Three In The Key: What to Look For From Illini vs. No. 5 Michigan
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Illinois is finishing its stretch of the three M’s (Miami, Maryland and Michigan) hoping not to go winless.
It’s hard to imagine many college basketball programs having a better start to non-conference play than Michigan. Under first-year head coach Juwan Howard, Wolverines went from unranked to a Top 5 post by knocking off two top-10 opponents at the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament. First the Wolverines posted a 73-64 victory over No. 6 North Carolina in the semifinal. The following day, Michigan won the tournament’s title with an 82-64 win over No. 8 Gonzaga. The last time Michigan posted two straight wins over top 10 teams was during the Wolverines run to the 2018 Big Ten Tournament title at Madison Square Garden in New York. The Wolverines knocked off No. 2 Michigan State (75-64) in the semifinal followed by a 75-66 win over No. 8 Purdue in the championship game.
Michigan is averaging 80.3 points per game with four players averaging in double figures -- Isaiah Livers (15.1), Jon Teske (14.1), Zavier Simpson (12.3) and Eli Brooks (11.7). Livers, who leads U-M with 15.1 points per game, has three 20-plus point scoring outings, including a career-best 24 against Houston Baptist, 22 against Creighton and 21 vs. No. 8 Gonzaga (Battle 4 Atlantis). Overall he has scored in double digits in seven games. This season, Brooks has recorded the first four double-figure games of his career, including scoring a career-high
24, twice. The first was in the season opener against Appalachian State as he made a career-best five 3-pointers. The second was in the semifinal win over No. 6 North Carolina (Battle 4 Atlantis). Michigan had six players score in double figures in the Big Ten opening win vs. Iowa, including all five starters. The last time Michigan had six in double digits was against Illinois (Jan. 6, 2018).
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Before every game of the 2019-20 season, we’ll take a look at three things you’ll want to watch for after tip.
Game 10: No. 5 Michigan at Illinois
Date/Time/Place: Monday, Dec. 11, 2019: 8 p.m. CST, State Farm Center in Champaign, Ill.
Capacity: 16,618
Records: Michigan 8-1, 1-0 in Big Ten Conference; 30-7, 15-5 in Big Ten in 2018-19. Illinois 6-3, 0-1 in Big Ten; 12-21, 7-13 in Big Ten in 2018-19.
Line: Illinois by 1.5
Series notes: Illinois leads all-time series 87-85 but Michigan has won the last four meetings. Illinois holds a 57-28 record in Champaign against Michigan, however, U-M has won five of their last seven. Michigan holds a 5-2 record in neutral-site games with six of the seven played at the Big Ten Tournament. The other was an 83-81 win in the 1989 Final Four, where the Wolverines went on to win its first national title. There have been 31 games decided by three points or fewer with Michigan leading, 18-13. The last time a game was decided by fewer than three points was when Michigan knocked off Illinois at the 2014 Big Ten Tournament, 64-63, on March 14, 2014. The Wolverines moved on that year to the championship game, losing to Michigan State.
TV: BTN; Kevin Kugler (PBP), Robbie Hummel (analyst)
Radio (Illinois): Brian Barnhart (PBP), Doug Altenberger (analyst). The broadcast can be heard live on TuneIn online radio, Sirius/XM 372 and at FightingIllini.com.
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1. Can Kofi Cockburn handle the inside-outside game of Jon Teske?
Jon Teske is nearly averaging a double-double with his 14.1 points and 9.2 rebounds. The Michigan 7-footer is one of the first players to bring Cockburn’s 280-pound frame all the way out to the 3-point line to guard. So far, Teske has recorded four 10-plus rebounding games, including a career-best 15 vs. No. 8 Gonzaga (Battle 4 Atlantis final), 13 against Appalachian State, 12 against Houston Baptist and 10 at No. 1 Louisville. Teske has scored in double figures in eight games including a season-high 19 points vs. No. 8 Gonzaga (Battle 4 Atlantis final) but overall he has six games of 15-plus points. A year ago, Teske floated out to the top of the key for the pick and pop and drained 23 3-pointers. He made a career-best three 3-pointers, three times -- Northwestern (Jan. 13), at Minnesota (Feb. 21) and Nebraska (Feb. 28). This season he is 6-for-21 (28.6 percent) from long range.
Cockburn’s five double-doubles is tied for 11th in the NCAA, and ranks second among freshmen. Cockburn ranks 17th in the NCAA in rebounding – and No. 1 among freshmen – averaging 10.7 rpg. And he is ninth nationally in offensive rebounds with 4.1 offensive boards per game. Cockburn is No. 2 in the nation in offensive rebound percentage (20.1 percent) and ranks 28th in defensive rebound percentage (28.2 percent). Cockburn leads the team in scoring (15.4 ppg), marking the second straight year that a freshman is the Illini leading scorer following Ayo Dosunmu last season. Foul trouble needs to be a concern for Teske as Cockburn is 23rd nationally in fouls drawn per 40 minutes (7.2). While Cockburn is shooting 64.7% at the foul line this season, he is 16-17 on FT over the last four games.
Michigan Wolverines center Jon Teske (15) receives congratulations from guard David DeJulius (0) after scoring in the second half against the Iowa Hawkeyes at Crisler Center.
Rick Osentoski/USA TODAY Sports
Teske’s 2019-20 double-doubles:
• 17 points, 13 rebounds against Appalachian State (Nov. 5, 2019)
• 19 points, 15 rebounds vs. No.8/7 Gonzaga (Nov. 29, 2019; Battle 4 Atlantis)
• 18 points, 10 rebounds at No. 1/1 Louisville (Dec. 3, 2019; ACC/B1G Challenge)
2) Can Illinois figure out its late-game situational issues?
Brad Underwood has spent additional time this week on late-game situations ahead of tonight’s matchup and after what’s happened against Miami and Maryland, that seemed like a no-brainer coaching decision.
“I think you get to a point where, you’re doing it once or twice a week and now we’re spending some time on it every day, talking about different actions and where we want to go," Underwood said. "We talk a lot about situations, score and time, not just the action of the play. We feel like we’ve got enough in. We’ve actually added a couple of things. We’ve got to be able to get Trent options and looks. Kofi (Cockburn) has made 16 of his last 17 free throws. We’re a little more comfortable now making him a viable option at the rim in the case of him getting fouled. We weren’t that early. We’ve spent a good amount of time on that the last couple of days."
3) Can slow down Michigan’s high-profile offense?
Despite plenty of season still remaining, Michigan’s 80.3 points per game is the most since the 1992-93 season (81.9) -- Juwan Howard’s sophomore year. In fact, since 1992-93 (27 seasons), Michigan has averaged over 75 points in a season five times -- 1993-94 (79.8), 1997-98 (77.4), 1999-2000 (75.5), 2012-14 (75.2) and 2016-17 (75.0). Believe it or not, the addition of Howard as the team’s head coach has only sped up Michigan’s offense as their much more interested in getting up shots early in a position than the deliberate pace of Belien’s offense. Illinois played outstanding defense on Saturday in College Park, holding No. 3 Maryland to just 33.3% shooting (21-63). It marked the lowest opponent field goal percentage in an Illini loss in more than 10 years, since Penn State shot 28.3% (13-46) on its way to a 38-33 victory in Champaign on Feb. 18, 2009.
Prediction:
This game to me comes to down to if Illinois can get out in transition because finding baskets in the half-court for 40 minutes has been a struggle for this team against quality competition. If Illinois can make jump shots and ride the emotion of what should be an emotional and desperate State Farm Center, they’ll have a shot (and probably why they’re a 2-point favorite) but I believe Michigan is simply filled with too many offensive options to drop this game against an unranked team on the road.