Road to the Final Four: How Illinois basketball got there for the 1st time since 2005

Illinois’ march to the Final Four at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis began in October with a 92-65 exhibition victory over Illinois State — which lost in the NIT semifinals at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. And it ended with a 71-62 national semifinal loss to Connecticut.

The Illini were making their first Final Four appearance since 2005, when Dee Brown, Deron Williams and company advanced to the national championship game under coach Bruce Weber before falling to North Carolina.

Illinois (28-8), which won the South Region as the No. 3 seed, played in its sixth Final Four in program history and needed two wins in roughly 53 hours to earn its first national title.

How did Illinois get here? Looking back at the Illini’s regular season, Big Ten Tournament and NCAA Tournament.

November

Illinois gave fans a glimpse of what would become the top-rated offensive team in the nation, according to KenPom rankings, with a pair of 113-point efforts in blowout wins against Jackson State and Florida Gulf Coast. The Illini passed their first true test of the season, defeating a ranked Texas Tech team in Champaign behind Andrej Stojaković’s 23 points. They suffered their first loss eight days later, missing 9 of 22 free-throw attempts in a four-point defeat to No. 11 Alabama at the United Center. Illinois closed the month with a wire-to-wire loss to UConn at Madison Square Garden in a Final Four preview.

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Record: 6-2

• 113-55 win over Jackson State
• 113-70 win over Florida Gulf Coast
• 81-77 win over No. 11 Texas Tech
• 84-65 win over Colgate
• 90-86 loss to No. 11 Alabama
• 98-58 win over Long Island
• 87-73 win over Texas Rio Grande Valley
• 74-61 loss to Connecticut

December

After beginning the month with a convincing victory against another ranked nonconference opponent in Tennessee, the Illini dipped their toes into the Big Ten gauntlet, winning their conference opener at Ohio State before a close loss to an upstart Nebraska team in Champaign. Illinois then embarrassed Missouri by 43 points in St. Louis for the most lopsided victory in the history of the Braggin’ Rights rivalry. Freshman guard Keaton Wagler made five 3-pointers and scored 22 points in the rout.

Record: 10-3 (1-1 in the Big Ten)

• 75-62 win over No. 13 Tennessee
• 88-80 win over Ohio State
• 83-80 loss to No. 23 Nebraska
• 91-48 win over Missouri
• 90-55 win over Southern

January

The new year started perfectly for Illinois, which went 8-0 in the month. Included in what would become a season-high 12-game winning streak were road victories over future Elite Eight foe Iowa and Purdue. Wagler scored an Illinois freshman record 46 points on 13-for-17 shooting to help knock off the fourth-ranked Boilermakers at Mackey Arena. He hit nine 3-pointers — also an Illinois record.  “The ceiling is national championship,” Wagler said after the upset. “That’s our goal. That’s been our goal since the beginning, and this just proves we’re a contender for that.”

Record: 18-3 (8-1 in the Big Ten)

• 73-65 win over Penn State
• 81-55 win over Rutgers
• 75-69 win over No. 19 Iowa
• 79-68 win over Northwestern
• 77-67 win over Minnesota
• 89-70 win over Maryland
• 88-82 win over No. 4 Purdue
• 75-66 win over Washington

February

After avenging their loss to Nebraska with their second road win over a top-five team in nine days and embarrassing Northwestern by 40 points in Champaign, the Illini dropped four of their next five — three in overtime — as part of a .500 month. First, Jeremy Fears Jr. and host Michigan State snapped Illinois’ 12-game winning streak, followed by a two-point OT defeat to Wisconsin at the State Farm Center to hand the Illini consecutive losses for the first time this season. After back-to-back blowout wins, Illinois closed the month with two straight L’s — at UCLA and then at home to Michigan, which clinched the Big Ten regular-season title with the easy win.

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Record: 22-7 (13-5 in the Big Ten)

• 78-69 win over No. 5 Nebraska
• 84-44 win over Northwestern
• 85-82 (OT) loss to No. 10 Michigan State
• 92-90 (OT) loss to Wisconsin
• 71-51 win over Indiana
• 101-65 win over USC
• 95-94 (OT) loss to UCLA
• 84-70 loss to No. 3 Michigan

March

The Illini cruised past Oregon in their final home game of the regular season, then beat a feisty Maryland team in College Park to clinch the No. 4 seed and a triple bye in the Big Ten Tournament. Illinois headed into the postseason at 24-7 overall and finished 15-5 in conference play.

Regular-season record: 24-7 (15-5 in the Big Ten)

• 80-54 win over Oregon
• 78-72 win over Maryland

Big Ten Tournament

Illinois’ tournament run at the United Center ended the same day it started. The Illini had taken a 15-point lead against Wisconsin midway through the second half of their Big Ten quarterfinal. Then Badgers guards John Blackwell and Nick Boyd, who had fueled a February upset of the Illini, took over. The veteran duo combined for 69 points — including 50 after halftime — to help No. 5 seed Wisconsin knock off the Illini in overtime. “We just lost focus,” Underwood said.

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• 91-88 (OT) loss to No. 23 Wisconsin

NCAA Tournament

• First round: 105-70 win over Penn
• Second round: 76-55 win over VCU
• Sweet 16: 65-55 win over Houston
• Elite Eight: 71-59 win over Iowa
• Final Four: Saturday vs. UConn (5.09 p.m., TBS)

As the No. 3 seed in the regional, the Illini opened the tournament with a rout of Penn in Greenville, S.C., behind freshmen David Mirković and Wagler. Mirković had 29 points and set an Illinois NCAA Tournament rebounding record with 17, while Wagler had 18 points, seven rebounds and seven assists.

The Illini then put on a show in a 21-point win over No. 11 seed VCU in the second round, setting up a Sweet 16 matchup with No. 2 seed Houston at the Toyota Center — just 2 miles from the Cougars campus. Illinois rode its defense to a 10-point win for its second Elite Eight berth in three years.

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The Illini then rallied from an early 10-point deficit against Iowa to punch their ticket to the Final Four for the first time in 21 years. Wagler scored 25 points en route to being named South Region MVP. “I didn’t doubt we would get there,” Underwood said. “I just didn’t know when.”

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Now, they are headed to the Final Four for the sixth time in program history and first time since the 2005 run to the national championship game. They advance to the national semifinal in Indianapolis and will play Connecticut after the Huskies knocked off top-seeded Duke on an astonishing, desperation 3-pointer in the East Region Final.

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Underwood stood in a tunnel at Lucas Oil Stadium underneath giant blow-up photos of his players. Wagler, shooting with a look of easy focus. Mirković, his mouth in a straight line, looking to pass with urgency. Stojaković, bellowing with joy. And more.

And now, four hours later, it was all over, a dream season, one of the best in Illinois history, cut a game short after Connecticut’s 71-62 victory to advance to the national championship game against Michigan.

But what made Underwood crack, tears filling his eyes, was that the loss cut the memories short. “To see the orange and blue out, I can’t thank them enough,” he said. “I hope this team created memories that last a lifetime for a lot of people. No matter what age. It did for me.”

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