For many basketball teams, the holidays are a chance to tune up for the rigors of conference play.
The drill is familiar: Throw a Christmas “classic,” bag a couple of victories over East Someplace State and get ready for games that matter.
Illinois needed to do that after a 75-69 loss to Missouri in St. Louis a week ago. With the Big Ten opener looming against Indiana Saturday in Champaign, the Fighting Illini need to find an identity.
Unfortunately, they found themselves facing ninth-ranked UCLA in storied Pauley Pavilion Tuesday night. And the Bruins were fired up over the return of suspended center Jelani McCoy, who missed the first nine games for unspecified violations of university rules.
“It’s the same thing we talked about earlier in the year as far as playing with confidence and trusting yourself,” Illinois head coach Lon Kruger said before the game. “We’re going to come and go with that as we have done up to this point. We certainly haven’t worked our way through it, as indicated by the Missouri performance.”
By that measure, Illinois might have wished it was playing UC-Santa Barbara instead of UCLA on this trip. The Bruins lost their opener by 31 to North Carolina, but then ripped off eight straight victories.
The 6-10, 237-pound McCoy’s presence will make UCLA tougher in the paint. The Bruins had been giving up too many uncontested buckets inside.
“We’ll be able to cut down on all the penetration,” said forward J.R. Henderson, a forward who had been playing center. “Lately, guys have been just going to the basket with no contest whatsoever. With Jelani back there, that’ll change a lot of shots.”
While McCoy’s return couldn’t have come as good news for Illinois, Kruger seemed more concerned about his own team than the Bruins.
“UCLA is obviously a very athletic and quick team,” Kruger said. “They have a lot of guys who can jump up and hurt you in a lot of ways.”
