Remembering 2004-05: UI 89, Gonzaga 72

Remembering 2004-05: UI 87, Delaware State 67

Remembering 2004-05: UI 92, Lewis 61

Remembering 2004-05: UI 78, Southern Illinois-Edwardsville 58

Remembering 2004-05: N-G front pages

Remembering 2004-05: Midnight Madness

Remembering 2004-05: Orange & Blue Scrimmage

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: In our continuing series on the five-year anniversary of the 2004-05 Final Four Illini, a look at the win that sent Illinois to No. 1 in the polls, where they stayed until a title-game loss to North Carolina.

Date: Dec. 1, 2004

Headline: One-derful! Illinois rout shakes up hoops scene

By BRETT DAWSON

CHAMPAIGN – For one night, this town was the center of the basketball universe.

And Illinois' 91-73 rout of Wake Forest on Wednesday provided one heck of a college hoops big bang.

The fans cheered – and "booed" and "Luuuued" and "Bruuuuced" – the band blared, and when the orange dust settled, Illinois had utterly dominated the nation's top-ranked team.

The obvious question in the Wake (er, wake) of Illinois' destruction of the Demon Deacons: Is anybody better than the Illini?

"I don't know what to say," Illinois guard Dee Brown said. "After that performance, you tell me."

Ask the 16,618 hoarse fans who packed the Assembly Hall and chanted "We're No. 1" as the final seconds ticked.

Ask the national audience that watched on ESPN.

Or ask the Demon Deacons, who came in keepers of their first-ever No. 1 national ranking and left to echoes of 'overrated!'

"If I had a vote?" Wake center Eric Williams said. "I'd put them No. 1 for sure."

Whether the Illini were good enough Wednesday night to catapult to that spot is up to coaches and writers who vote in the national polls. And it's up to the Arkansas Razorbacks, who get the opportunity to rain on this parade Saturday.

But for one chilly December night, Illinois was the hottest team anywhere.

"It's not the end of the season," Illinois coach Bruce Weber said. "I hope we've got 30-something more games. It was a great test to see where we are. We performed well. But now there's a lot more tests to come."

The thing is, Illinois can't seem to get tested.

Wake Forest came to town as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

"Challenge" is right there in the name.

But the game was a laugher before halftime. Even with Luther Head's 80-foot heave (barely) missing at the first-half buzzer, Illinois led 54-33 and never was threatened.

The Illini are winning their games by an average of 23.4 points. Their last two opponents – both ranked when the games tipped off – have lost by a combined 35 points.

"They haven't had any game pressure all year," Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser said. "We had it to 17 with a wide-open three, and maybe (if) we make that it puts a little game pressure on them. We didn't, then they make a three and it was all damage control after that."

Illinois did plenty of damage, hitting 11 three-pointers, dishing out 27 assists and leading by as many as 32 points.

The Illini did plenty of controlling, too, holding Wake's heralded backcourt duo of Chris Paul and Justin Gray to 21 points - almost 10 below their combined average - on 7-for-27 shooting.

The got balance (19 points from Roger Powell Jr., 16 each from Brown and Head) and gave their coach little room for complaint.

"The first half, when it was key, we had the edge on the rebounds," Weber said. "We were good in the offense, we were good on the Matto (hustle) chart. We were pretty good tonight."

Maybe as good as anybody has been this season.

Prosser passed on the chance to anoint Illinois the nation's new No. 1 team, saying hehasn't seen enough of the competition to hold a coronation.

And the Illini mostly dodged the question of whether they're the nation's best team.

"I'm gonna leave that up to you (media) guys," Head said. "Y'all are going to do your job, I hope. We're just going to keep playing hard."

They're also playing hard to catch.

Illinois has played 200 minutes this season. It's trailed for 7 minutes and 51 seconds. The Illini never gave up the lead against Wake Forest.

"We made a statement that we are pretty good," Brown said. "We're one of the best teams, if not the best, in the Big Ten. Hopefully we're one of those teams that are going to make some noise come March."

And March is where the Illini are keeping one eye.

Weber reiterated in his postgame news conference that his goal is to have a No. 1 or No. 2 seed for the NCAA tournament, and he called Wednesday's win 'a big step' toward achieving that goal.

But it was more than that, he admitted.

It was a showcase for his program, a game that had been hyped since the start of the season and a matchup widely regarded as the best the ACC/Big Ten Challenge had to offer.

In short, it was a commercial for the Illini. And Weber rolled out a winning product.

But that doesn't mean the Illini can't be new and improved by the time conference play – and more importantly the NCAA tournament – starts.

On one night, Illinois was as good as anyone.

But, Weber cautions, it was only one night.

Asked if he coaches the nation's best team, Weber shook his head and smiled.

"I don't know about that," he said. "Today, maybe the best, but that was just today. .. We did well, but that doesn't mean we're a finished product. At least I hope not."