The Illini Fall to the Buckeyes for the Third Time.

Mike Davis pulls in 18 boards and Demetri McCamey adds 22 points, but in the end it wasn't enough for the 5 seed Illini to beat the top seeded Buckeyes of Ohio State, falling 81-88 in double-overtime.

"I couldn't be more proud of our kids." were Weber's opening words, and I echo the sentiment completely. The team you watched today was nothing like the team who lost the final two games of the season... in fact neither was the team you saw yesterday either. "In a week I think they grew up, they matured, they competed". Something about this March Madness had Weber's squad up for the challenge... and it was a big one.

The game opened with a ton of energy on both sides, and the result was sloppy play... it's not that the players weren't paying attention, I just think the adrenaline was over flowing. By the time we had figured it out, Ohio State had run to an 8 point lead. But like any good Bruce Weber team, don't count us out until the whistle blows. Not only did the Illini fight hard to make up the ground, at one point we brought our own lead all the way out to 11... Then Evan Turner woke up.

The current Big Ten player of the year has been proving all weekend that he was the right selection. Whether it was his 40 foot buzzer beater yesterday, or it was his 31 and 10 today, when the kid decides he is going to score he is almost impossible to stop...