Remembering 2004-05: Illini make it 25-0

Remembering 2004-05: Not-so-super performance

Remembering 2004-05: Take that, Sparty!

Remembering 2004-05: Cool at Kohl

Remembering 2004-05: Working OT against Iowa

Remembering 2004-05: A milestone moment

Remembering 2004-05: A scare at Purdue

Remembering 2004-05: Big Ten opener's a blast

Remembering 2004-05: Illini braggin' but draggin'

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 unbeaten Illini waited until after a home win against Purdue to celebrate their Big Ten championship, even though it was old news.

Date: March 3, 2005

Headline: Bon Voyage — Illini hoping party lasts another month

By BRETT DAWSON

CHAMPAIGN — It had been an hour since he'd drained his last three-pointer of the night — a record-tying bomb from 25 feet — and the horde of reporters surrounding Dee Brown had trickled to a scant few.

Dressed in an orange Big Ten championship T-shirt, Brown perched on the corner of a table just outside the Assembly Hall press room and considered for a moment how much he'd like to be back in the building one more time this season.

"The Assembly Hall is a great place," Brown said. "It'd be wonderful to come back."

It was Senior Night on Thursday, Illinois romping Purdue 84-50 in its home finale to close the home half of one of the most miraculous Illini basketball seasons ever.

But a month from today, Illinois hopes to be playing for a national championship. And if it could pull that feat, Brown knows the Illini would return to the Hall for one more celebration.

"It'd be unbelievable," said Brown, whose eight three-pointers tied Kevin Turner's single-game school record. "We have to try not to think about that, because thinking about that just gives you the chills. It's gonna be tough, but I think we can do it."

So does his coach.

Top-ranked Illinois (29-0, 15-0 Big Ten) already has the Big Ten championship sewn up. It will shoot for a perfect regular season Sunday at Ohio State.

Weber has his eyes on a bigger prize.

"We told them, 'The next big date is April 4,' " Weber said.

That's the night of the national championship game.

Weber has designs on being there, and not as a spectator.

Why else would he circle the date on his calendar, the way he had circled Thursday's three weeks ago, when he told his team that's the night it should celebrate a Big Ten title?

Why else would his players be sporting T-shirts that read, "The Best Is Yet To Come"?

Thursday was a night to celebrate seniors and toast a title. Sunday might bring perfection.

Weber and his team want more.

"I think they realize that we've got a lot more to do," Weber said. "March just started, and we hope it's a long month for us."

It came in like a lion, with a slaughter of Purdue — Brown's seven first-half threes gave the Illini as many points at halftime as the Boilermakers would manage the entire game — and Weber hopes his team keeps roaring right into April.

Ohio State lies in wait, its best shot at national recognition coming Sunday when an un-defeated Illini team comesto Columbus for a game on CBS.

"Two weeks ago they started talking about us and our game and hoping we were undefeated when we came in there," Weber said. "Along the way, they've lost some games, so maybe they should've focused on somebody else."

For the Buckeyes, though, Sunday is the NCAA tournament.

For Illinois, it's a chance to make history.

"We used to talk about all the time that we were going to be tough to beat, with all the weapons that we have, all the players we had coming back," said Brown, whose 27 points Thursday were a career high. "But we never imagined being 29-0. You can't imagine that. It's amazing."

Weber couldn't have scripted it this way.

"It is kind of storybook right now," Weber said. "You just kind of hope it keeps going. That's why we told them, 'March 3 has passed, so April 4 is the next big date.' If you're playing that night, it really is a special season."

But Weber, a Big Ten vet-eran after 18 seasons working for Gene Keady at Purdue, is aware it already has been special.

"You pinch yourself sometimes," he said Thursday.

This is a coach who still can't believe the break he got from Keady 25 years ago, when Keady hired Weber at Western Kentucky.

He's a guy who, on the night he celebrated his second consecutive outright Big Ten title, recounted a time this season when during a recruiting trip, he got out of the private plane he had boarded in Cincinnati to help de-ice the wings.

"I wanted to live," Weber said.

So the coach won't big-time anyone.

But his team is as big-time as it gets.

One regular season win from perfection and six NCAA tournament wins from its ultimate goal, Illinois took Thursday night to reflect. A postgame highlight video drew smiles and high-fives, and each Illinois player snipped a strip of net from the goal at the south end of the Assembly Hall.

It was a fitting end to a perfect home season.

But in this storybook season, Weber and his team would like to write one more chapter at the Hall.

"We've talked about it a little bit," Weber said. "I hate to even bring it up, but that would be your ultimate goal, to have that special celebration at the end. We'll put some more nets up and cut 'em again."