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Fifteen weeks. That's how long Bruce Weber's Fighting Illini sat at #1 in the national polls during the regular season. A 32-1 record brought both the Big Ten regular season title and the Big Ten Tournament crown, and with Dee Brown, Luther Head and Deron Williams running the show, Illinois went into the NCAA Tournament as the top seed in the Chicago Region.
Fairleigh Dickinson, Nevada and Milwaukee fell first. Then came #3 Arizona in the Elite 8, and the Illini trailed by 15 with four minutes left and by 9 inside the final 1:25. A Deron Williams three tied it, overtime followed, and Illinois escaped 90-89 to reach the Final Four.
Louisville went down next. North Carolina won the National Championship 75-70 in.
"We had been such a good offensive team all year, and that's all people talked about. But when you really study us, we were a great defensive team but we never got the credit because we scored so many points." -Bruce Weber
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