The last time Illinois was beaten this badly on its home court President Gerald Ford was living in the White House.
Sixth-ranked Ohio State turned Assembly Hall into a house of horrors for the stunned capacity crowd of 16,618 Saturday when it overwhelmed the slumping Illini 62-44.
It was the most lopsided loss at home for Illinois since Jan. 17, 1976, when top-ranked Indiana rolled 83-55.
This wasn’t a case of the Buckeyes (13-2, 2-0 Big Ten) performing brilliantly. Their 34.9 shooting percentage was their season low.
This wasn’t a case of 7-foot freshman phenom Greg Oden doing a Wilt Chamberlain impersonation and scoring at will. Oden missed all five of his shots and failed to score in the first half when Ohio State broke open the game. He finished with seven points, tying his season low but offset 3-of-12 shooting with 15 rebounds and four blocked shots.
The crux of the game was the Illini (12-5, 0-2) putting on their worst home performance in the four years Bruce Weber has been their coach.
“If we’re not humbled and embarrassed, we’re in trouble,” Weber said after his team lost three straight for the first time in his tenure. “I have to help them get through it. We have a lot of doubters right now.”
Ohio State coach Thad Matta said it’s premature to press the panic button.
“Coach Weber has won 90 percent of his games,” he said. “You’re not going to win every game. We got our rear ends handed to us by 26 points in Florida (Dec. 23).”
Weber found a couple of positives he hopes restore the Illini’s emotional equilibrium.
He attributed losses to Xavier and Michigan to lack of effort, “but today we battled,” he said. “I’m pleased with the effort and what our big guys (Shaun Pruitt, Brian Carlwell and Marcus Arnold) did against Oden.”
Compensating for Oden’s low scoring were forward Othello Hunter) and guards Daequan Cook, Jamar Butler and Ron Lewis, who combined for 45 points. Collectively, the foursome hit 9 of 21 three-pointers.
Cook and Hunter came off a Buckeyes bench that outscored the Illinois bench 26-14.
But the statistic that stood out the most was the Illini’s 24.1 percent shooting. They were 3 of 23 on three-pointers.
“It was one of those situations that shots didn’t fall for them,” Matta said. “We thought it would be a higher scoring game. We didn’t shoot the ball particularly well, but at certain times guys made big shots.”
Ohio State scored the game’s first five points, but the Illini recovered and took an 11-8 lead midway through the first half when Calvin Brock was awarded a basket on a goaltending call against Oden. The Buckeyes went back up by five before Warren Carter’s three-point shot cut the Illinois deficit to 16-14. Then the Buckeyes went on an 18-4 run and thereafter the Illini offered only token resistance.
“That was the ballgame right there when they made that run,” Carter said. “We had open shots and some of them just went in and out.
“One thing that I don’t want our team to do is doubt ourselves. Maybe fans are doubting us a little bit, but if we doubt ourselves our program is going to be in trouble.”
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nmilbert@tribune.com
