A stirring standing ovation greeted the No. 1 team in the nation Friday.
With the pep band and cheerleaders chiming in against a backdrop of blinking flashbulbs, the rock stars–make that Illinois’ basketball players–entered the court at the Edward Jones Dome.
And this was only Illinois’ shootaround.
Illinois’ open practice Friday, a day before its NCAA tournament semifinal against Louisville, drew more fans than a sold-out game at its Assembly Hall.
All season the Illini have given fans an abundance of reasons to believe they could win the school’s first NCAA championship.
In the last week or so, especially after the team’s phenomenal 15-point comeback against Arizona in last weekend’s Chicago regional final, even casual observers have asked if the Illini are destined to win the title.
“It’s hard to even talk about that,” forward James Augustine said. “It feels like it’s supposed to be.”
Everything else has gone according to plan. They won a second consecutive outright Big Ten championship, the conference tournament and drew the No. 1 seed in the tournament to earn the privilege of playing close to home.
They did all this as the school commemorated 100 seasons of Illinois basketball.
“It’s so ironic that it’s the best season of all time,” coach Bruce Weber said. “It would be even more special, a fairy tale, a great ending of a story, if we could be crowned as national champion in the 100th year.”
The only blemish on Illinois’ season, its loss March 6 against Ohio State, now looks like a blessing in disguise.
“Our heads might have been a little inflated,” reserve Nick Smith said. “And it just proved that we must come out and play hard every night. Ohio State was a good team but certainly not a North Carolina or Duke. We were pretty upset, especially at the way we played.”
It probably brought the Illini down to earth. Louisville coach Rick Pitino had a similar experience in 1996, the year he led Kentucky to a national title.
Kentucky had won 28 straight games–one fewer than Illinois during its unbeaten streak this season–before losing in the Southeastern Conference tournament title game to Mississippi State.
“We were winning by such substantial margins,” Pitino said. “I thought it could be fool’s gold. . . . I wanted to make sure we understood if we didn’t play great defense, we could get beat that night.”
There are several similarities between Pitino and Weber, and their teams.
On the surface, their teams have comparable strengths and weaknesses. Both rely on perimeter play behind guard trios who could drill three-pointers in their sleep. Neither team is imposing physically; neither is particularly strong on the boards.
Beyond the obvious, there are intangible similarities too.
Pitino recalled leading Providence to the first of his three Final Four appearances in 1987, not long after his infant son, Daniel, had died. For a long time, the tragedy cast a shadow on a remarkable season.
“I was just so worried about [my wife] the entire time,” Pitino said of his first Final Four. “Not until years later did I enjoy what that unbelievable team accomplished.”
Weber’s mother, Dawn, died the night of Illinois’ Big Ten tournament quarterfinal victory over Northwestern a little more than three weeks ago.
A few weeks ago, Weber said he is trying to survive the onslaught of mixed emotions.
His brother Dave coached Glenbrook North High to the Class AA state championship two weeks ago to raise the spirits of the Weber family. Dave’s championship seems like a prelude for his brother’s rise to college basketball’s biggest stage–the Final Four.
It raises the question again: Is a championship meant to be for this Illinois team?
Players, along with Weber, calmly answered questions and talked about the impact of playing in the Final Four with little emotion Friday. They are either drained from their journey or serene in their surroundings.
The latter is more likely to be true. After mounting the improbable rally against Arizona, they left no question about their desire. They want to be the first Illinois team to win a national championship but are consumed by Louisville for now.
“I feel so happy and proud to be in this position,” Dee Brown said.
Brown said he and his teammates cannot leave their hotel rooms because fans will mob them, but the seclusion doesn’t bother him.
“We’re blessed to be in this game,” he said.
Weber told his players to step back now and then and take a mental snapshot of their surroundings. He believes his players were in awe Wednesday night as the team’s bus crossed a bridge over the Mississippi River connecting Illinois to St. Louis.
“All year we’ve seen the posters, `March to the Arch,'” Weber said. “Then all of a sudden it’s a beautiful night. We’re coming across the bridge. The city is lit up. The Arch. A couple of kids were joking about it, but I think it hit them that we were truly here. This is what our goal was, to get here, to make a run at a national championship.”
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mxgarcia@tribune.com
