SAN DIEGO — Now that the travel kinks have been worked out, Illinois coach Bruce Weber hopes his team's NCAA Tournament experience will run a little more smoothly.

The task of reaching the West Coast involved a few minor hitches, keeping the Illini from reaching their practice site on schedule Tuesday.

Last season it might have garnered national attention when Illinois was the No. 1 overall seed. This time around it's just a humorous anecdote for a team that is one of the crowd, a No. 4 seed that opens at 6:25 tonight against Air Force at Cox Arena.

"We couldn't get on the plane because the stairs had a malfunction," Weber said. "So we were late, and when we got here the bus broke down. It was like a Three Stooges movie. But everything is fine. We had a great practice and had some fun. We went out to dinner and they seem to be loose."

The Illini will be scrutinized considerably less this year than 2005, when they were expected to make a run at the national championship. No one is sure what to expect from this group.

Loose can be good, but Weber wants that to be mixed with a sense of extreme urgency. It's an element he has yet to witness on a consistent basis, and one that was lacking in the Big Ten Tournament against Michigan State.

If anyone should have that feeling, it's Dee Brown and James Augustine, who know their careers will end with the next loss.

"I feel that we want to accomplish a lot," Brown said. "I think we got the toughest bracket with a lot of good teams on our side. Last year expectations were high, but I think they're just as high this year."

There was discussion Wednesday about how the Illini are an underdog this season. Not against Air Force, but to accomplish anything close to what they did a year ago.

Augustine seemed to buy in to that theory, so he was bothered to hear one reporter suggest that the Illini might have the easiest matchup of the opening round.

"Last time around, I think there was a little more pressure on me and Dee," he said. "This year we are an underdog. We're putting the pressure on ourselves. We want to get back to the Final Four."

Weber said he felt extreme pressure entering last year's tournament because anything short of a Final Four appearance would have been viewed as a disappointment.

The Illini might not have the team they did in 2005, but they clearly have an advantage in experience. Brown and Augustine have played in 11 NCAA Tournament games each.

The rest of the players are short on postseason minutes, but Rich McBride has played in nine tournament games and Warren Carter has appeared in eight. Brian Randle and Shaun Pruitt also have limited experience. They were all around for last year's run, and Weber considers that an edge.

Air Force, on the other hand, has four players who faced North Carolina in a first-round loss in 2004.

"Our experience is an advantage, but it's a team thing and can't just be two guys," Brown said. "You just try to tell the young guys how hard they have to play and how much they have to want to win. It's our job to deliver that message."

Weber hopes to instill that message in his team - one that hasn't quite stuck at times, including the last two weeks.

He called a timeout during the regular-season finale at Michigan State and threatened to remove starters from the game if they "weren't going to play." He delivered a scathing message at halftime of the Big Ten quarterfinals, but it was too little, too late.

"I hope they're a little angry and a little disappointed in how they played," he said. "You need a little bit of that going into the tournament."

And if he doesn't think that feeling is present in the locker room before the game?

"I may have to scream a little bit and I don't like to do it," he said. "I had to last week and I can't let it slip by this time. We'll have the typical motivational speech. ... I'll have to do it all. There are no more days after this."

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