SAN DIEGO – Jamar Smith blamed his turnover for Illinois’ season-ending loss to Washington. Brian Randle said the game fell apart when the team stopped getting the ball to James Augustine. There were hints – but no outright claims – that the officiating was biased.

Only Dee Brown blamed Dee Brown.

“I was just trying to execute the play. It was broken, so I was trying to make it work,” Brown said of the three-point heave he hoped would keep the season alive. “Jamar was supposed to come off a single screen and another single screen, but he wasn’t open. The play was drawn up for our shooter to come off the screen and shoot.”

With Smith tied up in Washington defenders and the seconds flying off the clock, Brown tossed the ball up for a bucket that could have tied the game and sent Illinois to its first overtime contest of the season. Instead the ball thudded against the backboard, Washington won and Illinois headed home to watch the rest of the tournament on television.

“I’m just thinking about the game, what I could have done to help us to win,” Brown said after the loss. “You always have to look back and think about it.”

Illinois’ season ended with a 26-7 overall record. It was a success in many ways, but a far cry from the Final Four or at least Sweet Sixteen finish many fans and analysts predicted.

Illinois finished tied for second in the Big Ten regular season. It lost its first game of the Big Ten tournament. And it let its own foul trouble put its final opponents in a position to win.

“We can’t blame anybody but ourselves,” Randle said. “Today I think we had two evenly matched teams, and Washington came out on top.”

But the Illini have not let every close matchup slip by them. Early in the season they muffled their loudest critics by defeating North Carolina in Chapel Hill. They also beat Georgetown, another team that pulled out a loss against the Duke team that claimed every headline all season long. They played a tough regular season schedule in which the best teams in the Big Ten did not travel to Champaign, and managed to top Michigan State at Assembly Hall and the Breslin Center before falling on a neutral court.

“I think it was a success,” Randle said. “We didn’t get a championship or go to the Final Four, but in terms of what we wanted to accomplish, we made some strides.”

Strides are all that can be asked of a team rebuilding the way Illinois was in 2006, but that doesn’t mean that’s what the players will settle for. With memories of 37-2 and a national championship hanging over their heads, the Illini have set their sights much higher than surviving the first game of the tournament – and missing that goal is what hurt the most.

“(This season) was successful in many ways, but coming from Illinois, knowing what success is, it’s hard to see this as successful,” Brown said. “But 26-7 is a great record for people not putting us in their top 10 all year.”