I attended the game and was happy to have gotten to experience seeing the Illini back in the Final Four despite the loss. Keaton Wagler is just a special player. To do what he did on that stage against that type of defense. If not for him and Tomi, that game isn't even close b/c those shots were not falling. I'm going to really miss Keaton and wish we had longer to see him in an Illini uniform but he needs to move on to the next level where he is going to be a great player(maybe on the same level of Deron Williams in terms of All Star caliber). That Tomi we saw making 3's was the same Tomi from last year's two tournament games and really last year in general. It was nice to see him get his confidence back and be the Tomi we know he can be.
It was a low scoring game like I suspected it would be and UConn really imposed their will defensively and made timely three's and focused on getting the ball to Tarris Reed in that first half. But, despite being down 57-43, the Illini battled back, made it a game, and put themselves in position to engineer a full comeback but just couldn't hit shots in that final minute or two. Regardless, great season by our guys, I'm glad that it turned into a close competitive game and they atoned for themselves well. Nothing to be mad or ashamed about. Just wish all of the Orange and Blue could've had a win to celebrate. I do believe they would've gotten beaten pretty convincingly over Michigan which may have left a bad taste in a lot of our mouths similar to what happened in 1989.
Regarding the atmosphere, UCONN had their section of fans in the lower bowl next to the Illinois section and their student section(which was not totally full by the way and same was the case with Arizona's student section) but outside of that, there weren't many UCONN fans in the mid and upper levels. Their fans don't travel so well once outside of the northeastern part of the US. Arizona was a similar story with their section of fans opposite the Illinois section, maybe some more red spread out throughout the arena(it was hard to tell with the orange all throughout). Michigan had a fair contingent of fans spread out throughout the stadium but if I were to take a guess, out of the 72,000 fans that came, I'd say 40,000+ were Illini fans. So, they came out in droves and wish we could've left with a better result but that UCONN team is well coached and well established for making these types of runs now. I hope they can break through and beat UCONN for once in the United Center later this fall when they play again.
It's an experience I will always look on fondly as the stars don't always align to have our team play so close to home(whether it be Milwaukee last year, whether it be Indy or Rosemont or St Louis in 2005, or whether it be the Final Four this year)
