Marching Up the Mountain
The 2005 Regional Final is the best comeback game in college basketball history.
As March once again comes roaring in and college basketball is ramping up to its most prestigious event, I’m excited to see the University of Illinois in the thick of things. This year’s team is headed for a 2 seed and could make an incredible run. I know I’m excited.
College basketball is a series of cycles. Sometimes you’re riding high for a few years, and sometimes you’re on the downward slope, hoping to head back up the mountain of greatness. Illinois Athletic Director Josh Whitman talked about climbing that mountain in 2016:
When faced with climbing the biggest mountains, I know only one approach to take: look not up, because the size of the task might be daunting, but instead look down and focus on placing one foot in front of the next, trusting that you will reach your destination by concentrating on each small step to get there. In that way — with steady, tough progress — we will reach the mountaintop.
As I think about that mountain, I’m reminded of the previous peak of Illinois basketball success: The 2005 Regional Final. You might think the National Championship game was the top, but you’d be wrong. The moment Illinois basketball fans remember is the Arizona game, not the loss to the cheating North Carolina Tar Heels.
All year, Illinois was the best team in college basketball. Led by a trio of talented guards in Dee Brown, Luther Head, and future NBA All-Star Deron Williams, and mobile and athletic power forwards Roger Powell, Jr. and James Augustine, the Illinois basketball team was not just the talk of the town or state but the nation.
See all these college kids popping their jersey? That was started by Dee Brown, who told everyone, "This is my school, my team, my pride." Fans responded in kind.
Assembly Hall (now the State Farm Center) was a packed house of orange-clad faithful screaming and yelling, making it one of the most formidable home-court advantages in college basketball. Every fan was an extension of the Orange Krush student section.
When number one Wake Forest came to town, Illinois destroyed them 91–73 at Assembly Hall. Wake Forest never led at any point in the game. After that dominating performance, Illinois was ranked number one and held that spot for the rest of the season.
Sports fans began to take notice. Everywhere the players went in Champaign-Urbana, they’d be mobbed by fans. Roger Powell showed up in The News-Gazette lobby inquiring about getting a few copies of the newspaper, his picture was front and center on, and a crowd instantly appeared around him, pressing pens and paper for him to sign. Posters that appeared in programs sold at each home game became hot collector’s items. They started acquiring celebrity fans like Bill Murray.
During the NCAA selection show, it came as little surprise that Illinois was the overall number one team in the field. Dee Brown was on the cover of Sports Illustrated and The Sporting News. They started drawing large numbers of fans to their pre-game shootarounds. As the tournament started, they cruised through their first few match-ups. Everyone was eyeing the Arizona versus Illinois Elite Eight game as the one to watch.
It did not disappoint.
Without a doubt, the Arizona-Illinois game was by far the best final four minutes of comeback basketball ever played. More than 20 years later, it still stuns me how the Fighting Illini Men’s Basketball team beat the Arizona Wildcats.
At halftime, Arizona led by only two points, but the second half exploded into a 15-point lead. Nothing like this had happened all season. Calling the game on TV, Jay Bilas said, “Illinois has relied way too much on the three in this game.” Little did he know what was about to happen.
Over the last three minutes of play, Illinois made three of four threes, added points on turnovers, and took the game into overtime. It was staggering to see. Down by 13 with 3:28 left, down by 11 with 3:00 left, down by nine with 2:43 left, down by five with :57 left. Dee Brown stole the ball and made a breakaway layup, and Illinois was only down by three with :45 left. Everyone wearing orange was screaming. The Arizona players were shellshocked. Another steal on the in-bounds, and Deron Williams hit a three with 34 seconds left to tie it at 80. The place went bonkers.
Bill Murray, decked out in Illini orange, was going crazy.
I was at my parents’ house watching the game, and I was pacing the entire time behind the couch, tearing my hair out and pleading with the basketball gods. My Dad was calmly sitting on the couch, not reacting like his crazy, lunatic of a son. Years of coaching and being around coaches helped him keep his emotions in check. After the Luther Head steal, he said almost matter-of-factly, “Luther Head still wants to play.” After the three to tie it, he said calmly, “Deron Williams has ice-water running through his veins.”
The Deron Williams game-tying three is what most Illinois fans call “The Shot.” Although, to be fair, there are quite a few vying for that moniker, such as Cory Bradford’s shot to beat Indiana as well as Tyler Griffey’s layup to beat Indiana. Illinois likes beating Indiana.
The game went into overtime, and Illinois came out hot, sinking threes and getting another breakaway layup. Still, Arizona was not going to roll over and give up. What most fans forget about this game is that Deron Williams held the best shooter in college basketball, Salim Stoudamire, to a 2-for-13 night in the biggest game of his NBA-bound career. Even though Arizona shaved a six-point Illini lead to just one point in overtime, Williams made it impossible for Stoudamire to get a shot off to win the game. Illinois advanced to its first Final Four in sixteen years in front of an ecstatic crowd at Allstate Arena and Illini Nation everywhere.
I was in a state of shock.
Sure, they’d get beaten in the National Championship game by a cheating North Carolina, but reaching that game did not make this team revered in college basketball. It was the 2005 Regional Final.
It’s time for Illinois Basketball to climb the mountain. Just one foot in front of the other.
I want to see another run like the 2004–2005 team. It can happen.
I believe.
Be seeing you.
The AJ Redd Game
I went to the final regular-season game at State Farm Center on Tuesday. It was Senior Night when Illinois hosted Oregon and it was great to see Ben Humrichous and Kylan Boswell be honored before the game. However, another player was also receiving senior accolades: AJ Redd.
There are players who arrive at a program with fanfare and expectations. AJ Redd was not one of those players. The Chicago native came to Illinois as a student manager, someone who carries bags, does laundry, and sets up drills and exists, largely, in the background. What he has become over the past four years is something far more interesting than any highly recruited prospect.
Redd eventually earned his way onto the court as a walk-on, grinding through practices, earning the respect of his coaches and teammates one day at a time. Redd stayed for all four years. He became, fittingly, the only true four-year player honored on Senior Night.
The game played out exactly as it should have. Orange Krush began chanting his name early in the second half. When Coach Underwood sent Redd onto the floor with about three and a half minutes remaining, the roar from the crowd set the tone for what followed.
What followed was, first, a nearly 28-foot pull-up three that clanged off nothing. Underwood called a timeout. The coach was not amused. “He’s done one dumb thing in four years,” Underwood said afterward in the locker room, which was both a rebuke and, quietly, a tribute.
The redemption came quickly. A between-the-legs, backward bounce pass from Mihalio Petrovich found Redd in transition on the left wing, and he buried the three-pointer. State Farm Center came unglued. Then, just to complete the story properly, Redd drove hard to the basket against an Oregon defender and finished the layup, giving him five points, a new career high, in his final minutes as an Illini on his home court.
Andrej Stojakovic, who has only known Redd for nine months and was the real star of the game with 21 points and 12 rebounds, said simply: “No one can replace what he brings to this team.”
The manager-turned-walk-on had more points on Senior Night than the leader of this team, Kylan Boswell. That’s something.
What a great moment for the young man.
In Brightest Day, in Blackest Night
The first teaser for HBO’s Lanterns has arrived, and if you were expecting a neon-green spectacle of alien worlds and cosmic ring-slinging, think again. The trailer leans heavily into a moody detective vibe, zero ring constructs, and a dusty atmosphere. The whole thing is set to Bruce Springsteen’s “State Trooper,” a nod to the police-like nature of the Green Lantern Corps.
Kyle Chandler as veteran Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre as rookie John Stewart make for a compelling odd-couple pairing. For less than a second, you see a Green Lantern uniform, and I like that the design takes clear inspiration from the graphic novel Green Lantern: Earth One, opting for a muted, grounded jacket rather than a flashy super-suit.
The trailer’s best moment, though? Chandler’s Hal Jordan casually dropping a joke about one of the Corps members being a squirrel. It’s a perfectly timed “say what?” for non-comic fans and a nod to comic fans who know Green Lantern Ch’p, the squirrel-like alien Green Lantern from the comics.
True Detective with magic rings? I’m in.
A Quick Thought on AI-Written Material
Lately, I’ve seen commentary on Large Language Models (i.e., AI) that goes like this: I prefer finding written material with spelling mistakes because then I know it’s not written by AI, and the writer knows everything in the material. The opposite being: If you’re using AI to write something, it’s easy to not know what’s inside your writing, and you may be writing something you didn’t intend to say or didn’t intend to include.
I’m neither positive nor negative on AI. For me, AI is a fascinating tool for certain parts of my work, but I’ve immediately noticed brain rot creeping in around topics that are easily handed off to an AI bot. Long-term, I imagine I'll need to develop a workflow to combat brain rot.
In summary, though, I appreciate the point of view regarding AI, but I don’t like spelling mistakes.
No
Max Leibman: No means no.
No, I do not want to install your app.
No, I do not want that app to run on startup.
No, I do not want that app shortcut on my desktop.
No, I do not want to subscribe to your newsletter.
No, I do not want your site to send me notifications.
No, I do not want to tell you about my recent experience.
No, I do not want to sign up for an account.
No, I do not want to sign up using a different service and let the two of you know about each other.
No, I do not want to sign in for a more personalized experience.
No, I do not want to allow you to read my contacts.
No, I do not want you to scan my content.
No, I do not want you to track me.
No, I do not want to click “Later” or “Not now” when what I mean is NO.
