Even Dee Brown was impressed.
No. 1 Illinois raised its dazzling passing, shooting and trademark unselfish play to astronomical levels Wednesday in its 84-48 thrashing of Northwestern, and Brown couldn’t help but find superlatives to describe it.
“That was the best ball movement I ever saw in my life,” Brown said of a first-half offensive sequence that he finished with a
3-pointer in front of 16,618 awed fans at Assembly Hall.
Brown and his teammates routinely have downplayed Illinois’ unprecedented exploits, and they stayed true to their calling by shunning a celebration of the team’s second straight Big Ten championship, its 17th in 100 seasons of Illini basketball.
The victory guaranteed Illinois (28-0, 14-0 in Big Ten)–the only undefeated team in the country–a tie for the title, but the Illini don’t want to share it. They can claim sole possession of the championship for the second consecutive season if they beat Purdue on March 3 at Assembly Hall or if Michigan State loses against Wisconsin on Thursday. The Spartans are in second place in the conference at 10-2.
“We want to celebrate on Senior Night,” Brown said of the Purdue game, the home finale for seniors Luther Head, Jack Ingram, Fred Nkemdi, Roger Powell and Nick Smith.
Brown scored a game-high 20 points, 17 of which came in the first half. He hit 6-of-8 3-pointers, and Illinois connected on 60.9 percent of its 3s.
“Will they have a cold shooting day?” Northwestern coach Bill Carmody asked. “Everything that has been thrown at this team they’ve handled.”
Illinois sapped Northwestern (13-13, 5-8) of any hope when Powell sank the first shot of the game. Powell and Brown combined to score 22 of Illinois’ first 28 points. Midway through the first half, Brown had 14 points.
“He was pulling up and swishing them,” Illinois coach Bruce Weber said. “I just sit down and clap. There’s not much you can do.”
Illinois was “more fluid,” Carmody said in comparing this game with the teams’ meeting in January. The Illini were “certainly more confident, not that they weren’t before. Somewhere along the line you expect that shooting to diminish.”
Northwestern was down 7-0 before it even had taken a shot. “If they’re not the best team, then we’re in a lot worse shape than I thought,” Carmody said.
Northwestern is not in good shape. The worst loss of its season could not have come at a worse time.
The 36-point mauling at the hands of Illinois, one point worse than the 90-55 defeat at Arizona State two months ago, leaves NU at 13-13 with three regular-season games remaining. They need to win two for any real shot at the NIT.
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Edited by Chris Malcolm (ccmalcolm@tribune.com) and Drew Sottardi (dsottardi@tribune.com)
