Listen to what former Illini and Utah Jazz star Deron Williams thinks of Illinois' chances here.

There are three states in the Union that Harry Frost has yet to visit. At some point today, the Paris resident can scratch Oregon off his list.

When the I-Fund donor saw Sunday that the Illini were headed to Portland for the first round of the NCAA tournament, he jumped at the chance to visit the Pacific Northwest.

"It's not a real convenient place to go," said Frost, who planned to fly out of Indianapolis this morning with wife Gladys. "But I've got a nephew in Portland that we're going to visit and we're going to take the opportunity to see some of the areas around the city."

The main purpose, of course, is to see the Illini play. Fifth-seeded Illinois will take on 12th-seeded Western Kentucky in a first-round game Thursday.

If the Illini win, the Frosts will be in the stands at the Rose Garden for a second-round game Saturday, but either way they'll remain in Portland until Monday.

"If they don't win, we'll probably just do some sightseeing," Frost said. "They've got some mountainous areas there and the coastline and so forth, so I think we'll rent a car and do some various things."

The Frosts are among few who will journey west to follow the Illini. The sputtering economy is keeping people away and nearly kept the Frosts grounded in Illinois.

"I knew that the support might not be that great out there because when we first looked to get a flight out, the cost was absolutely astronomical," Frost said. "We had to work and work and work, and finally we came up with something we thought we could live with. I thought at the time that there wouldn't be a lot of people going out because it costs so much to fly out and back."

A quick Internet search Tuesday revealed that a round-trip flight from Indianapolis to Portland would cost about $550. And that doesn't include hotel accommodations and the price of tickets.

If you're looking for tickets, be prepared to dip further into the bank account. According to a ticket official at the Rose Garden, the event is sold out for the weekend, leaving fans to either buy from scalpers on site or try their luck on the Internet.

At stubhub.com, single tickets for Thursday's second session featuring the Illini game and the Gonzaga-Akron game are being sold from as low as $148 to as high as $399. Tickets for all sessions are going for $589 to $1,236.

Gerald Marcyk, an Illinois alum who lives in Portland, scooped up some tournament tickets last July – long before anyone knew who might play there. But as the season progressed, Marcyk felt the likelihood of Illinois playing there increased.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Marcyk said. "I was anticipating it because I thought they were going to be a 4 or 5 seed and with two regions being played in Portland – the South and the West – we thought our chances would be like 50-50 of seeing the Illini play."

When Illinois played Oregon in Portland during the 2005-06 season, several thousand Illinois fans gathered for a pregame pep rally, according to Marcyk. Inside the Rose Garden, the Illinois cheers were louder than the Oregon cheers. But such an orange turnout isn't expected this weekend.

"There is an Illini Club of Portland and they have been trying to get tickets, but I don't think they've been successful," Marcyk said.

Fans aren't the only folks finding it hard to finance such a long trip given today's economic climate. The media following the Illini will be considerably smaller than in recent years. Money played a factor, as did the distance.

"You compare it with the all-time biggest media group in 2005 and we had well over 100 following us around, to this year it's probably going to be about 32 or so," Illinois sports information director Kent Brown said. "Several newspapers who have traditionally gone to the tournament are holding reporters back. Chicago television, which has traditionally followed us to the NCAA tournament, I'm not sure about WGN but I think WBBM might be the only of the four network stations going."