The Skip Report: Illinois In Review

12/2/2017 2:30:00 PM | Men's Basketball

By: Nick Brilowski

By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor

For 43 minutes they had banged and battered their bodies, had traded shoves and elbows and big-boy fouls, had put on a steel cage match and presented a sweat-filled portrait befitting an in-state rivalry game. Down the stretch, through the final four minutes of regulation and through the first three of overtime, no more than two points had separated them, and now they were tied at 66 as the clock ticked under two minutes remaining.

This was late Friday evening at Allstate Arena in the Big Ten opener between the 'Cats and Illinois, and here, once again, Illini will-o'-wisp Te'Jon Lucas drove hard to the hole. All night the guard had done this, often with success, and this time he succeeded once again, drawing a fifth foul on Vic Law at 1:49. That got the 'Cats best defender a seat next to Aaron Falzon and Gavin Skelly, who had fouled out earlier, and that left the them with a gerrymandered group of Bryant McIntosh and Scottie Lindsey, of Dererk Pardon and Jordan Ash and Isiah Brown.

This was a lineup, Chris Collins later deadpanned, that "We have not practiced much."

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The 'Cats opened this game with a lineup that itself was new, yet it was the very same one that had catalyzed their late (but ultimately unsuccessful) rally against Georgia Tech three nights earlier. That meant Falzon and Ash were among the starters and Lindsey and Skelly were on the bench. "It was more about rewarding guys for their play," Collins would explain, but the latter two were back on the court with just over two minutes gone. Now, truly, this affair was fully joined, and very quickly it evolved into a feisty fray that would feature 53 fouls and 36 turnovers (to just 21 assists) and 11 ties and eight lead changes.

The 'Cats, who had been done in by a porous defense in their losses to Creighton and Texas Tech, were steeled here, and turned the Illini over 19 times while holding them to 41.5 percent shooting overall and 16.7 percent on their threes. "Practice and work," Collins would say when asked the reason for their improvement. "The Texas Tech game (which they lost by 36) was a real eye-opener for our guys. Our rotations, our on-ball defense, our cohesiveness, our talk, all those things— we've gotten back to the basics in practice. I've taken responsibility for that. I did not do a great job in the preseason of establishing those habits."

The Illini, in turn, featured their own mad dog defense, overplaying constantly and pressing up high, turning McIntosh over a half-dozen times and holding the 'Cats to just 39 percent shooting. "I'm very pleased with the was we played defense," their coach Brad Underwood would say. "Anytime you force McIntosh into six turns— that's a veteran guard. He doesn't do that very often."

"We haven't had a team deny us all the way out there (high beyond the three-point line) all season," said Lindsey. "So we had to change up our offense a little bit. We had to change up a few things and add new plays. Set up more bad door cuts and things like that."

"They're very hard to play against with their pressure defense and denying passes," Collins finally said. "Basically, you can't run your offense. You've got to make plays, drive the ball. We had some success at times doing that. At other times we got sped up and had some turnovers, like at the end of the game. But I think a lot of that had to do with guys being really tired because of the pace of the game."

That was manifest as this one rushed toward the end of regulation after a pair of free throws by Illini Leron Black tied it at 63 with 2:46 remaining. First McIntosh, who would play 42 minutes, drove hard, kicked toward Lindsey and sailed his pass into the 'Cat bench. Then, after an Illini miss, his pass to Law in the left corner was picked by Illini guard Aaron Jordan, and just over a minute later there was a Falzon pass getting picked by Illini guard Mark Alstork.

The 'Cats, in fact, would not score a point now through the end of regulation, their last possession in it ending on another turnover by the usually-reliable McIntosh. But still they got this one into overtime. They got it there with their defense, which shut out Illinois over this stretch as well.

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Last Tuesday, in his team's loss at Georgia Tech, Lindsey missed all eight of his field goal attempts, and through Friday's first half he would go just one-of-seven. But early in the second he dropped a right corner three off a pass from Law, and through this one's last 25 minutes he would go five-of-10 on his way to a game-high 22. "I knew," he later said, "that my team needed me to bounce back. I've been playing basketball most of my life, so I knew that I played a really bad game. That was motivation."

Still, through the first two minutes of overtime, the only point scored was a free throw by the Illini forward Michael Finke. But now, in front of his team's bench, the 6-foot-5 Lindsey rose and dropped a three over the 6-foot-7 Black, a gut punch the Illini answered with a driving layup by the quicksilver Lucas that tied this one at 66 at 2:17. "He was having a lot of success against us late," Collins later said. "His quickness, especially as we got a little tired, I thought it showed mostly at the very end when legs were wearing down a little bit. He's very quick and shifty. We just challenged our guys. Someone was going to have to keep him from getting to the basket on us."

Now, after a Lindsey miss, that was the very goal of Law, who had been a warrior on his way to 16 points and a game-high seven rebounds. But here he was called for his fifth, which left the 'Cats with their unlikely lineup, and now came this after Lucas missed a pair. Brown, who earlier this year had been set back with a quad injury, dropped a jumper from the left wing. "What I love about him," Collins would say, "is he's fearless. He raised up in overtime and shot that shot like it was nothing."

Then Lucas, yet one more time, drove and kissed one in off glass and tied this one up at 68 at 1:18. And Lindsey, at :59, dropped a pair of free throws to put the 'Cats back up two. And freshman guard Anthony Gaines replaced Brown and collected the loose ball after Pardon blocked Illini guard Alstork along the right baseline. And Brown subbed back in, and McIntosh missed a floater, and now here came Lucas again, with the clock under five, driving and offering a shot that would tie this one up yet again.

Pardon had not sat for even a second through all of the second half, had not sat for even a heartbeat through all of the overtime. But here, in his 43rd minute on the court, he found the legs to rise and block Lucas, and this loose ball was grabbed by Brown, who was fouled and sealed the deal with his two three throws at 2.1. "Give Northwestern credit," Illini coach Underwood would say after the 'Cats 72-68 win. "They made plays. They looked like a veteran team down the stretch."

"We had this attitude that we're not going to lose this game," Lindsey later said. "It was a must win for us, definitely a program game. We just said at the start of the second half, we're not going to lose this game. We have experience. We've been here before. We have to win this game."

"Because Illinois kicked our ass two times last year," Law finally said when asked why the 'Cats viewed this one as a must-win. "And (because) we just lost to Georgia Tech on a buzzer-beater layup. And it's our first Big Ten game. We needed to win. We were four-and-three. This was a game with just couldn't layover and lose."