and the Tar Heels are coming home the 2005 NCAA men's basketball champions........ Way to go, North Carolina!!!!!!!!!!!

It was kinda tough for me this year; North Carolina born, yet my son is in his first year at Ga.Tech! I ragged him after they got beat by UNC in the ACC tournament final. That day I just had a feeling UNC would go all the way.

Way to go 'Heels!

(From a MD Terp!)

Shoulda heard the Franklin St. commotion -- I could, from 2 miles away! Not a lot of teaching going to happen today! RDU will be the place to be! (A travel note, just to keep it Fodorish -- so if you're coming or going through RDU today, there may be some uproar there.)

>< \/

when they won in '93, i was in grad school at carolina and was part of the franklin st revelry.

last night, i was screaming all alone with kids asleep upstairs and a husband out of town for work.

i much prefer the former though it is fun any way you watch it.

yea heels!!!!

It is killing this old Demon Deacon to say so but...GO HEELS.

Well, as the only Illini fan, congrats, you out played us last night, or I should say May outplayed our big men last night (I'm still not convinced he's not a 30 year old in disguise!). HOWEVER, our Illini are better day in and day out and we couldn't be prouder of them. My husband is a die hard Tar Heel Fan and I have always been a Duke fan so this was a double blow for me last night, But thanks to Roy Williams for going to UNC so Bill Self left (good riddance!) and we got Bruce!

As I told my husband, the Cub fan of the family, after last night, I now know what Cubs fans have felt like for all these years!

P.S. GO Illini and Go Duke! There's always next year!

Amazing day!!!!!!!!!!! The sky is Carolina blue, and all is right with the world. I was there with friends at the Dean Dome last night, and it was never louder, even during a close Duke game. I am glad we got to play the top ranked team for the title last night. It makes it all the sweeter. It was also pretty cool for me getting to see my two alma maters play in the regional final last week. Also on a traveling note, I traveled all over Chapel Hill on the way to work and couldn't manage to find a copy of the Daily Tar Heel.

The sky IS Carolina Blue today, and to all the basketball analysts who had already crowned Illinois, you need to wipe your faces! The Tar Heels are the BEST, and as Bruce Weber said last night, nothing could be done about Sean May......... But Illinois is a great team, which makes this championship all the more meaningful. But the best team DID win....... GO TAR HEELS!!! We're singing *Blue Heaven* on Tobacco Road today!

Oh my. Bonniebroad--you actually think the analysts had crowned IL!!???? Who are you listening to?????????

I am so proud of the Illini and the fantastic season they've had. It's been so much fun watching this wonderful group of guys. Call my a sore loser, but I'm broken hearted that James Augustine played only 9 minutes because of ridiculous foul calls. Sean May is allowed to travel, charge, and shove his way to the bucket. JMHO

Congrats!

We are so disappointed, because this Illinois team really is a team to be proud of. They never act like anything else but a team, off and on the court.

As old as I am, I hope once before I die that any one of my teams come in first. Any of my teams, but especially baseball. We are always second. Out of 11, out of 50, out of 200 whatever sport or number involved, it's often been second.

From: the Second City

Sunbabe, Ill. had more illegal screens than Billy Packer could mention. Refs didn't get everything. Good second-half comeback by the Illini, but May counldn't be stopped.

Yea, Tar Heels!!! Bunch of light blue clad sleepy people at work today.

Funny, Billy Packer praised Illinois for their screens and picks in the first half. When IL made a run in the second half, all of a sudden everything became an "illegal screen" and all the Illini doubters jumped on the bandwagon.

Congrats to UNC. Like I said, call me a sore loser but I'm just a broken-hearted fan.

JJ5 - Just be patient. I am a huge Red Sox fan, and this has been an awesome half year for me. I take it you are a Cubs fan. Lots of us Sox fans are rooting for you.

The sky is Carolina Blue here in Virginia too! Agreed ncgrrl, I really needed that cup of coffee this morning.

Sunbabe, bad or missed calls cut both ways. It didn't change the outcome of the game.

OK,Bonniebroad, surely you jest when you say that all the media were on the Illini bandwagon!!!!!!! They were doubted and second guessed from the moment they were on the SI cover in the preseason! For pete's sake, Seth of CBS picked against them for EVERY game of the NCAA tourney (including picking them as one of the potential 1st round upsets!) and Packer didn't even know our team's players names last night "De RON Willaims" (it's pronounced Darren) PLEASE! This is the championship game and you can't even get the guys name right!!!! But then again it was Billy "Mr. ACC" Packer.

OK, that's my rant but really don't try to say that the media loved the Illini! The sports media loves the ACC, rightfully or wrongfully, and if UNC, Duke, UCONN, Syracuse or Arizona aren't number one (yes, I know those aren't all ACC teams), they have a stroke!

What comes around goes around.
UCLA was king of the hill for years.
Anybody seen blue Bruins in a final 4 lately? I haven't.

In the women's bracket, some funny things happened on the way to the coronation. Tennessee and LSU both got whipped by a couple of upstarts.

I agree that Illinois had too many doubters this year, but I was not one of them. Where does it say a great team has to come from a certain conference or even a good conference? St. Joes went farther than expected last year, UNLV could never have been confused for a team with a great conference, and the Big Ten was actually much better than all but a few this year and is usually very good.

What the prognosticators really got wrong was that UNC couldn't play defense, Illinois would win if the score wasn't in the mid-80s, Illinois would win if they made even 7 or 8 threes, and UNC couldn't win if it didn't stop offensive rebounds (I was in that camp). What they did get right was that Sean May was too much to handle. Felton was what made this team go though. He made an immediate impact every time he came back in the game. As for Billy Packer, he can be very pro- ACC at times, but he is detested by Carolina fans because he really doesn't like UNC very much. He doesn't like Duke either. He is also very critical of everything and rubs people the wrong way. At the Dean Dome last night, people started chanting "Woody, Woody" because they wanted to listen to Woody Durham (the Heels announcer) instead of Billy.

I happened to see the news on this for the last few weeks in two states, Michigan and Illinois, as I traveled and put in the pier etc. Michigan gets much more "east" highlights and talk, and the media rarely mentioned the Illini, except for the Coach Weber "talk".

And Illinois was never, ever considered a possible "winner" by any of the announcers I saw. They even picked Louieville on Sunday. And we would have won if the 3 shots would have been going down. Not!- last night.

And I am a White Sox fan, and not a Cubs fan. The Cubbies have the entire nation, they don't need me. But my father is a Cubs fan and he is 86. He doesn't have long to wait. He was actually at their last World Series choke in 1945 right before being shipped out to Italy. The Cubs are never going to win, because there is no incentive to get good players, when most of the people who come to your games and buy expensive tickets- aren't even looking at the game itself.

My Sox have finished in second place in their division for years and years. We get so little attention, that it isn't common knowledge outside of Chicago.
Or else they get to the playoffs- and get eliminated first 3 game tier. I don't have a lot more time to be patience. But at least I've got my grandkids going to the Cell all the time, so I know some of mine will get to see it eventually. If laws of probability hold true. I would take a 1959 at this point.

"Woody, Woody, Woody"

Would have preferred Woody Durham as the announcer (and I'm sure the Illini fans would have preferred their radio announcers). I tried to listen to the radio and watch the game, but the tv delay makes it impossible now. How about instead of Jim Nance and Billy Packer we have Dick Enberg and Len Emore.

I was at Wal-Mart earlier today and championship t-shirts are $10.83 ($12.83 for xxl and xxxl).