MDchicago
- Lake Norman NC
5. Wake Forest 2004 - Up by 32 against the #1 team in the country on national TV from a raucous Assembly Hall. Our first true taste of how that season would be.
Second true taste. The dominating performance the game before (leading by 31 points at halftime, and setting tournament records for assists (24 on 34 baskets), steals and 3FGs in a game) against #24 Gonzaga (Adam Morrison, Ronny Turiaf era) was just great basketball vs. a top 25 team and a precursor of what was to come.
"We were thoroughly dominated today, in every phase of the game," Bulldogs coach Mark Few said. "There were times it didn't appear we belonged out there on the court." Link
To tie it into a UCLA thread (Link), game was in the Wooden Tradition:
"After ripping through the #24 ranked Bulldogs, leading by 31 points at halftime, the Illini were presented with the Wooden Tradition trophy by none other than Wooden... On that day Wooden reaped rare praise for the exploits of the Illini, noting along the lines that he had not seen such a solid and selfless performance from a team in a long time. Wooden congratulated the efforts of players like Luther Head, Dee Brown and Deron Williams, and told Bruce Weber that he had himself quite a fine team. Despite the age gap, the Illini players soaked up Wooden’s respect for them, with Brown – the face of Illinois basketball – even genuinely hugging the old man."
Fear at the time was that they can't possibly play that well again the next game vs. #1 Wake Forest, but they sure did. Good times!
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