Illinois coach Bill Self can’t pinpoint the moment exactly, but sometime after his team’s dreadful Feb. 15 loss to Purdue, he’s convinced a little light went on in his players’ brains.
Perhaps it was during the long, dark bus ride home that night Maybe it was the three-hour practice Self put the Illini through the next day. Whatever.
Since then, the Illini have won four straight games. Since that “by-George-we’ve-got-it” moment, no team in the Big Ten has played better. And despite the red-hot shooting of senior LaVell Blanchard and the screams of a hostile crowd, the 18th-ranked Illini (20-5, 10-4) proved it by knocking off Michigan 82-79 Saturday at Crisler Arena to move into a first-place tie with Wisconsin with two games left. The Badgers play Sunday at Minnesota.
“We felt like if we didn’t win today we wouldn’t have had a shot to play for [the title],” said Self, whose team can clinch no worse than a share of its third straight league title by beating the Badgers on Wednesday night in Madison. “We wouldn’t mind a little help, but this was the game.
“Our team has been confident, but I don’t think we could have won this game three weeks ago.”
There were numerous reasons the Illini dealt a serious blow to the title chances of the Wolverines (16-11, 9-5), but the list begins with two more sparkling performances from senior forward Brian Cook and sophomore forward Roger Powell.
Cook erased any doubts about his Big Ten player-of-the-year credentials by scoring a game-high 26 points and grabbing seven rebounds. Powell added 18 points and seven rebounds, including two critical ones in the final 50 seconds.
Powell also finally found a way to shut down Blanchard, who led Michigan with 25 points but took only one shot after hitting the last of his seven three-pointers with 8:37 to go. He missed it.
“I just didn’t leave him,” Powell said. “I stuck to him like Velcro. I didn’t give him any air. The rebounds? I just had to get those because the game was on the line. If I hadn’t they easily could have won the game.”
Powell got that right. In a well-played game marked by 18 lead changes, five ties and 48.2 percent shooting by both teams, Michigan took a 76-75 lead with 1:58 left on Chris Hunter’s putback.
Illini freshman Dee Brown, who had nine points, seven assists and three steals, then dribbled out of trouble to sink a clutch floater in the lane with a second left on the shot clock, putting the Illini ahead 77-76.
Self later called that shot–and the way Illinois finished the first half with a 7-2 run to get within 46-44–the defining moments. But Powell’s plays were also huge.
When Michigan freshman guard Daniel Horton missed a jumper at the other end, Powell was there for the rebound. Brown then fired a pass to forward James Augustine, who was playing on a sprained ankle sustained at practice Friday. Augustine’s layup gave Illinois a 79-76 lead with 36 seconds left.
The Wolverines’ last-ditch hopes died moments later when Powell rebounded a miss by Lester Abram (16 points, all in the first half), was fouled and made one of two free throws for an 80-76 lead. Deron Williams’ two free throws with 8.1 seconds left wrapped things up.
“Roger played great,” Cook said. “He took a few rebounds away from me today. We need that to continue. He gives us a whole new dimension.”
Horton, reputedly Cook’s main competition for player of the year, was only 4-for-17 from the floor for 12 points. He committed five turnovers.
“I thought Daniel fought extremely hard,” Michigan coach Tommy Amaker said. “I don’t think he forced anything. The plays he was trying to make, he has been making all year.”
In Self’s view, the reason he didn’t and the reason the Illini are winning is their new-found intensity and cool on the road.
“I think we were a different team today,” he said. “And I think Roger is a big part of that. For them to go up like they did (Michigan’s largest lead was 44-37 with 2:19 left in the first half), and for us to make the plays we did down the stretch, I thought for a team with a lot of young guys, we showed a lot of poise.
“We’ve had some huge road wins the last few years, none of them bigger than at Minnesota last year [to clinch a share of the league crown]. I equate this win with that one.”
