CHICAGO (AP) - The loss still lingers in Dee Brown's mind, and he doesn't expect it to go away.

Illinois spent most of last season ranked No. 1 and advanced all the way to the NCAA Final, only to fall 75-70 to North Carolina.

``I think about it all the time,'' Brown said during Sunday's Big Ten media day. ``Someone had to lose the game. They played better than us that day, and we move on. It was an unbelievable year for us, but we just have to move on.''

That time is now.

Despite having reigning Big Ten player of the year Brown back for his senior season, the Illini are relatively inexperienced. That explains why they were picked to finish second in the conference behind Michigan State in the preseason media poll.

Guard Deron Williams went to Utah with the third pick in the draft following his junior season. Luther Head - last season's leading scorer - and starting forward Roger Powell Jr. were seniors last season, as were reserve big men Jack Ingram and Nick Smith.

``Last year, we had a lot of notoriety, a lot of people watching,'' forward Brian Randle said. ``This year, people don't know what to expect.''

Some of that ``notoriety'' went to Michigan State, which returns four starters from a Final Four team, and coach Tom Izzo made little effort to deflect it. The Spartans have three of their top four scorers back after going 26-7, and Izzo said his team has a hunger he didn't see in recent seasons.

``When the players want to win more than the coach, that's a great sign, and I see that,'' Izzo said.

He feels ``better and worse'' than he did a year ago.

``I feel better that our key people are very confident, very stable,'' Izzo said. ``I feel worse that we definitely don't have the depth. We have more depth inside than we had last year, but no experience. And we have no experience or depth inside or outside in comparison to what we lost.''

He pointed toward guards Shannon Brown and Maurice Ager and said, ``Those two better have fuel every game.''

As Illinois looks ahead, the players and coach happily reflected on what happened last season - the 37-2 record, the 15-week stay at No. 1, the rally against Arizona in the regional final and the appearance in the championship game. There were also Big Ten regular-season and tournament titles.

For coach Bruce Weber, clips from last year's NCAA run stir painful and pleasant memories.

He can't help but smile when he sees his team rallying from 15 down to beat Arizona in the regional final and the unbridled celebrations that followed that game and the semifinal victory over Louisville.

And he can't help but analyze every play that went awry.

``I see things that I didn't remember - plays that happened, little things, guys jumping up and down, celebrations,'' Weber said. ``It may never happen again like that. The poise of our kids, that's the biggest thing. ... I don't think we rushed anything (against Arizona). We just kept our composure and slowly got ourselves back into the game.

``If you're writing a script it couldn't have been any better.''

Maybe that's why Brown isn't too disappointed to be back.

The 6-foot Brown returned for his senior season after breaking his foot during the NBA pre-draft camp. Short by NBA standards, he needed a good showing there to persuade league executives to select him in the first round.

``I feel like it was meant for me to be in college,'' said Brown, who averaged 13.3 points and hit 99 of 228 3-pointers last season. ``Not at all am I disappointed or mad at coming back. College is one of the most fun times of your life, and I'm having an excellent time at Champaign.''Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.