Take The Shot

He's an orange-haloed squawk box, a popinjay known for poppin' J's. But if Illinois guard Dee Brown needs a shooter's swing thought at this week's Final Four in St. Louis--where his 36--1 Illini will join Louisville, Michigan State and North Carolina--he can use his eyes, not his mouth, and behold the stainless-steel icon rising 630 feet from the Mississippi River basin. For what is the Gateway Arch, after all, but the flight path of a textbook jump shot writ large? � In a tournament defined by serial upsets, epic comebacks and the excitement (and TV ratings) of the 1990s, the Illini's Braided One isn't the only deadeye gunner hoping to shoot his team to victory this week, joining storied marksmen like Glen Rice ( Michigan 1989), Scotty Thurman ( Arkansas '94) and Richard Hamilton ( Connecticut '99). And if last week's heart-stopping finishes were a preview of what's ahead, such shooting heroics may again be required. Not in the tournament's 67-year history had three regional finals been settled in overtime, and never had two Final Four entrants staged such remarkable comebacks on the same day as Illinois (which erased a 15-point deficit with four minutes left against Arizona) and Louisville (which dug out of a 20-point hole against West Virginia).

"I didn't want to go down without a fight," said Illini guard Deron Williams after his four late three-pointers sealed a preposterous 90--89 overtime victory in Saturday's Chicago Regional final, a result that both Brown and coach Bruce Weber called "a miracle."

If you're looking for this week's shooting savior, all of the Final Four teams have at least one candidate, a player whose years of solitary work in sweat-soaked gyms and city parks could yield a national championship on Monday night. Louisville forward Francisco Garcia took 500 shots a day as a 16-year-old in a cracker box on 116th Street in New York City's Spanish Harlem. Michigan State forward Alan Anderson mixed free throws and jump shots during long solo workouts at DeLaSalle High in Minneapolis. North Carolina forward- guard Rashad McCants spent hundreds of hours on a neighborhood court in Asheville, N.C., launching J's from a crack in the concrete at the top of a spray-painted three-point line. By comparison Illinois's Brown is a sharpshooter arriviste, a once-ordinary shooter who has become a lethal outside threat.

"They say Chicago guys can't shoot because it's the Windy City and you play outside all the time," says Brown, a native of suburban Maywood, Ill., who grew up as a "thumb shooter"--so named because the thumb on his left (or guide) hand would apply additional force during his release. "A lot of thumb shooters are streaky because of the way the ball spins off your hand," he says, "but if I have the ball cleanly in my shooting hand, I feel like I can make it every time."

After correcting his all-thumbs style last summer, Brown has dramatically improved his shooting this season from the field (from 41.1% to 50.7%), the three-point line (34.6% to 45.0%) and the free throw line (67.1% to 76.6%). "Dee's just learning now that he can be a great shooter," says Ernie (the Shot Doctor) Hobbie, a Wilmington, N.C.--based shooting coach who worked with Brown at Weber's camp last June. "Watch his shooting hand and how he finishes high every time. And see how his nonshooting hand stays out of the way? I call that hand the Devil, which is why I say, ' Dee Brown has killed the Devil!'"

"Reaching into the cookie jar" is the image Brown uses to describe the goose-necked follow-through--sometimes exaggerated for full showboating effect--that helped him hit eight three-pointers in the Illini's wins over Wisconsin- Milwaukee and Arizona last week. And while Brown swears he's "not on the same level" as shooters like Arizona's Salim Stoudamire and Duke's J.J. Redick, the gap isn't as big as he claims. "Dee's had stretches when it seemed like he didn't miss for a week," says Illinois forward Jack Ingram, who adds ominously for his team's opponents, "When we make four or five shots in a row, we're like, Even if you guys play your best game, you have no chance tonight."

Much like Louisville, their semifinal foe this Saturday, the Illini rely heavily on their three perimeter stars ( Brown, Williams and Luther Head), but the Cardinals use different means to obtain shots for their outside trio of Garcia, Taquan Dean and Larry O'Bannon. While Illinois can free up its shooters in transition and out of its motion offense, Weber says, "we don't get much out of kickouts because no one respects our big guys. I don't think anyone's doubled our post all year." Louisville, on the other hand, likes to set pro-style pick-and-rolls for Garcia, who at 6'7" could be a matchup nightmare for the Illini.

As a freshman playing alongside former Cardinals star Reece Gaines, Garcia mainly spotted up for three-pointers--he once hit eight against Cincinnati--but two years later he has developed an effective mid-range jumper to combat the increased attention from opposing defenses. And while Garcia first developed his stroke while playing with his uncle, also named Francisco, in their native Dominican Republic, he has modeled his shot after the picture-perfect form of his best friend, Dean. The two used to spend hours shooting in Louisville's practice gym, often packing sleeping bags and the pizza deliveryman's phone number to make a night of it. "Taquan just kind of flicked the ball," Garcia says. "It looked so easy for him, so I tried to do the same thing."

Like Brown, however, Garcia has struggled at times to deal with the Devil, a.k.a. his meddlesome guide hand. "From a textbook standpoint his left hand is way too forward on the ball, but he's adapted to that and perfected it to where his off-hand doesn't bother his shot," says Cards assistant Reggie Theus. "Whatever happens in the mechanics of the stroke, his release is flawless."

Though Garcia's shot may not be 9944/100% pure, the Tar Heels' McCants certainly has the Ivory seal of approval. We know this because everyone says so, whether it's North Carolina coach Roy Williams ("It's the perfect form because it's so simple"), our man the Shot Doctor ("He reminds me a lot of Glen Rice") or McCants himself. "I have to be a little cocky about this one, but I think my form is pretty perfect," he said with a sheepish grin after going 3 for 6 from the arc and scoring 21 points in Carolina's 88--82 win over Wisconsin in Syracuse on Sunday. "The only person whose form is a little bit better is J.J. Redick. He is literally, unbelievably perfect, and mine is right behind his."