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 Playing Northwestern with a chance to knock you out of first place
is such a game. It worried me because I believe spoilers like
Northwestern are playing games like this one with house money. They
can be loose as a goose and play unfettered basketball. And when you
play without the weight of the world on your shoulders you can win
games that you shouldn’t and pull off devastating upsets.
Luckily for the Illinois Fighting Illini, there was still enough
fight in them at the end to stave off a pesky bunch of Wildcats,
73-66 before a sold-out crowd of 15, 544 patrons at the State Farm
Center Sunday afternoon. Kudos to the crowd who slogged through
snowy conditions and then kept cheering and yelling loudly even when
Illinois’ play did not deserve or match the fan-level of intensity.
The Illini finally executed some stuff that they hadn’t most of the
second half, converted some critical late free throws, and made
enough defensive stops to eventually take care of business in this
one.
And thank God, for R.J. Melendez. For some reason the freshman wing
from Puerto Rico, got some early minutes and splashed two big 3’s
that helped the Illini to a 14-point first half lead. And as big as
those shots were, they weren’t nearly as important as his converted
free throws down the stretch where he went a sparkling 6-for-6 from
the charity stripe!
Illinois did not play a very good second half of action. And on the
day, they committed a very sloppy 20 turnovers that almost led to an
excruciating loss. They did out-rebound the Cats but that might not
be saying enough.
Three Stars
#1) Alfonso Plummer - In what was a very close vote & I almost broke
the tie by splitting my own vote & giving it to R.J. Melendez-but
that top spot today goes to Plummer. It was so good to see Alfonso
back in the groove with his stroke as he tallied 19 points on
5-of-11 3-point shooting. His first half offensive explosion helped
the Illini build a big lead that some how they were barely able to
hold on to.
#2) R. J. Melendez - electrifying, inspiring, and motivational are
just three of the adjectives I would use to describe R.J.’s Sunday
play. To say we would’ve been in trouble without him would be the
understatement of the season. To say that he came up big or clutch
wouldn’t even be accurate. [to top of second column] |
He was HUGE! 16 points, 6 rebounds, and 6-6 from the ft line -
all career highs! But what really has me excited is the vision I
have for how good he could be. My reason for flipping 1 & 2
here? =Fonso is the senior and Melendez is the freshman, AND I
want to encourage Plummer to keep making clutch shots the rest
of the season.
#3) Kofi Cockburn - 19 points 15 rebounds. I didn’t think Kofi
was very special today. But as my son [who rides shotgun with me
to almost all Illini events] constantly says-Dad, don’t sell
Kofi short-how many past Illini players do you remember that
averaged a double-double? It’s hard to argue with him when he’s
always right. In fact, Kofi’s feat Sunday, his 41st
double-double, tied him with the great Skip Thoren as the
all-time leaders in that category. But I would argue that Kofi
struggled yesterday as evidenced by his 6 turnovers. He just
held on to the ball a little too long in this contest &
Northwestern really made him pay. He needs to make a quick move
or pitch it back out to the perimeter and re-post so we can give
it back to him while our shooters are re-positioning on the
perimeter.
There was a lot to not like about this game. However, I learned
years ago that any way you can find to get a league win is worth
whatever it takes. And this may well be one the Illini look back
on and will be glad they somehow willed and found a victory.
With this win the Illini hold on to first place in the Bug Ten
with an 11-3 record [and have now won 11+ games three years in a
row, have gone 25-4 in their last 29 Big Ten games, and are
43-14 the league’s best over the last 3 seasons!] on the heels
of what is shaping up to be one of the toughest schedule
stretches of the season. The Illini go on the road to face
Rutgers at the RAC on Wednesday night and then over to East
Lansing, MI to take on the Spartans of Michigan State for the
Saturday morning special-don’t even get me started on that. Have
a great week Illini fans! [By JEFF MAYFIELD]
Respond to the writer at
jeffqmay@gmail.com.
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