COLUMN: In a Nothing-But-Bizarre 2020, No. 8 Illinois Produces Extraordinary Season Opening Performance
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- It may just fit the 2020 narrative of weird, uncomfortable and bizarre for Illinois to effortlessly glide through such a game.
So let’s begin with the common caveats as to why you’ll likely be inclined to ignore the 62-point victory by Illinois in this 2020-21 season opener. Of course, we can start the devil’s advocate case by saying it’s not close to March 2021.
Turn to your calendar and despite all the norms of daily life the COVID-19 epidemic has taken away from us, I’m told Thanksgiving still exists in the month of November. Therefore, we’ve all got a long, winded, likely weird coronavirus road to get to figuring out how exciting this highly-anticipated Illinois basketball team can be.
Trust me, all the people looking around a near-empty State Farm Center in Champaign, listening to the artificial crowd noise and feeling hope for a COVID-19 vaccine know little to nothing was normal about what Wednesday’s season opener produced.
“You know me, I love letting the Orange Krush have it and getting them going and waving to them and dapping up the scorer’s table,” Illinois head coach Brad Underwood said. “That’s such a thrill, and it’s so exciting. You just get the juice going. “I miss (fans). I’m used to 15,000 screaming and it being loud. I love everything loud. I hope sooner or later we’re back in that position where every seat’s filled. In the meantime, we’ll have to grow accustomed to what is now our new norm, I guess.”
Oh, it’s a new normal that’s for sure. A team that in 2019-20 was dead last in the Big Ten Conference 3-point shooting at 30.9 percent made a school-record 17 of 31 shots from that distance. Nearly 42 percent of the Illini’s points came from something they flat out couldn’t do last season - consistently hit perimeter shots.
“We were a better shooting team than we showed a year ago," Illinois head coach Brad Underwood said Wednesday. "Maybe it was the new (3-point) line and the arc being moved back but Trent (Frazier) is an elite shooter and Ayo (Dosunmu) has been a great shooter in his career as well. So, yeah, we also set out to change that (perception) in recruiting and obviously Adam (Miller) is an elite shooter."
Miller, in his first collegiate game, connected on 6 of 8 from beyond the 3-point arc and did so with the arrogance of this being, to steal a noted phrase of Underwood’s program, a “everyday thing from an everyday guy”.
Of all the games that tipped Wednesday, only three other contests between a pair of Division I schools had margins of 50 or more (Arkansas defeated Mississippi Valley State 142-62, Wake Forest defeated Delaware State 111-51 and Xavier defeated Oakland 101-49).
This isn’t supposed to happen. Before Wednesday, Illinois has eclipsed the 100-point mark against a Division I opponent in a 40-minute game only twice since 2015.
Finally, let’s look at the one thing that usually any coach will say always takes time to develop - defense. Illinois didn’t allow North Carolina A&T to score for seven minutes. During that time, which included three timeouts, the Illini just went on your normal, run-of-the-mill 21-0 run.
Any coach at any level would happily tell you that locking in on the defensive end before Thanksgiving isn’t normal. It’s way above the bell curve of where a team should be peaking.
“One of the things we’re striving to be is be one of the best defensive teams in the country (and) that’s not easy (and) that doesn’t happen every single night,” Underwood said. “We’ve got to be able to have some grit and fight and I was really pleased with that in the first half.”
Now, we can finally move into the opponent itself. Illinois head coach Brad Underwood said he and his team wanted to see a group of human beings in a different jersey. But, what if those players in other jerseys just aren’t any good?
Ken Pomeroy’s rating system has North Carolina A&T at No. 310 of 357 Division I programs so the Illini’s 122-60 win is likely to be placed in the bottom tier win category by the NCAA tournament selection committee.
So, Wednesday’s season opener will never be confused with a high quality victory.
However, Illinois isn’t supposed to win this type of game by 62. That’s not normal.
North Carolina A&T Aggies guard Fred Cleveland Jr. (right) goes up for a shot as Illinois Fighting Illini guard Adam Miller (44) defends during the first half at the State Farm Center.
Patrick Gorski/USA TODAY Sports
North Carolina A&T, which has won 54 games in the last three seasons, isn’t a program that typically just lays down to the ranked and power conference opponents after they receive guaranteed game payments. In the last three previous seasons, North Carolina A&T was 0-10 against ranked and/or power conference schools but the 31-point margin by Illinois from last year’s game is the largest. The average margin in these types of losses for A&T, which has the league’s Preseason Coach of the Year and Player of the Year selections in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, are 19.6 points. Let it not be mistaken, the difference between a 20-point win and a 62-point win isn’t in the same solar system for a 40-minute college basketball format.
The last time North Carolina A&T, which was a 25.5-point underdog coming into today, lost a game by 50 points or more was Nov. 18, 2012.
So, what if North Carolina A&T isn’t a bad basketball team. Maybe more importantly, what if Illinois is this good?