Strange: Illini save Illinois with comeback

It would have been worse.

In the case of the fire, only most of a city was reduced to cinders.

Had the Illini lost to Arizona and been stopped short of the Final Four, an entire state would have been closed at the borders and declared a disaster area.

"It would be a catastrophe in their minds if we lose,'' coach Bruce Weber conceded upon his arrival in Chicago this week, addressing the crushing expectations of the Illini Nation.

And with four minutes to play in regulation at Allstate Arena this one had catastrophe written all over it.

The No. 1-ranked, No. 1 seed Illini were getting their heads handed to them by Arizona, 75-60.

The 16,900 or so Illinois fans in the crowd of 16,957 were stunned. Their March to the Arch had been so conveniently laid out - Indianapolis, Chicago, St. Louis - it didn't require a single plane ticket.

Yet here it was getting laid to waste by these mystery men from the desert, down by the Mexican border.

"We've been under the radar all year,'' said Arizona coach Lute Olson, "and that's good.''

And, boy, is Arizona good. How could we not have known? Blame it on the Pacific time zone, I guess.

As the game clock went under a minute, the Wildcats still led, 80-72. Illinois' most visible fan, actor Bill Murray, looked stoic behind the bench, as if he'd just heard Tom Hanks announced as the Oscar winner.

But, oh, boy, the final 57 seconds had a surprise ending.

Luther Head, Dee Brown and Deron Williams, the Illini's three All-American guards, each hit a basket to forge an 80-80 tie.

When Arizona missed three shots at the end of regulation, the crowd shattered a Cook County decibel record. And that's saying something considering a jumbo jet takes off about every two seconds across the road at O'Hare Airport.

In overtime, Williams hit a couple of treys, Head scored on a steal and it was 90-84.

Illinois hunkered down on defense one last time and came away with a season-saving 90-89 victory.

"You can see why they're 36-1,'' said Olson. "They're not a team that's ever going to give up.''

Perhaps not. But Weber still struggled in vain to fathom exactly what happened.

"It seemed like we were dying,'' he said, his voice down to its last rasp, "and then it was pretty much a blur.''

In that blur, Weber catapulted from the most crushing defeat of his career to one that will validate it.

Unlike Olson, the Hall of Famer who, at 70, looks like a retired Hollywood star, Weber is Everyman, a guy from the neighborhood in Milwaukee.

He was Gene Keady's assistant at Purdue 18 years before he got his head-coaching break at Southern Illinois.

Five years later, Illinois summoned him upstate when Bill Self bolted for Kansas. Coming from a mid-major school, Weber wasn't exactly a consensus home run.

His first year produced a Big 10 championship, but an early second-round exit in the NCAA tournament.

His second year has been a tour de force. The Illini plowed along undefeated until they were upset at Ohio State on the final day of the regular season.

They bore the pressure of the No. 1 ranking for nearly four months. It was St. Louis or nothing.

"We made that pressure because we made a goal of getting to the Final Four,'' said Williams, who had the energy to score 22 points and still hound Arizona's Salim Stoudamire, into a 2-of-13 shooting horror.

But the Final Four was going down the tubes in a flash.

Then it didn't.

Somewhere in the deafening roar, there were baskets, there were steals there were more baskets.

Then, somehow, everything was OK again.

"I wanted it so bad for the kids,'' said Weber, "because they've done so much.

"It's just crazy. There is no doubt this is a relief.

"The last couple of weeks, every day is a relief. Just trying to get to sleep.''

The governor can tell the National Guard to stand down. Cancel the order to close O'Hare.

Catastrophe averted. On to St. Louis.

Mike Strange may be reached at 865-342-6276.