Fifteen minutes after President Bush began his State of the Union address Tuesday night, Ohio State delivered a harsh verdict on the state of the rapidly sinking Illini.
After suffering a 78-67 loss to the Big Ten-leading Buckeyes (16-3, 7-1) that dropped it to 4-4 in league play and virtually knocked it out of the Big Ten race, 12th-ranked Illinois (15-6, 4-4) pleaded guilty to the following familiar charges:
Playing a dismal first half.
Letting Ohio State go on a 17-2 run to open what would prove to be an insurmountable 42-27 lead at the break.
Running its offense so poorly that by halftime it had totaled only one assist and nine field goals.
Once again turning its “toughness” on and off like a light switch, something the Illini have done with maddening regularity all season.
Illinois coach Bill Self praised his team’s strong second-half effort–Illinois closed the gap to seven (70-63) with 2:50 remaining and again with 1:08 left (72-65)–but it was too little too late again.
“We’re not very good right now,” Self said, repeating an old refrain. “The same thing happened at Wisconsin and Purdue. We lost at Purdue because of the way we played at Wisconsin and we lost here because of the way we played at Indiana. We let one problem become another problem. Yeah, I’m frustrated. And the players are frustrated. We let too many things bother us.”
Buckeyes guard Brent Darby bothered Illinois the most. With point guard Frank Williams shadowing Ohio State’s best player, guard Brian Brown, Darby saw his opening and sprinted through it; using his quickness to drive the lane and draw fouls. Brown led all scorers with 22 points and had a game-high seven rebounds, but Darby was 16-for-18 at the free-throw line.
“[Ohio State] really executed and we didn’t guard them early,” Self said. “They’re quicker than we are, and we put Frank on Brown, but Darby was able to use that hesitation dribble and get past us.”
Zach Williams had 14 points and Brown added 13 for the No. 25 Buckeyes, who opened up a three-game lead on the Illini with eight Big Ten games left.
“It was a war and we were able to pull it out,” Brown said. “If it wasn’t for the first half, who knows how this game would have turned out.”
Frank Williams and center Robert Archibald paced Illinois with 16 points, but Brian Cook all but disappeared (eight points), and so did the Illini’s long-range shooting down the stretch (3-for-17 from behind the three-point arc).
What now? Well, defending co-champion Michigan State, which is also struggling, visits the Assembly Hall on Sunday. That’s good news. Or is it?
“We have no problem playing at home,” senior forward Lucas Johnson said. “But that’s kind of sad, too, because it shows what this team is made of; that we have to rely on 16,000 screaming fans to get us psyched up enough to get a victory.”
Self said he hopes that having his team this far out of the Big Ten race this early actually will turn out to be a good thing–in the long run.
“Don’t write that we’re throwing in the towel, but I told the players: `Let’s not talk about the race anymore,” he said. “We just need to get better. When you’re picked to win the league like we were you can start thinking `what else is there.’ But in my mind there is still as much to play for as there was before because we want to be the best when it counts the most.”
