Illinois knocks off Indiana – winning
streak at 11!
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[MARCH
13, 2004]
Playing their hated rivals from Indiana in yet
another Big Ten tourney match-up between the two teams, the Fighting
Illini survived a great second half scoring assault from the
Hoosiers and dumped their neighbors to the east, 71-59. Illinois
needed monster games from guards Luther Head and Deron Williams in
order to keep their current winning streak alive. The Illini have
not lost since the week of the “Dean Scream”, winning eleven
straight, and now move into the semi-finals of the conference
tourney for the seventh straight season. Illinois will face
Michigan on Saturday afternoon, and game time is set for 12:40 p.m.
on CBS channel 3. Michigan held off a late Iowa charge and beat the
Hawks 79-70.
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Early on, it
looked like Illinois might blowout the Hoosiers, as they jumped out
to leads of 11-3 and 14-5 behind strong scoring from Head. The
junior from Chicago scored 10 of the teams first 14 points and
Indiana seemed confused about how to shut down the Illini. A 10-0
run by the Hoosiers actually gave them the lead at 15-14 and the
Hoosier faithful went crazy. Indiana walk-ons Mark Johnson and Ryan
Tapak continued to provide great inspiration for role players
everywhere as they both followed up strong Thursday performances
with excellent efforts again on Friday. Both scored early and
continued to make the most of the opportunities coach Mike Davis has
provided during this tourney. Illinois’ Williams looked sluggish
early in the game, and after the game coach Bruce Weber let us know
why – Williams was vomiting eight minutes before the game and
battling the flu.
Illinois seized
control of the game for the rest of the first half, running out to a
28-17 lead behind strong outside shooting. Four late points from
Indiana’s heart and soul, A.J. Moye, reduced Illinois’ lead to seven
at the break, 28-21. Illinois was led in the first half by Luther
Head’s 10 points, while super sophomores Dee Brown and Williams only
combined for seven first half points. As the teams entered the
tunnel, this game seemed an awful lot like last year’s tourney game
against Indiana where Illinois built a huge lead only to barely hold
on by one. Unfortunately, the second half of this game would provide
similar drama and beg Illinois fans to ask, “what ever happened to
blowouts?” The
second twenty minutes began well for the Illini, as they maintained
leads between nine and thirteen points for most of the first eleven
minutes of the half. Head was amazing as he easily shattered his
career scoring mark of nineteen. In fact, Head matched his career
high in the second half alone on his way to a game high 29 points.
Indiana, however, had no intention of rolling over and playing dead
and took a 47-35 Illinois lead at 9:45 and went on a 17-5 run to
catch Illinois at 52 all with just under six minutes to play. The
Hoosiers scored on seven straight possessions and had this writer
wondering if Friday night dinner plans at Guzzardo’s was still a
possibility (I know one adult in the Taylor family who would have
endorsed that plan). Seriously, I turned to my friend Jeff Mayfield
and predicted Illinois was going down (thankfully I’m no prophet).
[to top of second column in this article]

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The turning point of the game came
shortly after this as coach Weber called 20 second timeout to steady
his team. I have wondered many times aloud who the “Brian Cook of
2004” is for the current edition of the Illini. The answer came
yesterday afternoon in very clear and understandable language.
Illinois turned to Williams and Deron simply refused to allow his
Illini to lose. The Texan would score ten of his teams next eleven
point and 12 of their final 19 as Illinois ended the game on a 19-7
run and won by twelve. Williams finished with 20 points and also
dished out 7 assists. The heroes for Illini were definitely Head and
Williams, but the Illini also received strong bench play from
juniors Nick Smith and Jack Ingram and freshman Rich McBride,
Lanphier H.S. graduate.
Illinois survived against Indiana, but
will have to play much better to win two games in the next two days.
In fact, Michigan looked as good as anybody for the first 32 minutes
of their game with Iowa. But the bottom line is this: Illinois beats
Indiana for the fourth time in five BTT games, Illinois extends
their winning streak to eleven and keeps alive the drive for their
second straight BTT title

Seven questions on my mind as Illinois
moves into the semi’s:
1. Has another player in college basketball improved more year one
to year two than Deron Williams of Illinois? He is looking very much
like he has surpassed his more famous and renowned former H.S.
teammate Bracey Wright of Indiana.
2. Why did only 16,000 plus show up for Friday’s first session to
see two great rivalry games? And less than 16,000 for the evening
session? Where are all the fans – both sessions were well under the
18,500 capacity? It sounded like Illinois and Iowa had a ton of
fans, but where are the Blue and Maze faithful?
3. Where in the world is Split, Croatia? I ask because it seems like
a dozen Big Ten players list this as their hometown? Should the LDN
and/or CITV schedule an on-site visit to Split for Taylor and
Mayfield?
4. Where will Illinois go for the NCAA’s and have they locked up a
#3 seed? I’m hoping for a Milwaukee/St. Louis ticket.
5. Has any major D-1 coach ever turned to two walk-ons in the
postseason and had it turn to gold like we saw these past two days
with Mike Davis and Indiana? Maybe Hoosier fans will lay off this
guy for a couple of weeks (probably not).
6. Can I get a promise from the Big Ten that Gene Monje will not
work anymore Illini games this season?
7. How exactly did at least 12 of the 22 media members voting on
postseason awards think Bill Carmody out-coached Bruce Weber this
year? Sorry, Carmody is a great guy, but I’m not seeing it. Weber is
definitely coach of the year in my book!
[Greg Taylor]
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