Opponents also each other’s biggest fan

SAN DIEGO – Everybody knows Illinois guard Dee Brown, from his energetic style to his ever-present headband.

How about Washington’s Brandon Roy, the Pac-10 player of the year? How widespread is the fame of a guy who plays in the Pacific Northwest?

Apparently it reaches all the way to Champaign, Ill.

“I know their team and I know their style of play because I watch a lot of NCAA basketball and the Pac-10 because they come on around midnight,” Brown said Friday.

Brown has been impressed with what he’s seen on the tube, and today he gets to see it in person when the fourth-seeded Fighting Illini (26-6) play the fifth-seeded Huskies (25-6) in the second round of the NCAA tournament. The winner reaches the Washington Regional.

The Illinois and Washington players spoke glowingly of one another Friday.

“Roy’s got terrific game and is a great player,” Brown said. “I can’t wait to get on the court and play against him. Roy’s shining now, and he’s always been shining.”

Roy said he’s been watching Brown, a four-year starter at Illinois, for several years.

“I’m a big fan of Dee Brown,” Roy said. “He’s the heart and soul of that team and he’s the first guy we’ve got to stop.”

Roy displayed his all-around game in Thursday night’s win over Utah State. He scored 28 points, hit four 3-pointers, and added five assists and three steals.

The 6-foot-6 senior from Seattle was named the top player in the Pac-10 by averaging 19.6 points and 5.8 rebounds. He led the Huskies on an eight-game winning streak to end the regular season, before the Huskies were shocked by Oregon in the conference tournament.

Illinois forward Brian Randle expects to draw the assignment against Roy.

“He’s as complete a player as you can get, really,” Randle said. “He’s 6-6, strong, he can post up, he can put the ball on the floor and shoot. I’ve been watching him since probably his sophomore year, when I was still in high school.

“He’s a matchup nightmare for anyone, so I’m just going to try to contain him and go from there.”

The Huskies’ main challenge will be against Illinois’ size inside, with Randle, James Augustine and Shaun Pruitt.

“We’re very concerned about them on the glass,” Huskies coach Lorenzo Romar said. “But not only that, they do a very good job of getting the ball inside to those guys. Those guys catch it, they do something with it. They produce down there.

“We don’t want it to be a situation where half their points are coming from getting the ball inside or rebounding the ball inside,” Romar said.

Both these schools were No. 1 seeds last year. UW lost to Louisville in the regionals, while Illinois went on to reach the national championship game, where it lost to North Carolina.

The Illini have the chance to advance to the regionals for the third straight year.

“I think it puts you in an elite group,” coach Bruce Weber said. “If you can do it a third time, it gets you more on that national level, that consistency, getting that exposure. … Getting to the tournament’s big, but getting to the Sweet 16 and getting to the Final Four, each step is such a huge commercial for your program.”