Spartans Can't Overcome Turnovers and a Poor Defensive Performance Here in Illinois and Lose 78-73

Assembly Hall Champaign, IL  The Spartans had to play without their best player Kalin Lucas against the 15-8 (7-3) Illini. The Illinois team and crowd

Assembly Hall

Champaign, IL

 

It was a long night for Tom Izzo watching his team turnover the ball and fail to play the defense he demands. Photo courtesy of Mark Boomgaard

The Spartans had to play without their best player Kalin Lucas against the 15-8 (7-3) Illini. The Illinois team and crowd was on fire with ESPN’s Gameday in the house and one again the Spartans were plagued with turnovers (18) and a poor start.

 

Izzo described his teams bad start as, “…the way we guarded in the first half and foolish turnovers,” and he was right. The Spartans shot 54% for the game, but allowed Illinois to shot 52%. The Spartans had a +10 ratio in turnovers and simply lost.

 

If I had told you that they would hold Mike Tisdale to six points, have a +10 rebounding advantage and shoot 54% we all would have mortgaged our houses on a win. They didn’t. “We knew from the beginning that we could compete with these guys. We let one slip up there,” was how the Illini’s Demetri McCamey described his team’s performance.

 

I asked Mike Davis if their win was tempered with Kalin Lucas being out, “NO! They are still a top five team and a win is a win.” 

 

Izzo acknowledge pride in his team for competing, especially his star Draymond Green who had 17 points and 16 boards. In fact he described Green as, “WARRIOR. He grits his teeth and doesn’t care…Perfect Spartan…I’m going to ride him…”

 

Green was not as excited in the post-game locker room. He described his teams two game slide as, “Our will to win is gone.” Izzo seemed to foreshadow those comments when he said, “Winning matters to him (Green) and we need a few more like him right now.”

 

The Spartans are a very good team. Losing Lucas matters, but this team has enough talent to overcome that loss and should have won. Now they will have to dig deep. Even Green acknowledged that what once looked like the Spartans running away with the Big Ten title, was now a dogfight. Four teams are now only one game behind the Spartans with three Big Ten losses in Purdue, Ohio State, Wisconsin and Illinois.