Deron Williams led the Illini's furious comeback to advance to the Final Four. Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
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Dearest basketball gods:

Oh how we praise thee for the way you've blessed us this NCAA tournament. You've given us Vermont, Bucknell and Wisconsin-Milwaukee. You've bestowed upon us Julius Hodge and Salim Stoudamire, Mike Gansey and Kevin Pittsnogle. You've treated us to a quartet of Elite Eight classics we never would have dreamed of in our wildest imagination.

In light of that generosity, it seems selfish to ask you for one more favor, but please try to understand -- we've been waiting four months for this one. Looking ahead to next weekend's Final Four, could you possibly bless us with the national title matchup so many of us have been anticipating all season, that's one round from becoming reality? Please, oh powerful ones, give us Illinois-North Carolina.

Please, wise sirs or madams, do not take this request as a sign of disrespect to Final Four participants Louisville and Michigan State. Both earned their tickets to St. Louis, and either would be a worthy champion were they to win two more games.

It's just that the possibility of an Illini-Tar Heels clash has been brewing in our minds from the time Dee Brown and Co. put that whupping on Wake Forest during the early stages of their 29-0 start, and from the time Sean May and Co. started making 30-point victories a habit. Sometime in December, someone decided these must be the two best teams in the country, and it's stuck since.

Now, as you, the all-knowing ones, are well aware, we in the media tend to anoint two such teams every year. And pretty much every year at least one of them fails to make it to the Final Four, thus rendering our season-long debate over their respective merits moot. The last time two No. 1 seeds met in the final was Duke-UConn in 1999, and even then, the Blue Devils were considered the favorite (which, of course, didn't stop them from losing). Being the best team during the season doesn't necessarily guarantee you a title. We're more than happy to hand the trophy to whoever wins those final six games because if they do, it means they earned it.

You've teased us by letting the two anointed ones make it to the Final Four. We picture the two lightning-quick squads racing up and down the floor, Deron Williams and Raymond Felton going toe-to-toe in transition, Rashad McCants and Luther Head exchanging dagger 3s, Brown and May making one big play after another, and we can't help but foam at the mouth.