Remembering 2004-05: Chicago gets taste of No. 1

Remembering 2004-05: UI climbs to No. 1

Remembering 2004-05: UI 91, Wake Forest 73

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 2004-05 Illini, Bruce Weber's gang extended its Braggin' Rights win streak but had to break a sweat in doing so.

Headline: Holiday Stress — Illini celebration tame after first real scare

Date: Dec. 22, 2004

By BRETT DAWSON

ST. LOUIS – It's supposed to be the other reason to celebrate this week, cause to parade around the court, maybe to pop a cork or two. A reason to party.

But Illinois' post-Braggin' Rights celebration here Wednesday, after a 70-64 win against Missouri, was relatively tame.

"We're happy to win," Illini guard Deron Williams said after his team continued its stranglehold on the series, winning a fifth straight against the Tigers. "Mostly, we're tired."

The Illini will celebrate this week with their families, unwrapping presents and feasting on home-cooked food.

On Wednesday, though, they left the merriment to the orange-clad among the 22,153 fans in the Savvis Center.

Fact is, the top-ranked Illini (11-0) didn't feel much like celebrating.

Not after their hardest-fought, most physical victory of the season.

It was uglier than the Illini hoped. It was closer than anyone expected.

And it was tiring.

"I think they enjoyed getting the trophy, they enjoyed the atmosphere," Illinois coach Bruce Weber said. "But we got in the locker room and it was more like a relief."

Small wonder.

Illinois, a model of offensive efficiency all season, shot like someone spiked the nog, tying a season low by shooting 42.3 percent from the floor and firing mostly blanks (5 of 20) from three-point range.

And though Illinois' defense was mostly steady, limiting Mizzou to 37.7 percent shooting, it was wobbly enough to allow Tigers sophomore Linas Kleiza a 25-point night.

So hold off on the fireworks.

The Illini were smiling when the buzzer sounded, but the ear-to-ear grins you've come to associate with a Braggin' Rights win were hard to find in the postgame.

"We're happy to get a win, yeah, but we didn't play our best basketball," said forward Roger Powell Jr., who battled Kleiza and foul trouble and finished with 14 points.

"Any time one guy scores 25 on you, you can't be happy about that. We have some things to work on."

But not today.

For a few days, at least, Weber and his players will focus their attentions elsewhere.

They'll scatter for the holiday, some heading to Champaign, others to their families' homes.

But they'll come back to practice Sunday with work to do.

"If we had lost, it would have been hard to enjoy Christmas, but you still have to value the time you have with your family," said Williams, who sat out last season's Braggin' Rights game with a broken jaw but on Wednesday had 19 points and five assists. "Still, it makes the break a lot better. Now we get to really enjoy it and come back and get to work."

Weber will focus on fine-tuning his team's motion offense. And he'll show his players the film of Wednesday's game, of how for the first time this season they didn't make the extra pass, didn't stay in constant movement at the offensive end.

"I thought defensively we were pretty good," Weber said. "We just have some things we can tighten up offensively."

Weber wasn't ready to push the panic button, not after a win against his biggest nonconference rival. The Illini weren't perfect. And after building a 15-point halftime lead, they allowed a 6-5 team that's struggled offensively all season to creep back into a game.

Hardly reason enough, Weber said, for a blue Christmas.

Not on a night when Luther Head scored 20 points, Illinois stared down foul trouble and survived and the Illini won for the 25th time in 27 games.

"We still won," Weber said. "We made free throws, we took care of the basketball and made enough plays down the stretch. I think everybody's a little disillusioned by all the other scores. But at the same time, did we play great basketball? No."

His players recognized that fact.

"I think we have a higher standard this year, so even though we're happy, we know we could've been better," Williams said. "But I think that's a good thing."

So does Weber, who was happy not only to have a game film with which to instruct his players on what they're doing wrong but was pleased that his players' postgame celebration was tempered with a dose of disappointment.

"If they're satisfied with this tonight, somebody's going to catch up to us," Weber said. "I think it's good to hit some rough bumps in the way."

It's even better, the Illini said, to do it with a win.

So the celebration was mild.

It doesn't make the break any less merry.

"We'll take wins how they come," said guard Dee Brown, who pitched in 11 points and five assists despite sustaining a deep thigh bruise. "If you play college basketball, you should understand the emotion and the intensity those (Missouri) guys came out and played with.

"That was a big win for us. We're a little disappointed (with how we played), but I get to go home and see my family and see my son. Right now, I'm a little sick, a little hurt, but you should see me when I get back to Chicago and see how I feel."