COLUMN: If Illinois Can Maintain This ‘D’, They're Dancing In March
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Journalists typically love to ask the key follow-up question.
The first question is usually obvious to acknowledge and not that complicated to answer. But it’s next question which becomes what hard-hitting, big-picture thinking reporters drool over.
The first question is, of course, how did that happen? And like I promised, the answer is rather elementary. Illinois guarded all five positions on the floor better than it had at any point during the Brad Underwood era and Purdue is something worse than putrid offensively away from its home arena.
However, the follow-up inquiry following Illinois’ defensive dismantling of Purdue, in a 63-37 home win that was needed for so many big and small reasons Sunday night, will take some time to answer.
Question No. 2: Is Illinois that 12,153 saw live at State Farm Center Sunday a flash in the pan performance or can it withstand the next two months of a Big Ten Conference gauntlet? Answer: we’re about to find out.
Purdue has been playing the sport of men’s collegiate basketball for some time. A famous alumni is John Wooden and they have his famous ‘Pyramid of Success’ outside its home arena. Sunday night was a low moment for a historically proud basketball program. The 25 percent shooting from the field was a school-record low. That’s 123 years and never has that program seen offensive futility as they showcased on Illinois’ home floor.
This Purdue putridness came less than 48 hours after Illinois tried to set jump-shooting back several decades (3 of 28 from 3-point range at Michigan State) in a 20-point loss. When everybody was convinced this Illinois team better to the proverbial Wizard to learn to make perimeter shots, what did Illinois do? They just kept defending.
The Illini (10-5, 2-2) came into Sunday allowing an average of 63.2 points on 40.8% shooting, including 30.3% from 3-point range in the last six games. Under the premise that the MSU Debacle might be a trend and not a one-off, Underwood’s bunch flipped the assumed winning script and turned up that end of the floor even more.
This isn’t the team that allowed Arizona to get 90 points with ease and it’s not the Illini squad that allowed Miami (Fla.) to casually put up 50 points in the first half at the State Farm Center. No, this is the team that held Maryland to 33 percent shooting in its own building and allowed Michigan to make just 3 of 18 3-pointers.
In four games of Big Ten play (all of which have come against opponents projected by USA Today bracket expert Shelby Mast as in the NCAA Tournament field), Illinois has held opponents to 36.3 percent shooting from the field, 23.8 percent from 3-point range and just 58.5 points per game.
Give Trent Frazier a lot of credit for acquiring maturity points over this last month. The junior has gone from a 40-percent 3-point shooting threat to a lead guard who casually makes a deep shot every now and again (34.6 percent). Most players known for their scoring would let that slump affect their energy and effort on the defensive end. Forget that, Frazier is getting the top perimeter assignment every single time on the floor. Sunday night he frustrated Purdue’s Sasha Stefanovic into a 3-for-9 effort in 27 minutes. The guy who Underwood described as a freshman as a player who “couldn’t guard (a media member)” is now talking about making an All-Big Ten Defensive team as a primary goal.
Needless to say, Illinois’ shooting woes can continue through these next few months and as long as its as locked in defensively as it was Sunday night, the big postseason tournament that has alluded this program since 2013 could still very much still be on the horizon.
“Tonight, they played like a team who hadn’t been to the NCAA Tournament,” Purdue head coach Matt Painter said. “They outplayed us, played harder than us and were better than us in every way.”
A year after being near the bottom of the Big Ten Conference in scoring defense, is a 2019-20 version of Illinois that has already experienced more twist and turns than a Six Flags roller coaster capable of riding its defense to its first postseason destination? Who knows, least of which any player or coach in that Illini locker room.
Here’s an easy follow-up question: What happens if they do?
Answer: Well then, come March, it’s safe to say they’ll be dancing a happy tune.