#21 Illinois Neutralizes Mackey Magic to Beat Purdue 79-62
For a reasonable shot at the NCAA tournament in this wacky college basketball year, Purdue needed to clear one hurdle: hold the homestead and sweep games at Mackey. It was an unlikely expectation; while Kenpom had Purdue favored in each of their home games, the likelihood that Purdue would win the lot of their home games was just over 5%.
Enter #21 Illinois, one of this year’s surprising stories from a truly wonky Big Ten basketball season.
Two weeks ago, Illinois put a historic thumping on Purdue in their house, holding Purdue to only 37 points and following up that game by wins at Wisconsin and vs Rutgers. And just in case you thought their home-heavy schedule was the reason for their early run at the Big Ten title, well, I hope you didn’t catch tonight’s rematch at Mackey.
That’s right, Illinois and Rutgers are real viable threats to Michigan State at the top of the conference, 2020 is definitely going to be a weird year.
(We’re gonna forego Good/Bad/Ugly for tonight, because things weren’t great.)
As pointed out by Dylan at UMhoops, Illinois has a very good post defense but struggled to defend good wings in isolation or in the pick-and-roll. Unfortunately Carsen Edwards isn’t routinely dropping 40 points in isolation on hapless college defenses anymore, so I was hoping to see Purdue learn from their thrashing two weeks ago and lean more heavily on the Eric Hunter – Matt Haarms pick-and-roll tonight.
But early in the game belonged, as usual, to Trevion Williams, who hit two quick post buckets but then went silent as post-entry passes were denied by Kofi Cockburn, a 7-foot 300lb 18 year old basketball playing cyborg. Purdue went through their traditional 5+ minute scoring slump via endless inefficient midrange shot attempts, giving us our first glimpse that Mackey Magic might be on hold for an evening.
But as I always say, there’s no wake-up call quite like a smack in the groin and a shoe in the chest.
Alan Griffin, Illinois’ wing that killed Purdue two weeks ago with 16 points and 12 rebounds in Champaign, took a cheap swing at Sasha’s pelvic regions and intentionally stepped on Sasha’s chest after Sasha hit a layup.
(Shoutout to Brad Underwood, who didn’t seem to utter a word in Griffin’s defense.)
Griffin’s cheap shot at Sasha knocked Purdue back into attention as Sasha’s layup, two free throws, and two steals kicked off (ha!) a 7-0 run over 90 seconds. Mackey was awake, and we had a close game back on our hands.
But here was the official Warning Sign #2 that tonight wasn’t going to be ideal: Illinois went 6 straight possessions without a bucket (three turnovers and five missed shots), and Purdue scored…2 points. This was an early chance to demoralize Illinois after one of their better players was ejected, and they let the Illini regain their balance.
Despite everything, the first half ended with Purdue seizing a slim 30-29 lead after a gorgeous Sasha pass to a cutting Nojel Eastern for a dunk, and a Hunter three. (And a WHEELER THREE POINTER!). It seemed like things were still within striking distance, and the only thing needed was Purdue’s early routine second half run in Mackey.
And, well…
Purdue started the half with a lid on the basket, grabbing tons of offensive rebounds but missing every bunny at the rim. Cockburn (22 points, 15 rebounds) was joined by guards Trent Fraizer (21 points on 5/7 shooting) and Ayo Dosunmu (18 points on 8/12 shooting and 11 assists) in killing any semblance of energy remaining in Mackey, deflating Purdue while shooting an absurd 75% from the field (15/20) and 16/17 from the line in the second half.
These are not good numbers.
Honestly, I was expecting Purdue to struggle a bit offensively against an Illinois defense that matches up perfectly with this year’s Boilermakers. But I wasn’t expecting Nojel and Matt Haarms’ defense to allow these offensive numbers in the second half.
Haarms was passing up wide-open three pointers during Purdue’s first half scoring slumps, which isn’t a thing Purdue can afford. Trevion was inefficient in the post, but Purdue should have been ready to provide him with relief on the perimeter. Hunter and Stefanovic were invisible in the second half, when Purdue needed their wings to attack Illinois’ seeming vulnerability.
Bench scoring remains an issue – Purdue only saw production from Nojel Eastern, who had an energetic night (14 points on 7/15 shooting and 5 rebounds), with Evan Boudreaux and Jahaad Proctor as non-factors. Isaiah Thompson continues to show flashes of promising offensive play, but he’s still a vulnerability defensively.
Bottom line: Tonight’s loss was a failure to effectively exploit Illinois’ vulnerability with the pick-and-roll, with Purdue not willing to rest their gameplan on Haarms’ shoulders attacking the rim as Trevion occupied one of Illinois’ defenders in the post. Instead, Matt Painter was hoping that a traditional complement of Trevion post touches and one perimeter scorer catching fire in Mackey would be enough to deliver the win.
Unfortunately, the perimeter scoring didn’t materialize, and Illinois’ offense wasn’t contained. The Big Ten might not be top-heavy this year, but I struggle to find easy wins remaining on Purdue’s schedule. While Illinois is very good this year, I think this loss might end Purdue’s tournament hopes outside of an unforeseen late-season run. I hope to be wrong.
