Dee Brown

All right, thanks for having me.

So excited.

It's been so exciting, you know, walking around and seeing all the orange and seeing people just happy.

You know, I think Illinois basketball is a special place.

You know, people love it here in the state of Illinois and around the country.

But being here in Chicago, walking around, seeing the joy, seeing the gear, hearing the chants I-L-L, just...

It's an unbelievable feeling.

I'm just going to enjoy this moment because I know how hard it is to get here.

We have a really good team, a championship roster, so I'm just enjoying it and having a really good time talking about it and everybody bringing up the memories and what Illinois basketball means to them.

So it's a great time to be at Atlanta.

I mean, Brad and his staff have done an unbelievable job of identifying talent and guys that can come and play at Illinois and be very successful.

I mean, he's an unbelievable talent.

I mean, he's a Darren Williams-type point guard that has size and definitely was unrecruited.

I mean, not unrecruited, but he wasn't recruited to the highest level that he's supposed to.

So he plays with a chip on his shoulder, but...

We're able to get really good players at University of Illinois because now we have the money to do it.

And we have one of the best fan bases in the country.

And when you come there and play there, there's expectation to make it to the Final Four, win Big Ten championships.

So there's expectation.

So to get really good players, you know, to come in and do what they do, it's been very exciting to watch.