For the first three days of the Big Ten tournament, Illinois stood up to everyone — to Penn State, to 15th-ranked Purdue, to Minnesota.
Then on Sunday, eighth-ranked Wisconsin raised the ante and ended the Illini’s unlikely run with a 61-48 thumping in the championship game of the Big Ten tournament at Conseco Fieldhouse.
Trying to become the first major-conference team since Missouri in 1978 to make the NCAA tournament with a losing record, Illinois lost control of the game at the beginning of the second half when the Badgers went on a 10-4 run to take a 39-26 lead.
“One of the things we’ve struggled with all year is leadership,” said Illinois coach Bruce Weber, whose team missed the NCAAs for the first time since 1999. “When we hit tough times, it seems like the last few weeks we’ve been able to overcome that. But this game, we couldn’t find the spark. We couldn’t get the shot, couldn’t get the stop.”
A basket by Trevon Hughes with one second left gave the Badgers a 29-22 halftime lead and the thrust that carried them to their 10th straight win and third of the season over Illinois.
“Hughes’ basket was huge at the end of the half, and for them to come and score [early in the second half] and we don’t score, now the doubt starts setting in,” Weber said.
Playing its fourth game in as many days, 10th-seeded Illinois (16-19) never made another run.
The top-seeded Badgers won the regular season and tournament titles in the same year for the first time and earned a third seed in the Midwest regional.
They open Thursday against Cal State Fullerton in Omaha.
Brian Butch led the Badgers with 12 points. Marcus Landry added 10 and six rebounds.
Michael Flowers led a smothering defense that held Illinois to 40.4 percent shooting. Flowers defended freshman guard Demetri McCamey, whose 26 points keyed Friday’s upset of Purdue, and held him to five points on 2-for-10 shooting.
“They play solid and methodical,” Illinois forward Brian Randle said. “They don’t do anything flashy to wow you. They wear you down and stay consistent. I think we got a little too hurried at times.
“We tried to make a punch, and they hit back.”
Center Shaun Pruitt led the Illini with 13 points and eight rebounds.
“We could have kept our poise a little bit more,” Pruitt said. “I think we tried to do a little too much too soon, and you can’t do that against Wisconsin. They’re so disciplined and systematic, the margin for error is very small. If you make mistakes, they’re going to capitalize.”
The Badgers enjoyed a hot shooting day, converting 49 percent from the field and 50 percent from three-point range, including a 3-for-5 performance from Flowers.
“You’re going to have droughts when you’re not shooting well, but it’s all about what do you do to get back in the rhythm of shooting well — pounding the ball in the post and then maybe the post kicking out, getting better shots,” Landry said after hitting two three-pointers.
“If they’re going to shoot like that, it’s tough,” Weber said. “To me it was like they never missed.”
Randle wouldn’t use fatigue as an excuse.
“We came up against a great team and they hit a bunch of tough shots,” he said.
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What’s in a uniform?
Ever wonder if the Illini fared differently, depending on their uniform color? So did we. Here’s their overall record this season and how they did at the Big Ten tournament:
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COLOR RECORD AT INDY
Orange 7-7 2-0
Blue 3-5 1-1
White 6-7 0-0
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tabannon@tribune.com
