

The coolest part about this GIF is that it can never end. There’s almost no distinct pause, because Turner’s left shoulder returns perfectly to where it started. Add in a ref pointing and a celebration on a play the Illini definitely didn’t get a touchdown on, and this might be the perfect GIF (and a dark horse to win).

IMar’s Pop vs. Malcolm Kisses the Floor

Isaiah Martinez is probably the greatest Illini athlete of the past decade, and one of the all-time greats. He didn’t lose many times in his career, and his first loss came against Penn State’s Jason Nolf in the regular season. Martinez avenged it and beat him in the Big Ten Championship, leading to this slick singlet pop. He already beat Malcolm Hill’s jersey pop in the Round of 32, but can he beat another Hill GIF?

How many moments have I been able to get emotional about as an Illinois student over the past three years? One. And it was this moment. Illinois beat Michigan State on Senior Night, and Malcolm Hill — after all he had given the program — had this sweet moment, kissing the block I on center court. That’s when I knew I was proud to be an Illini.