The Minute After: Illinois

Nick Dorn handles the ball at Illinois.

Thoughts on a 71-51 loss to the Illini:

Indiana put up a solid first half and did what it could against this talented Illini team.

But in the end, the Hoosiers again fell victim to an opponent with superior size and physicality. They also needed to, once more, rely heavily on Lamar Wilkerson for long stretches to generate offense. This Illinois team isn’t hyper-athletic, but it doesn’t matter. Its offense ranks first in the country on KenPom and has weapons all over the court. And the Illini didn’t even need a strong or typical performance to beat Indiana by 20 points.

In league play, Illinois came into the contest shooting the highest volume of 3s and scoring 44 percent of their points off them, which ranked second-highest in the conference. But the Illini made just 7-of-31 (23 percent) from deep this afternoon, accounting for 29.5 percent of their points. Instead, Illinois feasted more inside, besting Indiana in the paint 40-25.

One of the bigger reasons why? Illinois rebounded 42 percent of its misses, which led to 17 second-chance points. Even when Indiana had position, the Illini, the nation’s tallest team, were able to work over the top of the Hoosiers for rebounds. Time and again, Illinois gave itself extra chances, wearing Indiana down over 40 minutes of action.

Keaton Wagler was able to get by any defender Indiana threw at him today for points at the rim. He shot 6-of-11 on 2s and continued his ascendant freshman season (18 points). The Hoosiers also had no answers for David Mirkovic, who scored at all three levels and connected on 10-of-16 from the field, including 3-of-6 from deep. He led all scorers with 25 points. And the return of Kylan Boswell to the lineup (4-of-10, nine points) gave the Illini another dimension on both sides of the ball, as his strength in the backcourt was a welcome returning asset. Illinois turned the ball over on just four percent of its possessions (two turnovers).

Despite today’s tough challenge, Indiana ran its stuff pretty well in the first half and didn’t seem overwhelmed or bothered by the road environment.

But once out of halftime, that changed. The Hoosiers only made two baskets and scored just seven points over the first 10:29 of the second half, all coming from Wilkerson. It wasn’t until a Sam Alexis dunk at the 9:31 mark that another Indiana player scored. To try and steal this one, Indiana was going to need to be hot from 3-point range, but it made just 2-of-11 from deep in the second half. The Hoosiers also made only seven baskets total (7-of-21) over the final 20 minutes, scoring a meager .71 points per possession according to the live box score. Beyond Wilkerson and Alexis, only Tucker DeVries (2-of-7) scored for Indiana in the second half.

Overall, the Hoosiers made just 6-of-24 (25 percent) from deep today. And against an Illini team that is elite (No.1 in the country) at not fouling, Indiana shot only six free throws, making five.

It was unlikely Indiana was going to pull this one out. Today’s results showed as much. For its troubles? Another tough road game up next against Purdue at Mackey Arena. If the Hoosiers comes up short there as well, they’re going to need to stack some wins at home down the stretch to keep pace for an NCAA tournament berth.

(Photo credit: IU Athletics)

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