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 But cold shooting really wasn’t the
problem. After a huge victory over the Missouri Tigers in the annual
Braggin’ Rights game just a week ago, Illini Nation was hoping all
aspects of the Illini overall game were fixed and that Illinois was
now ready to pummel opponents at will. That’s not what happened in
this contest.
But some how, some way, Illinois slugged, clawed and scratched a
victory literally right out of the mouth of defeat. The Illini could
just never get anything flowing rhythmically on offense and their
defense seemed to be in chase mode all game long. One lady sitting
close-by may have said it best…it’s a good thing Leron Black came to
play today. And how! All Black did was score 20 points, pull down 11
rebounds, and get our guys’ heads back into the game when they kept
getting into a funk.
 Trent Frazier struggled but still managed to produce 14 big points
and Michael Finke added 9. The Illini needed every single one. And
those weren’t even the biggest points. With Illinois clinging to a
1-point lead and the shot clock winding down under 1-minute to play,
some how the ball landed in Da’Monte Williams’ hands. There was no
hesitation has he buried one of the biggest 3-pointers of his life.
Now you would think that if you out-rebounded an opponent 44-33 and
your bench outscored them 25-15, and you held them to 36% shooting
including 15% from distance that you would come away with a very
comfortable victory. And if that’s what you think, you would be
wrong. Dead wrong! This was supposed to be a tune-up for the
resumption of the Big Ten season. Instead the Illini were fighting
for their lives. [to top of second column] |
A friend asked me what I thought about the game and here’s what
I told him. I found out in my very first month of coaching
college basketball a very harsh truth. And here it is: An ugly
win is always better than a pretty loss! And though this ball
game was no thing of beauty, the Illini survive and advance.
Maybe there’s a silver lining that can be taken from this
slugfest. It’s exactly the kind of battles we will see nightly
in league play so maybe the Antelopes did us a favor. Although I
must say I prefer non-conference games where we are up by 20
points at halftime and I’m chugging popcorn and powerade in the
second half waiting for all my favorite walk-ons to get some
playing time. Nobody heeded my request in this game!
With another non-league victory the Illini’s record now stands
at 10-5. Things get menacingly more difficult in the days ahead.
For what seems like the 10th year in-a-row [is anybody
monitoring our Big 10 schedule???] the league office has given
Illinois a beautiful little gauntlet to run over the next couple
of weeks. The Illini will play 4 of the next 5 on the road…I
love our schedule makers-not!
Next up for the guys in orange is a trip to Minnesota to play
the red-hot Gophers. Here’s to keeping the winning streak going!
[By JEFF MAYFIELD]
Respond to the writer at
jeffqmay@gmail.com.
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