With 1 minute 9 seconds to go in the game and Maryland leading by 13 points, Terrapins fans broke into the chant that seemed to sum up the Illinois basketball team’s play Tuesday night.
“Overrated! Overrated!” the crowd shouted in unison.
After watching his second-ranked Illini (5-1) get pounded 76-63 at Cole Field House, Maryland’s 80th consecutive home victory against a non-conference opponent, coach Bill Self wasn’t about to argue. Asked what he’d learned from his team’s dismal performance, Self said: “I learned we’re not very good yet. I learned we were exposed. I learned we don’t trust each other much or believe in each other.”
Maybe the best thing about the loss is Illinois won’t have to deal with the stress of being the nation’s No. 2 team anymore. No. 5 Maryland (4-1) took care of that from the opening tip.
The Terps fell behind 17-10 and then outscored the Illini 41-14 over the last seven minutes of the first half and the first three minutes of the second half to open a 51-31 lead.
Self said he didn’t know if playing three games in three days in Las Vegas and flying across the country to play again on two days’ rest had drained his team or not. “I think we looked tired,” he said. “I don’t know if we were tired, but we played tired.”
Maryland held point guard Frank Williams to 2-of-9 from the floor in the first half, 3-of-16 for the game and only 10 points. The Terrapins held shooting guard Cory Bradford to 1-of-7 from the field in the first 20 minutes, 4-of-14 for the game and only eight points. The key stat of the game: Williams, reigning Big Ten player of the year, had only one assist.
“They did a great job of contesting our shots,” said Bradford, “and we played too selfish. I did a terrible job of finishing today, and I think Frank and I hurt the team. We took bad shots; we didn’t make the extra pass. We tried too hard to make plays and got a little careless and they took control from there.”
The Terps dominated the Illini inside, thanks to the play of 6-foot-10-inch, 220-pound sophomore forward Chris Wilcox. He sky-hooked and dunked his way to 19 points, grabbed six rebounds and had two of Maryland’s 10 blocked shots. Illinois countered with forward Brian Cook, who scored only eight points before fouling out, and center Robert Archibald, who had eight points and 10 rebounds but played the last 14 minutes with four fouls.
“When you get on the road it comes down to toughness,” said Archibald. “You’ve got to find things to compensate for the energy and the crowd and we didn’t do that. Our defense was disappointing and we did a horrible job running the offense.”
Illinois’ highlights were the play of junior-college transfer Blandon Ferguson and senior forward Damir Krupalija off the bench. Ferguson had a team-high 11 points and Krupalija added 10 points and eight rebounds.
“This was one of those things you wish wouldn’t happen,” said Krupalija. “We just have to go out and refocus. It’s November. We’ll hopefully be better for it. But they put us in our place, that’s for sure.”
Illinois climbed to 64-56 with 4:35 left, but Maryland pulled away behind Wilcox and senior guard Juan Dixon, who had a game-high 25 points.
“We’ve got a long way to go before we’re a good team,” said Self. “Trust is an intangible, leadership is an intangible and we didn’t have them tonight.”
Asked if he thought Illinois would be further along by now, Archibald replied: “Definitely. But maybe it’s a blessing in disguise. Although it’s frustrating to lose a big game like this, we got a chance to see how we measure up to a top team. Obviously right now we’re not close.”
