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 The Wolverines dictated the pace and tempo of the
game. They possessed it extremely well, and when they went to the
basket late in the shot clock they got fouled and made their free
throws. On defense, they were just up in U of I’s kitchen and
contested every shot only allowing one shot per possession.
The Illini on the other hand was broke on offense. They did not have
the kind of movement that they needed. There was no flow or
continuity with the offense. Shot selection was poor, and shooting
percentages were basically non-existent.
With three minutes and some change left in the game, it looked
virtually hopeless as the Illini were down by seven points and
hadn't shown much all night. There was no reason to believe that a
comeback was in the making. Luckily for us, Malcolm Hill, Kendrick
Nunn as well as a host of others felt otherwise.
 The one thing I will say for the Illini is that I felt the defense
overall was pretty stingy all night long. By completely shutting
down the Wolverine offense the last few minutes of the game and into
overtime the Illini at least gave themselves a chance to escape with
a much-needed victory.
U of I clawed and scratched its way back to get within three with
just a little bit over a minute to go. When they found Kendrick Nunn
in the corner for a three-point field goal, he swished and allowed
the game to be tied at 50. After that, both teams traded bogus
possessions and really didn't get off what I would call good high
percentage shots. In fact, Michigan threw a desperation pass with
less than five seconds to go that was picked off by the Illini's
Rayvonte Rice. Rice was immediately fouled, and so the Illini had
about three seconds to see if they could muster anything. A quick
pass came to Malcolm Hill, who dribbled from about the free throw
line to the half court timeline. He threw up what looked like a ball
on track, but it bounced off the rim and into overtime we went once
again. [to top of second column] |
In the overtime, it looked like the Illini were energized and
that the Wolverines were out of gas. Kendrick Nunn made his way
through into the paint a couple of times making free throws.
Nanna Egwu came alive with about six points, and I don't know
how many rebounds. I think on the night he had 12 which was a
season-high and four vicious blocks and Rayvonte Rice got a
couple of buckets himself. In the overtime, the Illini ended up
outscoring the Wolverines 14-2 and finished the game on a 21-2
run!
On the night, the Illini were led in scoring by Kendrick Nunns
21; Malcolm Hill had 11, and Ahmad Starks had 12. And let's give
Starks big props and kudos. In the first half, when the Illini
was just broke offensively and scored only 20 points, Starks had
nine of them. I would say that Starks has been pretty steady for
the Illini over the last three weeks, and we need to give him
props for that!
Michigan, on the other hand, is one of the few Big Ten teams
that can feel the Illini's pain. They themselves have had lots
of injuries and roster situations that have caused them to start
a lot of different lineups and play lots of different
combinations on the floor. That being said; no one's going to
feel sorry for them, but it certainly makes you wonder what
could be if they had a full complement of players. The ones that
did play last night seemed to be really gelling together. I mean
who would have thought that Max Biefeldt would end the night
with 12 points and seven rebounds.
[By JEFF MAYFIELD]
Respond to the writer at
jeffqmay@gmail.com.
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