Memory Lane: Weber's Final Four Illini get started

Take a stroll down Memory Lane here

EACH WEEK, WE'LL TAKE A LOOK BACK AT A MEMORABLE MOMENT IN ILLINI HISTORY, THANKS TO THE WORDS OF THE NEWS-GAZETTE

This week: WThere was a time when Illinois kicked off the basketball season with, well, simply basketball. No volleyball was necessary to get the crowd pumped for the start of the 2004-05 season.

Headline: Former Illini happy to pass torch

Date: Oct. 16, 2004

By Brett Dawson

CHAMPAIGN – Dee Brown and Deron Williams are, without dispute, among the best and most productive guard tandems in Illinois basketball history.

But even put together, they have some work to do to catch Bruce Douglas.

During a spectacular two-year run, Brown and Williams have totaled 636 assists. That''s still 129 short of the number Douglas ran up by himself in a four-year career.

Douglas was at the Assembly Hall on Saturday for Illini Basketball Madness, the season tipoff during which he and 19 other former Illini were named to the school's all-century basketball team.

And though Douglas was happy to look back at the past, it's clear he has a keen appreciation for Illinois' point guards of the present.

"To have great teams that can compete every year in the Big Ten, you have to have a great backcourt, and I think that their success has really shown in their team," Douglas said of Brown and Williams, who have 54 wins to their credit. "I think that both of them have really unique skills in their ability to see the floor, their ability to make plays and to show up every night. I think that's the kind of leadership you have to have to have championship teams."

Douglas should know. He was the point man on Illinois' 1984 Big Ten championship team that finished a game shy of the Final Four. It was that leadership – not to mention the school-record 765 career assists – that put Douglas on Illinois' all-time team, decided in part by fan voting.

"There's nothing I can express in words to say how much it means to know that years later people still appreciate you," said Douglas, who lives in Woodridge and works as a manager at ComEd and as a youth minister. "When you look back in life, the only thing that really matters is what people think about you. Only time can be the test. So for me, it's been a blessing."

Douglas is looking forward to a return to campus in January, when he'll attend Illinois' 100th anniversary reunion.

"I'm going to get myself in shape for the alumni game," he said. "You get excited when you come out here. You come to some reality that you can't do some of the things you used to do, but you do look forward to doing some of the things you can do."

What he used to do was dish out assists. Lots of them. Douglas' career total is 263 more than Kiwane Garris, who finished second in school history.

Williams, who has 330 assists through two seasons, and Brown, who has 306, represent the biggest threats to Douglas' career mark, but they have a long way to go to catch up.

"Somebody will break those records," Douglas said. "Records are made to be broken. I surely wasn't trying to set them. I was going out playing to win, and I think if (Brown and Williams) focus on winning, they''re going to have an opportunity to break them, too."

Board, not bored

Fans stayed entertained during Saturday''s festivities thanks in part to Illinois' new state-of-the-art Daktronics scoreboard.

The four-sided board featured video introductions for the men's and women's teams and was used to show highlights of the all-century team.

Beyond that, it looked cool.

"It's huge, especially when you stand next to it," said Illinois coach Bruce Weber, who first saw the board before it was raised to the Assembly Hall rafters. "I was worried it was going to be too big, but it's fine. It doesn''t distract you. It's very aesthetically good for the arena."

The board, which isn't yet ready to display live video (that capability should be in place in time for the season opener), also draws the eye toward brand-new banners in the Assembly Hall.

There's one more to add, of course. Weber said Illinois will raise last season's Big Ten championship banner early, perhaps before one of the Illini's two exhibition games.

As for the scoreboard, Weber reiterated what he said during the summer about its presence: As sharp as it is, it isn't enough to lock Illinois into a long-term stay at the Assembly Hall.

"If you're going to remodel, that's a key piece to it," Weber said. "If you don't remodel, you take it with you."

Leaps and bounds

Smart money was on defending champ Brian Randle. Newcomer Calvin Brock was causing some buzz. Heck, even Fred Nkemdi was generating some premadness noise.

Old man Luther Head wasn't hearing it.

The senior guard used a couple of nifty off-the-glass slams to claim Saturday's dunk competition, returning to the perch he earned early in his career.

"I had to go out with a bang," said Head, who topped Roger Powell Jr. in the finals. "It's my last year. I couldn't let them outdo me this year."

Head almost didn't try to stop them.

"He didn't want to be in the dunk contest," Weber said. "He said, 'No, no, no.' I said, 'You're a senior; you're going to regret it if you don't,' and he ends up winning it. He got back his title that he lost to Brian Randle."

Tri, tri again

The last time Rich McBride was in a three-point shootout, he was a high school sophomore. And things didn't go his way.

"I was in the state contest when I was a sophomore," McBride said. "I advanced to Peoria, but I didn't make it past that. I got knocked out early."

If he had three-point shooting demons, they're exorcised after Saturday's performance.

McBride blazed through the two rounds of sharpshooting, knocking off Brown in Saturday's final by knocking down 11 threes in 30 seconds.

"I was just letting 'em fly, and they started going in," McBride said. "The crowd started getting into it, and that got me going a little bit."

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