INDIANAPOLIS — In its vast basketball history, Illinois has teased winning a national title throughout the years.
The Fighting Illini’s Final Four appearance Saturday marked their sixth in program history, yet they remain without a national title in men’s basketball. Only Houston, with seven Final Four appearances, has more without a title.
And as 3-seed Illinois exited the NCAA tournament after a 71-62 loss to second-seeded UConn, the tenor of the defeat matched the program’s tortured high-end history at this stage — achingly close yet not enough.
In a locker room filled with wet eyes and low voices, the consistent theme from Illinois players was the number of shots that danced on the rim but didn’t convert 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 swirled around and out of the rim.
“I’ve never seen that before,” Illinois senior Kylan Boswell said of the near misses. “I’ve never personally shot layups, and they bounce in and out like how they did today. But I mean, [stuff] just happens. Can’t make excuses, but end-to-end today, they beat us.”
The Illini entered the game with the country’s No. 2 most efficient offense, per KenPom.com. But they were anything but efficient. Along with its struggles from 3-point range, Illinois also shot just 13 for 30 from 2-point range.
“We fought, we fought, we fought, and had a very tough shooting night, especially at the rim,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. “We missed some shots that we normally don’t miss. It’s part of this game. The ball has to go in.”
The Illini played well defensively, holding the Huskies to just 35.5% shooting from the field. But Underwood acknowledged 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 misses.”
Illinois’ history includes losing an epic title game to North Carolina by five points in 2005 under Bruce Weber, a two-point semifinal loss to eventual title winner Michigan in 1989 and a pair of two-point Final Four losses in 1951 and 1952.
The Illini used their geographic proximity to Indianapolis — nearly 130 miles — to flex the most dominant fan base at 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 nearly five minutes, and the Illini clawed back into the game thanks to a flurry of free throws and a putback by Andrej Stojakovic.
But with the crowd engaged and UConn’s offense slumping, Underwood called a 30-second timeout after an Illinois make that cut the Illini’s deficit to four points. Antigua said the point of the timeout was to warn the Illini that UConn would pound 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 sealed. Reed finished with his 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 two more times — including Keaton Wagler’s 3-pointer with 44 seconds left that answered Braylon Mullins’ 3-pointer — but never got closer. UConn stayed composed 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 Ivisic had 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 usually make,” Ivisic said. “I don’t know how other way to call it than bad luck.”
