ST. LOUIS – The Braggin’ Rights border war has been special for a generation of fans on both sides of the Mississippi. For some reason, Illinois coach Brad Underwood said this was just another game.
Just another 40 minutes in a long basketball season, and he has 18 more games for his Illini to show us something in the Big Ten Conference season.
“I was looking at it as another 40 minutes in a long season,’’ he said.
For sure, this 63-56 loss to a middling Missouri team won’t mean much if the Illini can string some meaningful wins together in the Big Ten season. But with only one win over a Power 5 team so far this season, somebody please tell Underwood and the Illini this game does mean something.
It meant something to the fans that made this one of the best non-conference rivalry games in the Midwest, before these two schools tried to screw it up with an inferior product on the court. It should also mean something to a team that set a school record for losses last winter.
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Give Missouri credit for playing with some passion, guts and toughness. This game meant something to guys with the Tiger logo on their chests. Mizzou was the tougher team who played with more purpose and more intensity, using strong defense to overcome any inability on the offensive end.
“I play for Mizzou,’’ said sophomore forward Javon Pickett, the super sub from Belleville and the difference in the game for the second straight season. “I wanted to make sure I get this win.’’
Guard Xavier Pinson agreed. He’s a kid from Chicago Simeon who also ended up in Missouri.
“Being from Illinois is a good thing,’’ he said. “On my chest, it says Mizzou. We wanted to do everything we can to win.’’
Just like last year, Missouri played with real guts to win border war in front of roughly 14,000 fans in a game that used to sell out this stadium several months in advance. These teams aren’t gifted with the flashy talent to earn time on SportsCenter’s top plays.
So, with this kind of talent on both benches, it comes down to defense, one reason why Underwood tried to build an identity on that end of the court during the first two months of the season. After another loss to a Power 5 team, the coach failed his team and its fans.
He didn’t have them ready for a game that’s more than just another game. Missouri was the tougher team defensively. The Tigers grabbed key rebounds, effectively shut down Illini big man Kofi Cockburn and rendered Ayo Dosunmu useless until he scored nine of his team high 21 points in the final minute.
“We wanted to be a physical team and be aggressive,’’ Pickett said. “We wanted to be the tougher team. We knew we were the tougher team.’’
Toughness isn’t about a couple of cheap technical, like the ones from Illini sub Alan Griffin. That’s embarrassing.
“It’s not about fighting and talking trash,’’ said Xavier Pinson, the Missouri guard from Chicago Simeon.
This is a big game. Just ask Cuonzo Martin, the Missouri coach who was a prep superstar at East St. Louis Lincoln. Pickett was once committed to Illinois as a package deal with Missouri center Jeremiah Tilmon, who flipped from the Illini. Then there’s Mark Smith, the Edwardsville kid and Mr. Basketball in Illinois who left after one season with Underwood to transfer to Missouri. For the second consecutive season, the Illini got in his face. This time, the game was already over when Griffin went after Smith for his second technical with 4.9 left.
“The second one, that didn’t bother me,’’ Underwood said.
Rather than faking a fight, maybe Illinois needed some real toughness. Illinois needed to be ready for a tough, physical game. Playing tough is making the play in the heat of battle, doing the right thing when it’s hard to get it done. The most concerning thing for Underwood, he admitted after the game, was “our fight.’’
Or lack of it.
“We can talk about X’s and O’s,’’ he said. “It’s playing with your hair on fire all the time. It’s an understanding we’re privileged to play this game. For some of their players, it was personal. They played that way. We didn’t. We talked about chopping wood for 40 minutes.’’
Illinois’ offense is still like dragging nails across a chalk board. The dribble weave didn’t work, and when Missouri hedged on ball screens, the Illini were clueless. The ball stuck in their hands, and Illinois ended up with four assists and 17 turnovers.
“I just felt like we get stagnant with the ball,’’ Dosunmu said. “The ball is sticking. We just have to move the ball and not let the ball stick.’’
The Illini crowd began making its way to the exits with 48.4 seconds left. They didn’t want to watch the trophy ceremony. Athletics director Josh Whitman made his way toward the concourse with 15 seconds left. Don’t blame him for not wanting to watch this one, because his #JoinTheFight campaign didn’t even make it to the Illini locker room.
When the dust settles in March, the Illini will get into the NCAA Tournament with what they do in the Big Ten, because they haven’t done anything to help themselves in non-conference play, especially since this may count as another bad loss in three months. The Illini just made it harder by losing to a team that already fell at home to Charleston Southern.
“Illinois is an NCAA Tournament team,’’ said Martin, a nice compliment after win that doesn’t really mean much, other than perhaps patting his own team on the back.
This game was about Missouri’s toughness and Illinois’ lack of it. Missouri’s defense shut down an Illini team that padded its stats with a succession of incredibly weak opponents in the non-conference season, and it won’t be that easy to score in Big Ten play when the temperatures outside and the shooting percentages inside start to drop.
You could blame it on the Illini roster. That’s the easy way to go. But this one is again on Underwood, the third-year Illini coach who couldn’t light the fire under his Illini in a border war that’s still an important game to some of us.
While the Illini were acting tough, Missouri was playing tough.
