ST. LOUIS - Their seasons were all but over, their deficits too steep to overcome.

Somehow, Illinois and Louisville did overcome, though, and now they're at the Final Four, fully infused with the confidence that almost any obstacle can be conquered.

What did the Illini learn when they made a 15-point deficit with 4 minutes left vanish to beat Arizona in the regional final?

"That we won't give up, man," junior guard Dee Brown said.

And the Cardinals? Trailing by 20, up against a West Virginia team that was turning their regional final into a lopsided game of H-O-R-S-E?

"It's a never-give-up attitude," coach Rick Pitino said.

Illinois (36-1) and Louisville (33-4), who meet Saturday in the first national semifinal, are teams built for the comeback.

They have guards who can shoot the 3: Brown and Luther Head of Illinois each shot better than 40 percent. Taquan Dean of Louisville made 120 3-pointers this season, shattering DeJuan Wheat's school record by 23.

Those same guards can ratchet up the defense: Brown, the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, helped Illinois put on a press that smothered Arizona down the stretch. Louisville switched from zone to man to shut down West Virginia.

They both like to run and score quickly: Illinois averaged 75.9 points a game and played most games in the 70s and 80s despite playing in the brawny, defensive-minded Big Ten. Louisville scored 81.3 points a game and was able to score even when Pitino abandoned his vaunted pressure defense for a slower, more patient zone.

They have coaches who won't let their teams give up - Bruce Weber made his players look into his eyes late in the Arizona game and told them they hadn't come this far to let it slip away. At halftime against West Virginia, Pitino reeled off a list of great comebacks he had been involved in and said this could be next on the list.

"Sometimes, pressure is an amazing thing," Pitino said. "It brings out the best in people, and also the worst."

The Illini, making their first Final Four appearance since 1989, are out to fulfill a goal they set very early in the season. They were ranked first in The Associated Press poll on Dec. 6 and stayed there until the end. They were undefeated until March 6, and even the loss hasn't changed their frame of mind.

"It's a little bit of pressure off our backs, because everyone was expecting us to get to the Final Four," guard Deron Williams said. "And even us, we expected to get to the Final Four, and if we didn't, it would have been disappointing. But we still want to win the national championship, and it will be a disappointment if we don't win that."

Louisville is in a slightly different mode. Pitino thought his team had the stuff to win a championship. But playing in Conference USA, and trapped in a program still trying to rediscover its once-impeccable identity, it was hard to get others to believe.

Never was that more evident than when Louisville received a No. 4 seed in the Albuquerque Regional, a snub that, at first, motivated the Cardinals and now simply seems laughable.

"It takes getting out there and knocking on doors and telling people about what you're trying to do with the program once again, because the brand slips quickly," Pitino said.

Right now, the brand is going strong.

Louisville is winning behind the shooting of Dean, the all-around play of Francisco Garcia and the incredibly strong last four weeks from Larry O'Bannon, who scored all 24 of his points in the second half of the comeback against West Virginia.

While Louisville is making its eighth appearance in the Final Four, and seeking its third national title, this is the best season of basketball in the 100-year history of the Illini program.

Williams (12.6 points, 6.7 assists) has the looks of an NBA lottery pick. The rest of the starting five - Brown, Head, James Augustine and Roger Powell Jr. - have a good chance of joining him in the pros, as well.

They are five confident upperclassmen all playing a fast-paced style, facing a similarly confident Louisville team that also likes to run and shoot from afar.

"There's no doubt we're very similar," Weber said. "Probably good matchups for each other."