Illinois coach Bruce Weber isn’t ready to address the possibility of his top-ranked basketball team finishing the season undefeated. His players don’t want to delve into the subject either.
At this point, though, you can’t help but wonder.
If 12th-ranked Michigan State cannot stop the Illini on the Spartans’ home court, who will?
Illinois silenced a crowd of 14,759 Tuesday night at the Breslin Center with its 81-68 victory over Michigan State. Illini guards Luther Head, Dee Brown and Deron Williams combined for one of their best performances this season, prompting Michigan State coach Tom Izzo to hail the Illini as NCAA title contenders.
“I think they have the ingredients to win a national championship,” Izzo said. “I don’t want to put that on their backs because there are so many other things on their backs. But as Bobby Knight once told me [in 2000] about my team after we beat them, `You have a real chance to win it,’ and that was the year we won.”
Illinois (22-0, 8-0 Big Ten) has the best record in college basketball and boasts the nation’s longest winning streak on the road at 11 games.
“We’re starting to make our mark on our program and in the Big Ten,” Williams said.
“I’m sure for the first time all year we had nine teams pulling for us,” said Izzo, whose team is tied with Wisconsin for second place in the Big Ten. Only an Illini meltdown will bring the Spartans and Wisconsin back into a title race.
And the Illini aren’t showing any signs of letting up.
Head scored 22 points, Brown 18 and Williams 14. Combined, they went 11 of 20 on three-pointers and the Illini shot 13 of 24 on threes as a team.
In the second half, the Illini connected on 68.2 percent of their shots and went about 12 1/2 minutes without missing.
“It seemed like forever,” Izzo said.
If they had not sprinkled in a few turnovers, the Illini would have been flawless during that stretch. They had a jaw-dropping precision that left Michigan State (14-4, 5-2) players frozen in their tracks.
The best example came in the second half with about 16 minutes 45 seconds left. Illinois appeared to suck the life out of Michigan State when Brown harassed Chris Hill until the Spartan lost the ball to Head.
Head slam-dunked the ball in transition, leaving all five Michigan State players behind him. No one tried to catch Head, whose basket put Illinois ahead by 13 points.
The Spartans didn’t boast the kind of winning streak Wisconsin had in Madison–the Badgers had won 38 straight before the Illini snapped it last week–but their record here is nonetheless impressive.
Michigan State had won all 10 of its preceding home games this season and was 95-6 at the Breslin Center before Illinois’ arrival.
“Every team is going to give us their best shot,” Head said. “We’re ready for it.”
The Spartans cut the deficit to seven with less than five minutes left after officials called Brown for a technical and Michigan State’s Shannon Brown sank two resulting free throws, but they couldn’t come up with a big shot on the same possession, one that could have robbed Illinois of its momentum.
Brown responded with his trademark one-man fast break to make up for his gaffe.
“I told everybody I’d get it back,” he said.
Still, Brown knows the Illini must continue to play with intensity.
“We know we can lose anytime,” he said. “We have to play at that special level every night.”
