Slow start dooms Illini in loss to Indiana

Coming off a week or practice and preparation the Illini should have been ready to play against the Indiana Hoosiers, but it was the Hoosiers that showed up hungry following two home losses and drilled the Illini 96-80.

Malcolm Hill and Jalen Coleman-Lands each scored 21 points and Maverick Morgan added 18 to lead Illinois as they fell to 11-5 and 1-2 in the conference.

Indiana got off to a 15-0 lead to start the game and led by 21 points in the first half before Illinois cut it to 13. Indiana would pull away again and take a 19-point halftime lead.

The lead would balloon to 22 points before another Illinois run would trim the lead to 9 points at 81-72 with 5:51 to play. Another Indiana run would put it away and lead to a 16-point final margin.

Here’s a look back at the action.

1. Road woes – Illinois is now 0-2 in true road games and have been outscored by 41 points in those two games. Neither game was in doubt just minutes after it began, and both came after solid breaks between games with school not in session. The Illini now have a pair of very important home games next week, but the reality is that they will eventually have to win a road game, and perform better than that to do it.

2. Second half battle – After the huge halftime deficit, Malcolm Hill would score 19 2nd half points and lead Illinois on a run to cut the lead to 9. It was good to see them battle to the end, which proves they haven’t lost the team, or the season, yet. The offense was much better, although shot selection is always an issue, but the Illini really struggle to defend good offensive teams even when they try hard and give great effort. You appreciate the job that Lucas and Nichols did off of the bench, showing a bit more quickness and athleticism than the players seeing the floor in front of them. You have to believe that they gained some playing time moving forward.

3. Defensive struggles – Illinois can’t make runs because they can’t get stops. Another team shot it well from 3, 13-25, but they got 25 attempts to just 17 for the Illini. At the end of the day, that’s a defensive issue. Throw in the 16-24 number from inside the arc and 22 assists and it was a house of horrors for the Illini once again. You have to take something away, inside or outside, but you can’t allow both to dominate you. You have to give something up, but you can’t give everything up.

*Indiana scored 1.371 PPP, negating a solid 1.143 PPP for Illinois. The usually turnover prone Hoosiers didn’t turn it over as much and shot lights out against a porous Illinois defense. In the second half, the Illini scored a crazy 1.457 PPP in the second half as they mounted a rally of sorts.

*The plus minus chart wasn’t pretty. Coleman-Lands was -23, Black was -20 and Abrams was -18. On the plus side, Te’Jon Lucas was a +8, Finke was a +4, Tate was a +1 and Malcolm Hill was a -1.

*Kipper Nichols got a little run and showed why people were so high on him defensively after watching workouts and practice. His ability to move his feet and guard multiple positions was evident.

*Illinois was better in this game with a point guard on the floor, and Te’Jon Lucas earned 15 minutes and showed well. Even Jaylon Tate seemed to make the offense more fluid, using a couple of ball screens for success early on.

*Tracy Abrams struggled in this one. He just isn’t consistent, even as a 6th year player. Early in the season he was very good, but he hasn’t shot it well and is beginning to let that effect the rest of his game.

*The Mike Thorne experiment needs to be cut off, or at least slowed down. Maverick Morgan has outplayed him and even Finke is a better option at this point. Thorne is just too slow for this level of play against athletic squads like Indiana.

*The quickness and athleticism difference between the two teams was evident in this one. Illinois just isn’t as athletic as most teams they will play. They need to execute and be more skilled.

*Malcolm Hill really laid it all out there in the second half after sitting with foul trouble in the first half. Hill was aggressive and played like a guy attempting to make the NCAA tourney. Hill finished the game with…3 fouls. So the Illini sat him for 10 minutes so that they wouldn’t have to play without him later, even though they wouldn’t need him at that point.

*Illinois now has a pair of almost must win home games. Michigan is also struggling, having lost at home to Maryland and having to steal a home win against Penn State just to be 1-2. The Terps drilled Illinois at Maryland, but we’ve seen that road teams can really struggle.