Illinois 90, Arizona 89, Epic Elite 8 Game, Happened 10 Years Ago Today
By Jason McIntyre
The greatest Elite 8 game of the 2000s happened 10 years ago today: Illinois 90, Arizona 89, in overtime. Dick Enberg and Jay Bilas had the call. Arizona was a live dog in this one – I was on the Wildcats, and had them in my bracket (I was only filling out one at the time) – and led for much of the game. There were several future pros on the court (the best being Deron Williams, who scored 22 points for Illinois). Anybody who watched this game will never forget the frenetic comeback by Illinois.
Channing Frye (24 points) hit a 3-pointer with six minutes left and the Wildcats led by 12. It’s this part in the video when I get goosebumps because if you were watching, you remember: It’s happening. The lead was 15 with four minutes left when … the great Illinois guard trio – Williams, Luther Head and Dee Brown – sparked a wild comeback.
Illinois trailed by eight with one minute left and … well, just watch, unless you’re an Arizona fan. The Deron Williams 3-pointer (3:01 in the video) is when bedlam erupts. Bilas, for maybe the first time in his announcing career, goes speechless.
As great as that game was, there was another thriller on that day in 2005 – West Virginia, led by Kevin Pittsnogle, went bananas (25 points) and the Mountaineers grabbed a huge early lead of 32-13, but Louisville stormed back in the second half, forced overtime, and won, 93-85. Bonus: Gus Johnson was on the call. Fast-forward to 1 hour, 15 minutes in for a wild final minute with screaming Gus.
Honorable mentions for greatest college basketball game played on March 26th …
George Mason 86, Connecticut 84 in the Elite 8 in 2006. I’ll never forget this game because we ordered sushi that evening, and I got an allergic reaction and my eyes started to swell up, so I had to pop a couple Benadryl and close my eyes and listen to most of overtime. I had UConn winning it all, so I was angry. Bonus: Verne and Raftery with a buzzer-beater to send the game to overtime.
Illinois 89, Syracuse 86, 1989. Ridiculous number of future pros on the floor (Sherman Douglas, Billy Owens, Derrick Coleman, Nick Anderson, Kendall Gill, Kenny Battle). Final game in the storied college career of Douglas. Owens was a freshman and man, I thought he’d be a special pro. Tommy Heinson (who was great calling basketball games in the 80s, and still does Celtics games today) was on the call with Verne. I loved this Syracuse team, it was one of my favorite ever. Problem was that I loved the Anderson/Gill/Battle trio, too. Want to see people making shots? Both teams shot over 50 percent for the game. Thank you, internet, for putting this entire game online. Here’s the Times write-up on the game.