It was a big week of big matchups for the Big Ten. So let’s see what we learned about the conference this week including a discussion of the Illinois Fighting Illini as this week’s spotlight team. I’ll hit the beautiful mess that is the Big Ten conference, an emotionally volatile week for Iowa, and other big results from the week. Finally, I’ll end with a look ahead to next week.
Week 5 Spotlight: Illinois Fighting Illini
Coach Brad Underwood and the Fighting Illini had one of the most interesting up and down weeks of any teams in the country this week starting with an overtime neutral court win against #2 ranked Texas in MSG and ending with a home loss to Penn State. So, let’s talk about the Illini and see what we learned.
Quickly, I want to start with last week’s loss at Maryland to start off Big Ten play. Illinois lost 71-66. Illinois lost the game because they went 5-20 from three and had 6 assists to 8 turnovers in the game. Both freshman point guards, Skyy Clark and Jayden Epps, struggled in their first road Big Ten game with 8 points, 3 assists and 4 turnovers combined. Hawkins had a couple huge lapses defensively late. First, he was lazy on switch defense on the perimeter leading to nobody boxing out Julian Reese on an easy putback. Then, Hawkins gambled on a double team which opened up Jahmir Young for the dagger three. Maryland is a good team and this is not a bad loss for Illinois.
Next up, Illinois bounced back and beat the top-ranked Texas Longhorns. This game could have gone either way. Illinois ended up winning it in overtime and fought back from a deficit. Matthew Mayer finally had a big game and saved Illinois from falling out of it in the first half. Dain Dainja also had a good first half too. I question how much Dainja can play against top level competition. Dainja was slow on some defensive rotations and isn’t as dominant on offense.
Coleman Hawkins might be the new Andre Curbelo as his decision making will frustrate Illini fans all season. Here are some key possessions and decisions for Hawkins. Illinois cuts the lead down to 56-50 and Hawkins takes the ball up the court and immediately bricks a three with the whole shot clock left. Near the end of the game, Melendez hits a huge three to make it 66-68 after the offense stalls out … except Hawkins called timeout and the shot doesn’t count. Could’ve been a game deciding mistake, but then out of the timeout Hawkins has a beautiful cross-court pass to Epps who nails a three to make it 66-68 anyways. Coleman Hawkins is a tremendous player who has spectacular moments, but his mistakes and inconsistent effort on defense will have Illinois fans pulling their hair out all year.
Illinois often tried to create off the bounce instead of creating through motion and running the flex offense. The Illini ended the game with 16 turnovers to 11 assists. Skyy Clark, Shannon, and RJ Melendez all struggled to make an impact early in the game. Melendez bounced back and had a great second half and Jayden Epps stepped up to replace Clark. Terrance Shannon took over late in the game and in overtime to seal the victory. Inconsistent play from everyone on the roster is a theme for Illinois.
Illinois’ inconsistency was on display against Penn State. No one really played well against the Nittany Lions and Illinois was cold from three shooting 30%. Again Illinois isolated and dribbled too much instead of running a real offense which led to only 11 assists and 11 turnovers. With a team like Penn State who stays in front of you defensively, Illinois needs to run the offense to create natural separation and more open shots. Not running offense in favor of dribble-heavy isolations causes more contested shots, low assist numbers, and of course more turnovers.
Penn State played small almost all game and opted to play with 5 guards who were all shorter than 6 foot 6. Illinois failed to make Penn State pay in the paint or on the glass for playing 5 out. Illinois barely outrebounded them and only grabbed 7 offensive boards despite being much taller and longer. Penn State instead enforced their will and drove past Illinois defense and went 12-24 from three to steal a win in Champaign. Shoutout Andrew Funk and his funky three point form, who killed Illinois with 6 threes. Penn State’s starting five in this game with Andrew Funk, Camren Wynter, Myles Dread, Seth Lundy, and Jalen Pickett might be the most experienced group in the Big Ten. Their experience and chemistry highlighted the lack of experience and chemistry this Illinois team has together.
This was a very tough week for Illinois. It isn’t shocking that they went 1-2 in this 3 game stretch. I still love this Illinois roster and how it’s constructed. Illinois has two true point guards in Skyy Clark and Jayden Epps, a stud shooting guard in Shannon, a group of athletic wings in RJ Melendez, Ty Rodgers, and Sencire Harris, stretch forwards in Hawkins, Mayer, and eventually Luke Goode when he returns from injury, and finally a true center in Dainja when they need one. Coach Underwood has a versatile roster that can play multiple lineup styles. On any given night anyone can be the guy as Clark, Epps, Shannon, Hawkins, Dainja, Mayer, etc. have had great games before.
The other way to look at Illinois is if anyone can be the guy does that just mean nobody is the guy? Terrance Shannon Jr. has been excellent but also has disappeared too often. With how inconsistent the roster has been, Underwood does not know what his best lineup is. One of Clark and Epps needs to step up and be a consistent starting guard. Mayer and Melendez need to be more consistent in their supporting roles.
If you can play any style, can you play any one of them the best? Inconsistent roster lineups might be a big reason for all of the dribble-heavy, turnover-laden, poor shot selection stretch of play. In the preseason preview, I wrote about how Coach Underwood has won the most Big Ten games of anyone in the past three years and this is his opportunity to show what kind of coach he is without Kofi Cockburn. Coach Underwood needs to coach up this team to focus them on running that pretty flex offense, so they can cut down on turnovers, increase the assists, and get better looks.
Illinois has the talent to beat anybody. The Illini are so inconsistent that they can lose to anyone too. This team will get better over the course of the year and gain experience and chemistry to hopefully minimize the inconsistency. Illinois might not win the Big Ten (an 0-2 start puts them at a disadvantage), but the goal should be to make some noise in the tourney. Trust me, Illinois fans will be expecting more out of Underwood and the Illini come March this year after some early exits the past few seasons.
A Turbulent Week for Iowa
Iowa had a loaded week with 3 difficult games against Duke, rival Iowa State, and Wisconsin.
The week didn’t start well with a loss to Duke in which Iowa looked outmatched. Adding insult to injury was an actual injury to Kris Murray.
Iowa bounced back in the next game and dominated Iowa State in Carver Hawkeye arena. The Hawkeyes jumped on Iowa State early and never looked back. No Kris Murray, no problem. Filip Rebraca was that dude for the Hawkeyes. The two McCaffrey sons had great games to earn the 500th career win for their dad Fran.
Then on Sunday, Iowa and Wisconsin had one of the best games of the season. After going ice cold down the stretch, Tony Perkins orchestrated a heroic comeback after stealing the ball from Wisconsin and dishing it to Patrick McCaffrey for a three to force overtime. Overtime was electric with back and forth action, but it was Tyler Wahl,Chucky Hepburn, and the Badgers who got the last laugh. Wahl and Hepburn were huge in OT and each had game changing steals on Perkins to swipe a road victory in Iowa City. Side note Tyler Wahl’s wave goodbye to the Iowa faithful as time expires has shot him up the, “I wanna punch this guy” power rankings. Truly seems like he is aiming to be up there with Hunter Dickinson.
After the tumultuous 3 game week Iowa comes out 1-2. Iowa fans had the extreme high of demolishing their In-state rival, but also had the extreme lows of losing to their Big Ten rival Wisconsin at home, getting blown out in a national game against Duke, and their best player Kris Murray getting hurt. Iowa is a good team that just needs to get healthy. Good news for Iowa fans is that the Hawkeyes can recharge with just two games against directional schools in the next 10 days.
The Weird, wild, wacky Big Ten!!
This is just a quick shout out to the beautiful mess that is the big ten. Penn State began the weekend with a home loss to a Michigan State team who just lost at home to Northwestern. As discussed, Penn state ended the week by beating Illinois in Champaign.
Nebraska on Wednesday is throttled by IU in Bloomington and on Saturday took #4 ranked Purdue to overtime. Iowa dismantles Iowa state and then loses at home to Wisconsin in overtime 3 days later.
Of course there are amazing finishes in this conference too. Ohio State is bailed out at home by a prayer from Tanner Holden to beat Rutgers, Keisei Tominanga hits a three with seconds left to force overtime against Purdue, the Perkins’ steal and McCaffrey three to force overtime that I already mentioned were just the examples from this week alone.
Results are always up in the air in a conference this competitive night to night. Do they all make sense? No! Is there a clear favorite to win the conference? Maybe Purdue but definitely not 100% on that. That’s why the Big Ten regular season race is so god damn fun.
Cleaning the Glass
Quickly, let’s hit some other big results from the week.
Maryland vs. Tennessee
Maryland lost a battle of attrition against Tennessee in the Barclays Center on Sunday. Maryland was down 34-17 at half and battled back all second half but fell just short. Jahmir Young had an impressive game again and had Maryland one or two makes away from a win. The Terps went 2-24 from 3. Oops. The fact they were still in it against #7 ranked Tennessee is a testament to their defense and mental makeup. Maryland will need to regroup quickly as they take on UCLA on Wednesday.
Seton Hall vs. Rutgers
I hope nobody watched this slugfest of a game between Seton Hall and Rutgers over Iowa and Wisconsin. Brutal week for Rutgers losing at the buzzer in Columbus and then losing the Garden State Classic despite only giving up 45 points. I think every Rutgers game this year will be a grit your teeth, every possession is painful, type game with no one scoring above 70 points.
Indiana vs. Arizona will be covered in more detail next week but Indiana lost to Arizona in a game where Arizona’s bigs overpowered Trayce Jackson-Davis. Jalen Hood-Schifino did not play if you only checked the box score for this game.
Wisconsin also won at home against Maryland this week so quite the week for them. Can this Wisconsin team somehow once again finish in the top 4 of the Big Ten?
No-Explanation Power Rankings
You might wonder why in a week full of weird contradicting results more movement didn’t happen in the power rankings. You might wonder why I moved Rutgers up above Ohio State after they outplayed them in Columbus but lost at a last second heave. You might wonder why I’m not punishing IU for losing a game to a great Arizona team. But you won’t find out because this is the no-explanation power rankings for this week!
- Purdue
- Indiana
- Maryland
- Illinois
- Wisconsin
- Michigan
- Iowa
- Rutgers
- Ohio State
- Michigan State
- Penn State
- Northwestern
- Nebraska
- Minnesota
Next Week’s Big Games
- Maryland has another opportunity for a big win with the Under Armor bowl against UCLA on Wednesday
- Indiana will travel to Allen Fieldhouse to play Kansas on Saturday in the best game of the week. It will be extremely difficult for IU to win in Lawrence but its awesome to see two of the biggest programs play each other in one of the most prestigious venues in College Basketball. IU will need Hood-Schifino back for that one.
- DePaul vs Northwestern on Saturday is the Chicago Bowl you never knew you needed.
- UNC takes on Ohio State in the CBS Sports classic on Saturday. UNC will look to bounce back to form against a Buckeyes team who is somehow 7-2.
- Finally, The Loyer Bowl is the last big game on Saturday as Michigan State transfer Foster Loyer and Davidson take on his younger brother Fletcher Loyer and the number one ranked Purdue Boilermakers.
Next week’s spotlight team is Indiana. Enjoy this week as this is one of the last good weeks before the weaker Christmas break portion of the schedule. Should be another great week in the Big Ten and I can’t wait to break it down with you next Monday!!