Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

JOE HAWK: Carolina swipes Illinois' destiny

Dejected Illinois guard Dee Brown ponders what might have been after the No. 1-ranked Illini lost the national title game. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Illini were ill. The Orange Crush was crushed. Back home, Champaign had gone flat.

College basketball's team of destiny, on one bad pass in a second half of passing momentum, turned suddenly, sadly, into a team of misery.

There would be no NCAA championship for top-ranked Illinois, no record-setting 38th victory.

The "best," as the Illini had been deemed for most of the season, had officially been relegated to "second-best."

Someone, please check a map; we might have only 49 states today. Overnight, Illinois may have slipped quietly and forever into Lake Michigan.

That's how low spirits of Illini fans sank after second-ranked North Carolina's 75-70 national title victory Monday night at the Edward Jones Dome.

Illinois had come close, in this its 100th season of basketball, but this was no slow dance, no game of backyard horseshoes.

How close had the Illini come?

As close as Luther Head's needle-threading pass attempt through the lane to fellow guard Deron Williams that was picked off by North Carolina's Raymond Felton with 31 seconds to play.

Prior to that, the Illini had overcome deficits of 15 and 10 points to tie the contest at 70 on a 3-pointer by Head with 2:40 remaining.

After Marvin Williams' tip-in of a missed layup by Rashad McCants gave North Carolina a 72-70 lead with 1:27 left, the Illini had two attempts -- failed 3-point tries by Head and Williams -- to take the lead. But it was on Illinois' third offensive set, off that quick, crisp passing the Illini had become famous for this season, that Felton got a hand in for the Tar Heels and made the key deflection.

The speedy North Carolina guard then got a handle on the ball, drove it downcourt and was fouled by Williams as he attempted a layup. Felton made the second of the two free-throw tries to put the Tar Heels ahead by three.

"It was a play. I thought I saw somebody open who wasn't open," Head said simply. "I passed the ball; they got a steal."

While Illinois would get one last look at a tie -- Head's second-to-last of a fierce and frenetic 16 3-point tries hit the far side of the rim and bounced away with 16 seconds left -- it was that stolen pass that sapped all of the energy from the 37,000 or so pro-Illinois fans in the packed house of 47,262.

It was as if Felton had ripped open their collective chest and stolen their heart.

Hands over faces, hands clasped over heads, feet stomped in frustration and enough sighs to catch a thousand sails, the once-electric Illini faithful turned stunningly somber. While a tie and an overtime wasn't out of question, there was a sense Illinois' fans knew they had used up their allotment of miracles -- beginning with that amazing second-half rally from 15 points down to beat ninth-ranked Arizona in the Chicago Regional 10 days earlier.

As the final seconds ticked off -- after Felton nailed two free throws to account for the final five-point margin -- and Illinois players began that slow, pained walk to midcourt and beyond, the orange-clad Illini fans watched in drained disbelief. Only the smallest percentage managed the energy to raise their hands and applaud a 37-2 and national runner-up season.

Yes, this was to have been Illinois' year. This was to have been Illinois' title.

A single-season record 38 victories was to have been the Illinis' lasting legacy, too.

But the confetti that fell from the arena rafters simply mocked what had rained on their parade this night: one failed moment of precision in a season almost perfected by it.

Meanwhile, as Illini second-year coach Bruce Weber turned to briefly watch the Tar Heels' midcourt celebration, Head, a departing senior, found a spot on the North Carolina bench.

It was as close as he would come to being a champion this night.

It was as close as he would come to being a champion in college.

"That we just lost," Head said, when asked what was going through his mind at the moment he chose to sit down. "We didn't win the national championship. Something that me and my whole team wanted to do badly. Just left a bad taste in your mouth. It hurt."

He wasn't alone.

Joe Hawk's column is published Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. He can be reached at 387-2912 or jhawk@reviewjournal.com.