With this year being the 10th anniversary of the 2004-05 Illini men’s basketball team that finished 37-2 and lost to North Carolina in the national championship, I thought that there was no better time to reflect on that season and where that team’s leaders are today.

Despite not winning the title, this Illini team is regarded as one of the best teams of all time and was recently named “The Greatest Team to Not Win the National Championship” by a Sports Illustrated fan vote.

The team’s “Big Three” consisted of guards Deron Williams, Dee Brown and Luther Head. These three combined for more than half of the team’s points during the season, and made over 80 percent of the team’s three-pointers.

After the season, Brown was named Big Ten Player of the Year and was a consensus first-team All-American. Head and Williams were both selected as consensus second-team All-American and were both also selected to the NCAA Final Four All-Tournament Team.

We all know how great of a team it was, how talented the three guards were and how disappointing it was that they couldn’t pull off the finishing touches to an almost “perfect” season in the eyes of Illini fans. But what’s happened to that team’s stars since?

After the loss against UNC, both Head and Williams declared for the NBA draft, leaving Brown to finish his senior year at Illinois. 

Williams, who had the worst shooting statistics of the three, but led the team with 264 assists, was selected third overall in the draft by the Utah Jazz.

Williams has had by far the best career of the Illinois prodigies, having been selected to three NBA All-Star teams and winning three gold medals with Team USA. In his career with the Jazz and the Brooklyn Nets, he has averaged 17.4 points and 8.7 assists and he is the only one of the Illinois trio still playing in the NBA.

In the same year that Williams was drafted, Head was selected No. 24 by the Houston Rockets. 

Head was in the NBA from 2005-2011. He started his career with reasonable success, averaging 8.8 points and 2.7 assists per game in his rookie season. His performance was strong enough to help him make the NBA All-Rookie Second Team. He followed his rookie season with the best year of his career in 2006-07, averaging 10.8 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game.

Despite his strong sophomore campaign, the rest of Head’s NBA career was derailed by devastating injuries.

Last year, CB Valladolid, of the Spanish league, signed Head to a contract after he had played a season in China.

Brown had a strong performance during his senior year at Illinois and took most of the point guard minutes left by the absence of Williams. The Utah Jazz also drafted Brown, a year later with the 46th pick. 

The biggest impact that Brown ever made in the NBA was as a fill-in-starter for the Wizards when Gilbert Arenas was hurt. In his brief stint, he averaged 2.4 points and 1.9 assists.

Since, Brown has played for many different teams overseas including teams in Turkey, Israel, Italy, China, Puerto Rico, Latvia and Romania. Despite barely being in the United States, Brown has kept close ties with the University.

Maybe the careers of the three Illini stars didn’t end exactly where they had envisioned, but they all made memories in 2005 that will never be forgotten by Illini fans.

Kieran is a sophomore in Business. He can be reached at [email protected].