Illini - UNC 2005 Championship Game

Alright, I got through 2 minutes of this game, and 1) I am already pissed, and 2) I think this would be an unbelievable running blog post. Now if you can't bear to relive this game (like most Illini fans can't), then by all means, stop reading right now. However, if you are like me, and you have gotten over the heartbreak, and realize that these 2 teams are probably 2 of the best basketball teams we have seen in the last decade, then follow along. Perhaps you might have been like me, and you were on a 4 day bender, and you don't even remember who was playing (just kidding, I waited until after the game to blackout.) Either way, this will be fun or therapeutic. I am warning you right now, mute this game when you watch it.

18:45 - Alright, so Deron buries a jumper to start the game, and Carolina races back down the floor, gets an offensive rebound and May eats Powell up inside. Off the bat, I can't believe that I forgot the Billy Packer kept calling Deron "DuhRon". We should all thank whomever we worship that we no longer have to listen to Billy!!

17:39 - Augustine picks up his first foul on a transition McCants drive in the lane. It was a foul. Also can you name a better top 6 than UNC had that year?? It was unbelievable. McCants, May, Felton, Williams, Manual, Jawad Williams, and Marvin Williams. They just fly down the floor. Carolina goes up 9-2. Also UNC knocked off Wisconsin, MSU and Illinois in that order in the Tourney.

15:55 - Dee Brown was the fastest player in the history of college basketball. You can't tell me different. He chases down a ball in the corner, saves it into a UNC player, runs across the floor to pick up his man, then flies down the floor on a long rebound to get a lay-in. All of this in about .4 seconds. Now it is 9-7 Illinois. Deron with 2 on a jumper, Dee with 5 on a lay-in and a 3.
Captain Jack then ties the game on a put back off of a Luther Head missed 3. As fast as the UNC guards were, the Illinois guards were all over the place on defense. When you think about that team, you obviously remember how balanced they were on offense, but all 3 guards were amazing defenders.

14:42 - Powell is really playing like a man possessed inside, but he is out of control. Luther is now 0-3 from the 3 point line. The early comparisons of Dominique Keller and Roger Powell(When Keller signed with Illinois and hadn't played yet) are close, but Powell was just a much greater athlete. Luther finally buries a 3 to give Illinois the lead. 12-9.

12:57 - Illinois scored on the first possession. UNC went on a 9-0 run, then Illinois went on a 10-0 run, Carolina answers with a 5-0 run. Unbelievable!! Deron drives and Felton picks up his second foul. Augustine has been on the bench for about 3 minutes, but he only has one foul. Deron misses both free throws, and May somehow outruns everyone (including Augustine who checked in) down the floor for a dunk. On a side note, under Deron's Major, it said Sports Management. It should have said NBA Badass!! Rich McBride also came into the game, we should have known we were going to lose. (I make this comment because no Illinois player has infuriated me more than Rich McBride, except maybe Brian Randle)
Luther misses another open 3, but Powell is there for the putback. UNC is up 16-14, but Powell comes back and buries a 3 to give Illinois the lead.

11:14 - The Sean May birthday present is starting to be unwrapped. He just levels Powell for a lay-in. We have our first Warren Carter sighting. I'm not gonna start bitching about how he should have red-shirted, but every player should use him as an example when they are undersized for a 4, but can't shoot good enough to be a 3 yet. Augustine picks up his second foul on a charge, that was iffy, but it had to be called.

8:05 - Luther Head misses another 3. Warren Carter also missed a 3. UNC is playing a zone in order to save Felton from getting his 3rd foul. Up to this point, Carolina is just hitting more open looks than Illinois, but Illinois is staying in the game because Ingram and Powell are crashing the offensive glass. Has there been a more unsung player for Illinois than Jack Ingram? Illinois already has 7 offensive rebounds. And now we have our first Nick Smith sighting. Has there ever been a player on Illinois who didn't want to play basketball more than Nick Smith? I feel like he had to play basketball because he was so damn tall. He would have much rather been an accountant and played World of Warcraft when he got home. Carolina on another 7-0 run, score is 23-17 UNC.

6:45 - Luther hits his second 3 which makes him 2-7. Nick Smith gets used by May in the post, and then throws the ball away, and Bruce goes to the bench, Ingram is back in. Deron misses another 3. Can't believe that Billy hasn't lost his mind yet, or mentioned that when a 3 pointer is short, it means that your legs are tired. That was Billy's go to comment. Right now the score is 25-20 UNC and Illinois is shooting 31% to Carolina's 53%. God please stop shooting 3's!! (Unfortunately, you and I both know that won't happen.) Illinois gets a 3 on 1 break with Dee, Deron and Luther, and for some reason Luther runs out to the 3 point line and Dee gives him the ball for another miss. What the hell are we doing?? Is John Beilein coaching this team?? Captain Jack buries a 3, and Illinois is now 5 of 16 from behind the line. Marvin Williams comes down and hits a inside shot that could have been an And 1. Carolina up 27-23.

5:04 - Augustine comes back in the game with his two fouls. Bruce did what he could with Powell, Ingram, Smith and Carter, but he needed to give Powell a rest. Manual picks up his 3rd foul, and realistically, this game has been really evenly called so far. Ingram goes to the line and hits 2. He now has 7 points and 4 boards. Great half for Ingram. On a side note, you can see the 100 year anniversary patch on the Illini jersey. All season long I thought the stars were aligned for Illinois to win a National Championship because it was their 100 year anniversary. Just like I thought the Cubs would win it on their 100 year Anniversary. Too bad real life isn't a Disney movie. Felton comes down and hits another tough 3. Carolina up 30-25. Dee shoots a terrible 3 to try and answer. I'm pretty sure Illinois hasn't tried to drive since Felton got his second foul.

3:31 - Jawad Williams hits another 3 for Carolina, his second. It is amazing that pretty much at all times, at least 9 players on the floor could hit an open 3. Powell gets 2 offensive rebounds and gets hacked. Really the first missed call of the game. UNC now up 33-25 at the TV timeout. McCants gets a lay-in for the second time on an inbound play, Billy Packer reacts like Illinois just sacrificed his first born child. Illinois is now shooting 29% for the game. Carolina on an 8-0 run. 35-25. Luther throws the ball away. Bless Luther Head because he was a great player for Illinois, but I can't believe I forgot how bad of a first half he had.

2:04 - Ingram misses an open 3 from the corner, but Luther gets the long rebound. Luther finds Deron on the baseline for a little jumper, and this has to be Illinois first inside bucket since the Ingram putback. Dee misses another 3, Ingram gets the rebound, and May blocks him from behind. He then leads the break, and McCants hits an open 3 in transition. 40-27 UNC. They are now on a 13-2 run. Illinois runs the clock down with 40 seconds left. May hedges on Deron, fouls him, but there is no call, and Illinois gets a shot clock violation. Horrible end to the half.

Second Half

18:55 - Augustine fades away on the first shot of the second half, and then May seals him off for an easy bucket. Luther comes down and hits a jumper. Billy Packer does what he does best and uses hindsight to make it seem like he is the smartest basketball analyst of all-time. He says that a wide-open baseline jumper is not the shot you want from Augustine, instead a contested jumper from Luther Head (who was 2-8 at that point) is a much better shot. Nice work Billy. Augustine gets his 3rd foul on a reach on a drive. Now the video is pretty small, so I can't tell if it was actually a foul, but that is not a smart play by James, plain and simple. He gets his 4th foul 5 seconds later on another stupid reach!!! I can excuse reaching on the 3rd foul, but when you do the exact same thing 5 SECONDS LATER, what are you thinking?? I bet if Bruce could do anything over again, he would have taken him out after the 3rd one.

18:29 - The score is 44-29, and then Dee hits an open 3. The next 3 minutes are absolutely crazy, and it was the epitome of the Illini that year. Illinois gets shafted on a loose ball that goes out of bounds. Felton hits a 3 to push it back to 15. Luther answers with another 3. May gets an offensive rebound and dunks it home hard. Right now the entire crowd is going crazy. Deron comes down and hits a mid-range jumper. Luther picks up a foul on what looked like a push off, but was probably a good call and he goes crazy!! First he probably should have gotten a technical foul for that, but second and more importantly, it fired Luther up!! Luther gets a long rebound, and goes coast to coast for a reverse lay-up. 49-39 Illinois. Felton takes the inbound and takes a bad jumper, Deron with the rebound, he finds Luther trailing the play, and he buries a 3!! Illinois fans are going crazy. Illinois scores 13 points in 2 minutes. 8 from Luther.

15:46 - There is a timeout because Noel gets hit in the face. Dee should have gotten a foul there as he not only hit Noel in the face, he also slapped the hell out of his arm. Luther gets another rebound, and then Deron hits a 3 in the corner. Illinois has hit its last 6 shots, and the score is now 49-45. Marvin Williams stops the bleeding on a hard drive, and he should have gotten an And 1. Manual picks up his 4th foul with 14 minutes left. Deron hits a 3 after Luther missed one and WARCAT gets the offensive rebound. Screw the redshirt! 52-49 UNC. After going 2 for 7000 in the first half from behind the arc, Illinois is now 5-6 in the second half. May pushes the hell out of Powell on a free throw rebound, May gets called for a foul and Packer can't believe it!! If I ever meet Billy Packer, after I nut-punch him for ruining every college basketball game I have ever watched that he did, I want to ask him if he ever watched a replay in his life. Thank God we now have announcers that will admit when they are wrong after watching a replay.

11:40 - Carolina gets up 57-50 based on May getting solid position inside and bullying his way to the hoop. I can't blame the refs for not calling anything, if Illinois wanted fouls, they should have started flopping like Duke would have done. Deron hits a 3 to cut it 57-53. Illinois is now 11-28 from 3. May is taking over with an assist for a 3, and then a shot and a foul, but he misses his free throw. May gets the ball inside again and gets fouled hard. Ingram misses a 3. Do you see a recurring theme here? Either somebody makes a 3 or misses a 3. May gets another foul on Ingram.

8:50 - It is 65-55 UNC right now, and it has been all Sean May. UNC is in the bonus now. Deron gets a steal and gets it ahead to Dee for a lay-in, and it is the first turnover for either team in the second half. Ingram hits a jumper to pull Illinois within 6. Ingram had a monster game!! Augustine comes back in with 7:12 left in the game. And he fouls out with 6:49 in the game fighting for position with Marvin Williams. I don't even want to talk about whether or not it was a foul. I want to stop watching because I feel so bad for James. What a terrible night in the biggest game he was ever in. Billy chimes in by saying the "HE" doesn't think that Augustine should have been in the game. God I hate Billy Packer soooooo much!! Powell gets the make-up call on Marvin after Luther hit a floater in the lane. 65-61 UNC.

5:48 - Ingram hits another jumper to pull Illinois within 2. Dee gets fouled and gets to the line on Felton's 4th foul. Dee ties the game!! Felton buries a huge 3 when Dee and Deron are both on him. Deron hits a jumper to pull Illinois back to 1. May hits 2 free throws to give Carolina a 70- 67 lead with 4 to play

2:35 - Luther Head ties the game at 70-70!! Right here, I thought we would win this game, and I have had nightmares about these next few possessions. For the record (before I burst into tears), this was one hell of a game!! Illinois comes back from 15 down to tie, and we got to watch a great last 5 minutes.

2:01 - Deron misses a good look at a 3 after Marvin Williams missed a tough jumper.

1:23 - McCants drives and throws up a terrible shot in the lane, but Marvin Williams is there to tip it in.

1:07 - Luther gets a wide open look for a three because his man fell down. Billy decides this is the point to scream as loud as he can that Illinois is setting illegal screens (he mentions this about 39 more times in 1 minute). Way to stay impartial Billy, you stay professional! Illinois gets the rebound, and Bruce calls a timeout. 72-20 UNC

:50 - Deron misses another 3, the ball goes out of bounds to Illinois. Bruce had some color to his hair in this game. The 2007-2008 season took care of that. 72-70 UNC

:30 - Luther turns the ball over. It was Illinois' first turnover of the second half. Illinois has to foul Felton misses the first, and hits the second. 73-70 UNC

:26 - Luther misses the last shot of the game basically, and it looked good. I have replayed that over and over in my head. I thought that this would be fine to watch after 5 years, but it still sucks. It was a hell of a run, and a hell of a game.