4:04

I swear to you the game was over when there was 4:04 left on the clock and the score was 75-60 in favor of Arizona. My dad left the room in disgust, while I battled a sick feeling in my stomach. To watch their magical season and see it come to an end like that, it just wasn't right. Destiny couldn't be like that.

I stared at the "off" button on my TV remote control. It's a green button on the top right corner.

Deron Williams nailed a three-pointer to make it 75-63, but I still didn't really care. My finger was on the little green button.

And then things started happening, some weird shit. As a lot of the Illini players put it, it was all a "blur". Luther Head stole the ball at halfcourt and made a layup to bring them within 7 points and I said, "Dad?"

My dad was in the other room, smoking and pissed off. He couldn't hear me. And as far as I was concerned, the game was still out of reach. Although I was proud of the Illini guys for fighting back and showing they had pride, I still hadn't considered the fact that they could actually win.

But then with about a minute left in the game, Luther Head nailed a three-pointer and I said, "Dad?"

Mere seconds later, the ball was again stolen at halfcourt and Deron Williams flipped the ball over to Dee Brown for the layup and I jumped up and down and screamed, "DAD!" My dad lazily walked back into the room, saw that the score was now 80-77, and asked me what the hell just happened.

I couldn't put it in words. I couldn't describe it. My heart pounding, my dad putting out his cigarette, we waited for more to happen. And "more" came in the form of the stiff called Jack Ingram, who stole an inbounds pass and tipped it over to Dee Brown, who passed it to Deron Williams. Deron, orange-and-blue ice water in his veins, he calmly sank a three-pointer that brought the game to overtime.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Speaking of history, I think it has to rank way up there on the list of Greatest Ever Comebacks. Right up there with the '92 Chicago Bulls, who came back to win it after trailing 15 to start the 4th quarter in Game 6. Right up there with yesterday's Louisville Cardinals, who came back from 20 points down to beat West Virginia. Right up there with last year's Boston Red Sox coming from 0-3 in the series to beat the Yankees. But when you factor in what was at stake and the enormous pressure and the time it took to do it, what happened last night can be described as miraculous. Those '92 Bulls had 12 minutes. Louisville had a whole second half. Shit, the Red Sox had 4 games.

But last night's Illini had 4 minutes and 4 seconds. 4:04. 4 minutes and 4 seconds to make something of their lives. 4 minutes and 4 seconds to prove all the naysayers wrong, to justify their hype as being a "team of destiny."

I've been watching basketball since I was 8 years old, a lot of basketball. I've probably watched about 70% of every Bulls game since 1990, and every March since 1992 I've tuned in to saturate myself with college basketball's Madness. I've watched more basketball than most people, and I've got to say that last night's game was the most incredible thing I've ever seen.