Three great guards add up to Final Four for Illini

CHICAGO -- That's why Illinois has 36 wins, and counting. That's why Deron Williams can average 12 points per game and still be perhaps the best player in America. That's why Dee Brown is the snarling face of college basketball. That's why Luther Head, not Williams or Brown, spent the last month of the season getting dogged by the other team's best defender.

Senior Luther Head is one of three dominant Illinois guards. (Getty Images)

That's why people say Illinois has the best three guards in college basketball this season, and why people ought to start wondering if Illinois has the best three guards in college basketball in any season.

Illinois trailed a confident and loaded Arizona team by 15 points with less than four minutes remaining Saturday. Yet Illinois, not Arizona, won 90-89 in overtime. Illinois, not Arizona, will play Louisville next week in the Final Four.

Why? Williams, Brown and Head.

That's why.

Arizona was ahead 75-60 with 3:50 to go when Williams, Brown and Head put on a nine-minute dissertation on All-American guard play. The trio scored 28 of Illinois' final 30 points, including 20 in a row as Illinois turned that 75-60 deficit into an 80-80 tie that forced overtime.

In that 3:50, Williams, Brown and Head took 10 shots. They made eight.

Down 80-72 with 57 seconds left, Head hit a 3-pointer. After an Arizona turnover, Brown drove for a layup. After another Arizona turnover, Williams hit a 3-pointer.

Nineteen seconds had elapsed. Head, Brown and Williams had scored eight points.

"Luther hit a 3, we got a couple steals, and I'm not sure what happened after that," Illinois coach Bruce Weber said. "It's just a complete blur."

A cruel blur. When it was over, Arizona's best player Saturday, Hassan Adams, was left without the strength to take off his own shirt.

Devastated by his last-second miss to end overtime, Adams tried to peel off his Arizona jersey but couldn't do it. Halfway up, his arms gave out. Then his legs followed. To escape Chicago's happiest sports scene since Michael Jordan was a Bull, Adams collapsed into the arms of Arizona teammate Mohamed Tangara and assistant coach Rodney Tention, who shuffled the sagging Adams off the Allstate Arena floor and into the Wildcats' locker room.

Arizona freshman Jawann McClellan, who missed an open shot that would have won it in regulation, tugged his jersey over his head and bawled. Channing Frye didn't bother hiding his tears. Ivan Radenovic gripped his head with both hands.