Things Looking Up for Illinois

Coming as it did between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, there’s nothing else to call Illinois’ astonishing comeback against Arizona but the Resurrection.

Sorry to throw a little church talk amid the box scores, but the Illini’s 90-89 overtime victory in the Chicago Regional final Saturday was the basketball equivalent of a religious experience.

And this game -- as good a contest as you’ll see -- should be enough to convert any remaining nonbelievers who don’t think the NCAA tournament is the best event in sports.

If 45 minutes of heart and hustle, clutch shots and big stops weren’t enough, there was the aftermath, when Allstate Arena was filled with emotionally spent players, giddy alumni, crying cheerleaders and exhausted coaches.

This was so much more than a group of basketball players somehow overcoming a 15-point deficit in the last four minutes of regulation. This was about a team that has captured a state’s heart, led by an embraceable bunch of kids and a grief-stricken coach whose mother died two weeks ago in the midst of the Big Ten tournament.

And after bringing this wonderful, one-loss season back from the brink of elimination and earning a berth in the Final Four, it seemed they’ve also been blessed from above.

Illinois forward Roger Powell, a Pentecostal minister who just happened to be the team’s most aggressive player all afternoon, pointed a finger skyward.

Guard Dee Brown said, simply, “It was just meant to be.”

And Coach Bruce Weber, 15 days after losing his second parent, said: “My mother was looking down upon me and our team tonight.”

If Weber’s voice seemed hoarse and emotional, well, it has sounded that way ever since he had polyps removed from his throat as a kid. The way to measure the game’s impact on him was through the moisture in his eyes and the sweat stains on his blue shirt.

As he stood on the court and waited for a television interview, serenaded by the orange-clad throng in the stands that chanted “Final Four,” his knees buckled. His eyes turned upward, and it was clear he was gazing someplace far above the arena’s wood-paneled ceiling.

“The two people I wish were here were my mom and my dad,” Weber said, alluding to his father who died of a heart attack in the late 1980s. “They sacrificed so much to get me to this position.”

He also expressed remorse that retiring Purdue Coach Gene Keady never got to go to the Final Four himself. Weber spent 18 years as an assistant at Keady’s side. The combination of that experience and his upbringing produced a coach who forged a heady, unselfish team, a group that has followed his lead and not been afraid to publicly set its sights on St. Louis, the site of this year’s Final Four.

That’s what made their hole seem even deeper when they trailed, 75-60, with four minutes remaining.

An area desperate for a championship ever since Michael Jordan removed his Bulls jersey for the last time in 1998 has latched onto these hoopsters from the state school downstate.

As the Final Four drew closer, St. Louis’ signature Gateway Arch has popped up on so many T-shirts and newspaper boxes that it must have been embedded in the players’ heads, like Devil’s Mountain haunting Richard Dreyfuss in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”

“There was definitely a lot of pressure,” Illinois guard Deron Williams said. “We made that pressure, because we set the goal of getting to the Final Four this year. Pretty much everybody expected it, the way we played this year, the fans, analysts, everybody. It was a lot of pressure, but we’ve been playing well all season. We were able to get it done today. We were able to fight back. And that makes it that much more special, the way we won with that comeback.”

He started it with a three-pointer at the 3:52 mark and ended it with a three to tie the score with 38.5 seconds left. In between there was a furious barrage of three-pointers and steals and fastbreak layups and then, before they had it all figured out, they were cutting down the net.

“I still don’t know what happened,” said Luther Head, who scored 20 points despite a bad hamstring.

Arizona had its own agendas: Lute Olson’s ongoing crusade to gain respect for Western basketball, and Salim Stoudamire and Channing Frye were trying to avoid becoming the first senior class since 1988 to leave campus without at least one trip to the Final Four.

The Wildcats overcame the hostile environment (there couldn’t have been more orange in the building if Illinois had played Oklahoma State) and basket-less first half by Stoudamire to build the lead, thanks largely to the all-around play of Hassan Adams (21 points, eight rebounds, five assists) and Frye (24 points, 12 rebounds six blocked shots).

Arizona didn’t completely collapse -- the Wildcats did make three of their four free throws down the stretch -- but they coughed up four turnovers in the final three minutes, then couldn’t get a good shot off at the end of regulation and overtime. “This game was played at a high level with unbelievable passion and intensity,” Olson said. “We had our chances and we didn’t close them out. On the other hand, they had their chances and they hit big-time shots.”

That’s why it should be remembered as a comeback, not a choke.

“No matter what happens, we’re fighters,” Illinois’ Brown said. “Now we’re in the Four. It’s unbelievable.”

Miraculous, even.

J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.