Good, Bad and Ugly: Illinois

  • 02/15/2009 3:22 pm in

FINAL SCORE: Illinois 65, Indiana 52

THE GOOD:

The second half. During their first matchup, Illinois was one of the teams this year that IU was never in the game against. At halftime, it sure looked like that was going to be the case again this afternoon. But, as we’ve seen so many times this season, IU did not quit. The Hoosiers did not give up. They fought. And though they never seriously threatened to win this game — six was as close as they got — they showed some amazing resolve in front of a packed crowd at home. Crawling back from a 21-point deficit to come as close as six is never an easy thing.

It was a combination of two things: IU shot 57 percent in the second half, and as Greg Anthony alluded to, IU switched up to a triangle and two on the defensive end, which slowed the Illini down a bit. Oh, also: Illinois stopped blocking all our shots.

Individually, Matt Roth continues to show no fear, as he went for 13 points on 4-of-7 shooting.

THE BAD AND UGLY:

Free throws. IU lost this game by 13 points. They missed 13 free throws. If they make half of those that they missed — in the six or seven range — the Hoosiers are in better shape the last few minutes of the game. And if they made them all, or close to them all, who knows?

The first half. I’m trying to block that out my memory of it, so I will just say one thing: It was bad. Real bad.

For the game, IU only turned the ball over 13 times.

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