The road to nowhere stopped here Thursday night, liked what it saw and decided to put down a deposit on a cul-de-sac.
For the longest time, this wasn’t even close.
Make no mistake, Illinois ran into a better, smarter, more determined team.
The fifth-seeded Illini fell 76-72 to No. 12 seed Western Kentucky, and for those of us who had refused to buy into the conventional wisdom that this game had “upset” written all over it, the Hilltoppers offered us our comeuppance.
Then again, this wasn’t an NCAA tournament upset. This was the natural order acting, well, natural.
Let’s be clear here: Besides being better, smarter and more determined, Western Kentucky was the more talented team too. Even if injured Illini guard Chester Frazier had been 100 percent healthy, that would have been the case.
“We knew they were a good team,” Illini senior Calvin Brock said. “We let them be the aggressor at the beginning of the game. We didn’t play Illinois basketball until the end of the first half into the second half.”
Illinois came roaring back from a 17-point deficit to make a game of it at the end, but it’s hard to erase all the ugliness that had come before.
In what seemed like no time, the Illini trailed 27-15, missing 13 of their first 20 shots and getting outrebounded 18-9. Their vaunted defense was daunted. They were outhustled. There weren’t too many other things left to feel good about.
Tell me again, which team was the midmajor?
It wasn’t just the Hilltoppers’ star guards, A.J. Slaughter and Orlando Mendez-Valdez, who caused the Illini problems. Illinois didn’t have an answer for much of anything for three-quarters of the game. With eight minutes left, all five Western Kentucky starters were in double figures.
Illinois coach Bruce Weber had told his players the national media were treating them as if they were a No. 12 seed. So he wrote on a blackboard that Western Kentucky was the No. 5 seed and the Illini were the underdogs.
It was supposed to be motivation.
It turned out to be the truth.
“Just because they’re a midmajor doesn’t mean anything,” Demetri McCamey said. “Today, you can get beat by anybody.”
About halfway through the second half, Illinois had cut the lead to 50-41 and was entertaining thoughts of a comeback. But Sergio Kerusch tomahawked a dunk, Jeremy Evans threw down another and Western Kentucky sort of shrugged and said, “You were saying?”
The Illini battled back, cutting the lead to 71-66 on Brock’s lay-up with 1:07 left. It was set up by a controversial turnover on an inbounds pass by Western Kentucky.
When Mendez-Valdez missed a three-pointer, McCamey took a long pass from Brock, went in for a lay-up and got a bucket on a goaltending call against Anthony Sally to make it 71-68.
Meacham scored on a layup to get it to within 74-72 with eight seconds left, but Illinois couldn’t foul in time, the Hilltoppers made most of their free throws and the Illini went down to a defeat they deserved.
Illinois’ plan had been to get the ball inside to Mike Tisdale and Mike Davis. Half of the plan worked. At halftime, Davis had eight points and six rebounds. Tisdale had no points and no rebounds. Tisdale got into foul trouble and was ineffective against the much more athletic Evans.
He finished with no points, one rebound and four fouls.
McCamey, Illinois’ enigmatic guard, had a nondescript game on a night when his team needed him to come up big.
McCamey’s tendency to disappear is not a secret in the Big Ten.
Illinois is excited about the future, with a number of young players on the roster and some talented recruits waiting in the wings. But for too long Thursday night, Illinois looked like it didn’t belong here. That’s what a lot of people have been saying about the Big Ten. The Illini made a lot of people look smart.
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rmorrissey@tribune.com
