INDIANAPOLIS — In its extensive basketball history, Illinois State has sparked a national title win over the years.
The Fighting Illini’s Final Four appearance on Saturday was their sixth in program history, yet they remain without a national title in men’s basketball. Only Houston, which has made seven Final Four appearances, has more without a title.
And since No. 3 Illinois is out of the NCAA Tournament with a 71-62 loss to No. 2 UConn, the certainty of defeat matches the program’s tortured history at this point — painfully close but not enough.
In a locker room full of wet eyes and low voices, a constant theme from Illinois players was the number of shots that danced on the rim but didn’t turn into points. The Illini shot just 6-for-26 from 3-point range, and the night was filled with shots that assistant coach Orlando Antigua called “toilet bowls” that went around and off the rim.
“I’ve never seen that before,” Illinois senior Kellan Boswell said of the near-misses. “I personally never hit layups, and they bounce in and out like they did today. But I mean, (stuff) just happens. I can’t make excuses, but today, they absolutely beat us.”
The Illini entered the game with the No. 2 most efficient offense in the country, according to KenPom.com. But they were not effective at all. Besides struggling from 3-point range, Illinois also shot just 13-30 from 2-point range.
“We battled, battled, battled, and we had a very tough shooting night, especially at the rim,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. “We missed some shots that we don’t normally miss. It’s part of this game. The ball has to go in.”
The Illini played well defensively, shooting the Huskies just 35.5% from the field. But Underwood admitted that UConn guarded them well.
“We’ve had the No. 1 offense in the country all year, and again, give UConn credit,” Underwood said. “They forced some of those mistakes.”
Illinois’ history includes an epic title game loss to North Carolina by five points in 2005 under Bruce Weber, a two-point semifinal loss to champion Michigan in 1989 and two two-point Final Four losses in 1951 and 1952.
The Illini used their geographic proximity to Indianapolis — nearly 130 miles — to flex their most dominant fan base in the Final Four. And that crowd roared to life as Illinois went on a 10-0 run in the second half to cut UConn’s lead to four points with just over five minutes remaining.
The Huskies were scoreless for about five minutes, and the Illini got back into the game thanks to a series of free throws and a putback by Andrej Stojakovic.
But as the crowd reacted and UConn’s offense sagged, Underwood called a 30-second timeout after an Illinois win cut the Illini’s deficit to four points. Antigua said the timeout was intended to warn the Illini that UConn would punt the ball to star forward Tarris Reed Jr., who had been scoreless in the second half to that point.
UConn drew up a play for Reed, as expected, as Alex Karaban found him deep in the post with his defender closing in. Reed finished with a left hand, and the Huskies quickly scored again to push their lead to 61-53 with 4:08 remaining.
Illinois cut the lead to four points twice more — including Keaton Wagler’s 3-pointer with 44 seconds left that answered a Braylon Mullins 3-pointer — but it never got any closer. UConn stayed calm and made its free throws.
Wagler finished with 20 points on 7-for-16 shooting, but was just 2-for-10 from 3-point range. Tomislav Ivic scored 16 points but finished just 4-for-11 from the field.
“I feel like we missed a lot of shots at the rim that we normally take,” Ivecic said. “I don’t know what to call it other than bad luck.”
