INDIANAPOLIS — Hunched over at his locker, elbows resting on his knees, his eyes red with emotion, Kylan Boswell was still trying to do the math. It just didn’t compute. He could never, in his career, remember as many shots hanging on the rim, rolling off, bouncing away.
Illinois’ magical run, this United Nations of basketball that melded international versatility with Big Ten physicality, hung by the thinnest of threads in the second half Saturday night. Illinois needed one more shot to fall. One more layup to go in. One more wide-open three-pointer to drop. That was all.
And still. From Illinois’ extraordinary number of great looks, the Illini gathered an extraordinary number of narrow misses in the 71-62 loss to UConn: 6 of 26 from long range, 33.9 percent overall.
“Today I had like three layups go in and out,” Boswell said. “It was unfortunate. I’ve never seen that before. I’ve never personally shot layups and they bounce in and out like they did today. But I mean, (stuff) just happens, you can’t make excuses. At the end of the day, they beat us.”
So this is how it ends. Illinois (28-9) cut a 14-point UConn lead to four, but never closer. That may just be how it works against a team that is now a game away from its third national title in four years. That may just be basketball.
“That’s all we talk about all year long. It’s margins,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. “They’re so small. Winning is really hard. Getting here is really hard. Winning is really hard. It’s why I have so much appreciation for Alex Karaban. He’s been to three of them. That’s freaky. It’s a rebound, it’s a loose ball, it’s a ball rolling in, it’s a banked three. One-possession game. It’s what that is.”
Illinois’ best chance came out of an Underwood timeout with five minutes to play. UConn big man Tarris Reed Jr., held scoreless in the second half, was able to get to the rim and extend the lead to six. Keaton Wagler had an open three at the other end that ricocheted toward the corner. Tomas Ivisic jumped sideways to fling the ball back into play, but right to Karaban. He fed Solo Ball for a run-out dunk, and that was that.
“National championship is the ultimate goal for everyone,” David Mirkovic said. “We all wanted it bad, don’t get me wrong. All the players, all the staff, we wanted it bad. But it’s already a big success to be in the Final Four after 21 years. I would say, just a great way for (the) future to follow this.”
“Take me to the Balkans!” Bill Rafterty famously screamed at one point during this run, and that was how Underwood built this team, with four Croats and Serbs to go with the leadership of Boswell, desperately trying to get to a potential title game against his former Arizona teammates, and the utterly unexpected brilliance of Wagler, an unheralded freshman who became an immediate impact player.
It was an odd mix, but the Illini hit their stride in March, denying Houston a return trip to the FInal Four, taking down Iowa for the second time this season to play in front of what was essentially a home crowd in Indianapolis, with Boban Marjanovich towering over the Illinois student section as he stood among them decked out in orange.
UConn’s only Final Four loss ever came under these circumstances, against a Big Ten team in a Big Ten city — to Michigan State in Detroit in 2009 — and the crowd lifted the Illini during the 10-0 second-half run that finally put the Huskies under some serious game pressure.
But the Illini scored a season-low 61 points against UConn at Madison Square Garden in November and could muster only 62 against the Huskies on Saturday. They scored only 52 against UConn in the 2024 Elite Eight, the three lowest-scoring totals of those three seasons. Saturday, they had only three assists on 19 made baskets, while every Illinois shot that rolled off the rim — including one that nearly stopped at the foot of it before tumbling down — seemed to have a UConn counterpart that went in, thunking off the glass or getting a triple bounce on its way in.
“You can’t get better shots than that,” Underwood said. “Just keep doing it. That was my message at halftime. Keep shooting those shots. We couldn’t get better shots.”
“If you want to put a contest together about good human beings, we’ll win. There’s no question what this group will be in life.”
—Brad Underwood
That left the Illini both bereft and considering their legacy afterward, having made it back to the Final Four for the first time since 2005. The pain of coming this close, of knowing how thin those margins really were, was dulled a bit by the realization of how far they had come. The coach in his first Final Four after a career travelogue he recapped in its entirety afterward: “Dodge City, Kansas; Macomb, Illinois; Daytona Beach, Florida; Kansas State; South Carolina; Nacogdoches, Texas; Stillwater, Oklahoma; and here.” A group of players from around the world who found a home in the heart of Illinois.
“This team gave me joy because they were about all the right things,” Underwood said. “If you want to put a contest together about good human beings, we’ll win. There’s no question what this group will be in life. As a coach, that’s why I got in this. Am I competitive? Does today stink? It hurts. My gut hurts so bad right now that I feel for all of them.
“But I’m also excited about the joy that we brought a lot of people in this run. We’ve got Illinois back to a level that they’re in Final Fours again, and my God, as long as I’m the ball coach, I’d better not take 21 damned years to get back there.”
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