CHAMPAIGN  Used to be, Seth Brady would listen to Mark Johnson''s speeches and wonder about his coach''s sanity. Or at least his coach''s wide-eyed optimism.

   "His goals were really clear," said Brady, a University of Illinois senior. "Where he wants to be in five years ... in a position to win a national title."

   They''d sooner see a pink elephant crossing Florida Avenue, no doubt.

   "Back then, it seemed like, unbelievable," Brady said. "And then slowly over time, you come to believe it. You come to believe in yourself."

   Believe this: Five years after Johnson grabbed the reins of a downtrodden program, Illinois heads to the NCAA Championships this week in Cedar Falls, Iowa, staring at a possible top-five finish.

   If it''s top four, the Illini will be floating  not driving  back to Champaign-Urbana.

   "We talked all along that we wanted to get a trophy (top four)," Johnson said. "And we''re very capable. We''re right there."

   That hasn''t happened since 1948 when the Illini were third.

   They''ve never won a national title.

   But at this pace, can a championship be far away?

   "The hard part is over," said Johnson, who spent eight years as an Iowa assistant before coaching Oregon State two seasons. "I''d never been involved with a team that was outside the top 10 before here, except maybe for my first year at Oregon State.

   "Next year will be a little bit of a rebuilding year because we''ve got so many seniors now. Will it be difficult to take the next step? Yes. But not as difficult as it was to turn around."

   Turning it around involved raising expectations.

   "The expectations for performance and competition were just so much lower," said Steve Marianetti, a UI national champion in 1995, now a UI assistant coach. "An exceptional wrestler back when I was in school would be mediocre right now.

   "Right away when he came in, he kept talking to me all season. ''What place are you going to take at nationals? You''re going to be an All-American, right?'' That wasn''t even a thought when I first came here. Maybe way down the road. But I never thought I could do it that quickly.

   "Our program now has very high expectations and because of that our athletes begin to live up to those expectations."

   Turning it around involved recruiting the ripe Illinois prep ranks. Now 32 of the UI''s 37 wrestlers compete in their home state.

   Turning it around involved eliciting a commitment from the university. Five years ago, the UI moved into a refurbished third-floor room in Huff Hall, casting aside the IMPE Building.

   Turning it around involved finding an indefatigable leader like Johnson.

   But Illinois'' quest for a national championship involves keeping him.

   Rumors have persisted that Johnson would skip town at the end of the season and seek the Iowa job. Longtime coach Dan Gable is mulling retirement.

   Johnson says he''s staying at Illinois.

   "I think I have a commitment from the university and I think you''ll find in the next few days ... me signing a multi-year contract," said Johnson, who works under one-year contracts at the UI. "There''s a lot of talk about me going to Iowa. I need to squelch those rumors.

   "I want to do it at Illinois. I''m going to sign that darn contract. I''m an Illinois native (Rock Island) and I like it down here. I need to be able to recruit and say that I''ve signed a multi-year contract."

   "He''s been committed to the idea of Illinois becoming an entity in itself instead of exporting all its talent," Brady said. "That''s the kind of picture my recruiting class got when we got in here."

   The quest for a national championship involves keeping those high school standouts in-state for four more years. And that figures to get easier, Johnson says.

   "Now the kids don''t know anything other than Illinois is good. They''re not going to remember that Illinois wasn''t a power because they''re too young. The seniors now, they were the ones we had to (recruit) without being successful."

   And perhaps most important, the quest for a national championship involves getting past Iowa, the most formidable roadblock in college wrestling. The Hawkeyes own 16 national titles, six in the last seven years.

   Can Illinois become the next Iowa?

   "No question, that will happen," Johnson said. "When Gable leaves, they''ll come back to the pack. And really we''ve already caught them."

   "A lot of it (involves) starting now," Brady said. "The past champions build other good teams. You know, like a competitive base where everyone''s really good and the one that rises to the top amongst the team is the one that makes it. They always say champions make champions."

   Illinois probably won''t win a national championship this week. Two years from now, four years from now, six years from now, it might be a different story.

   And Brady, fourth on the UI''s all-time victory list, won''t be around. But he''s betting that Johnson and an NCAA trophy will be.

   "Mark is always saying, ''People, you have no idea what it was like.'' It was real exciting to climb that ladder," Brady said. "I guess I''d rather be here now, in a position where I was one of the charter members, instead of being down the road and just getting another chapter in the story."