INDIANAPOLIS — It was almost as though time had stopped for Illinois six minutes into the second half of Saturday’s Final Four semifinal against UConn at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Andrej Stojaković’s put-back attempt rolled around the rim before coming to a dead stop on the back of the basket as everyone in the massive football stadium held their breath and waited for gravity to make a call.

In or out? Up or down?

Make up your mind.

In the end, the ball eventually decided to come down off the rim and into the hands of UConn’s Alex Karaban, another in a series of missed opportunities for the Illini in a heartbreaking 71-62 loss.

It was a difficult end to a delicious season that gave Illinois fans a chance to realistically dream about a national championship. Once again the dream was deferred, though this year’s group showed it’s not far off.

UConn, which survived Sunday on a legendary last-second 3-pointer by Braylon Mullins, played almost error-free the entire game, making no turnovers over until 6 1/2 minutes into the second half and only four on the night.

Coach Dan Hurley’s team advanced to its third title game in four years, in search of the Huskies third national title in that span, and will play the winner of the late game between Michigan and Arizona.

The Huskies took control from the start, gave the Illini a brief lead in the first half and took several body blows in the final minutes to stave off a collapse. Illinois made a late run after trailing by 14 with just less than 10 minutes left, and Keaton Wagler’s spinning layin cut the deficit to four with a minute and a half left.

The crowd was mostly Illini fans, and the stadium was rocking in anticipation of a dramatic comeback, shades of the 2005 Elite Eight win over Arizona.

Mullins answered with an arching 3, and Keaton did likewise on the next possession, making it look like the two precocious freshmen were playing a game of H-O-R-S-E in the driveway, ignoring their mother’s call to come in for dinner.

But Silas Demary Jr. hit a pair of free throws, and the Illini just ran out of steam.

Wagler led the Illini with 20 points, but Illinois shot a miserable 34% (19 of 56) from the field and 23% (6 of 26) from 3-point range.

Wagler said Friday that the game plan was relatively simple.

“We’ve got to go in there with the right mentality of being the more physical team, hitting the other team first,” Wagler said. “We can’t go out there and get bullied.”

But that was easier said than done.

UConn had shot a combined 1 for 13 over a seven-minute stretch midway through the first half to let the Illini take a brief one-point lead on a Tomislav Ivišić’s 3 with eight minutes left. But Illinois couldn’t take advantage of the Huskies’ benevolence.

When Karaban ripped the ball out of Wagler’s hands with a little more than four minutes left in the first half and led a fast break that resulted in Mullins’ three-point play, the Huskies were the bullies Wagler had been warned about. UConn recovered from its prolonged shooting slump to regain its bearings, eventually increasing its lead to 10 points on a Mullins’ 3 with 47 seconds left in the half before heading into the locker room up 37-29.

It was almost a rerun of the game in November when UConn beat the Illini at Madison Square Garden. The Huskies also went on a memorable 30-0 run two years ago in their Elite Eight matchup in Boston to coast to a 77-52 win, though none of the Illini players were around for that one.

Illinois’ season was a lot like the Stojaković’s shot that hung forever on the rim, with moments when everything looked up and times when the Illini looked down and out. They certainly didn’t have the right mindset in the Big Ten Tournament, blowing a 15-point second-half lead against Wisconsin and losing 91-88 in overtime. It was their fourth overtime loss in a nine-game stretch and led to questions about a lack of a killer instinct.

“It was tough, but it gave us a lot of time to prepare for this tournament,” Wagler said. “And it gave us a sense of urgency that we’ve got to be focused to go on a deep run in this tournament, especially on the defensive side.”

The journey Illinois took to get to Indy is likely to be copied by many other programs, thanks to the performance of the Balkan players who quickly meshed with home-grown players such as Wagler, Kylan Boswell and Jake Davis. Recruiting in the NIL era is a different animal, and the European players were looking at Illinois as a brand that has proved its success the last few years.

“Well, it’s speed dating,” Underwood said Friday. “I think the one thing that we have done is instead of spending four years recruiting a kid, we’ve just dove in headlong into what is important to us. We have four pillars, as we call them. It’s positional size, shooting, basketball IQ and character.”

The key date in Illinois’ rebrand was Nov. 8, 2017, when Morgan Park senior guard Ayo Dosunmu signed a letter of intent to play for Underwood. The Illini went from 21 losses to 21 wins in his sophomore season in 2019-20, and only the season-ending pandemic spoiled a chance to play in the NCAA Tournament.

Still, disappointments have been the norm at this time of year. The Illini have suffered some painful tournament losses in the 50-year span from 1975 to 2025, including to 14th-seeded Austin Peay in 1987, to 12th-seeded Dayton in 1990, to 14th-seeded Tennessee-Chatanooga in ’97, to 12th-seeded Western Kentucky in 2009, and to eight-seeded Loyola in 2001, when they were a No. 1 seed.

Playing in a Final Four game was a rarity for Illinois, which advanced this far only two other times times since the field was expanded to 32 teams in 1975 — the 1989 team that lost to Michigan 83-81 in the semifinals and the 2005 team that beat Louisville in the semis before losing to North Carolina in the championship game.

The ’89 loss in Seattle’s Kingdome by the team dubbed the “Flyin’ Illini” would be relived forever in Illini lore. Sean Higgins’ put-back of a missed 3-pointer with two seconds left ended a thriller that saw 33 lead changes. Would the Illini have beaten Seton Hall in the title game had they gotten past the Wolverines?

You can’t rewrite history, just as you can’t control gravity.

Sometimes the ball just doesn’t bounce your way.

Wagler was asked Friday what it would mean to Illini Nation if this was the team that ended the drought. He replied that he thought the Illini won “a long time ago,” before being corrected. It’s a logical mistake considering the school’s long history of talented teams.

“To be able to do that would mean a lot to the community, to fans, to coaches, to everyone,” Wagler said. “It’d be amazing and would help out this program a lot.”

It might happen soon, but Wagler, the best Illini player in years, figures to be in the NBA by then.

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