Jan. 25—Sign up for our daily basketball newsletter here
EVANSTON — Want to pinpoint the primary cause behind Illinois‘ 96-91 overtime loss at Northwestern?
There were some options. Another game of missed layup after missed layup played a role. But Brad Underwood would — and did — immediately point to his team’s defense.
A defense that allowed Northwestern to shoot 55 percent from the field overall. A defense that gave up 10 three-pointers in the second half and overtime. A defense that couldn’t slow down Boo Buie or Brooks Barnhizer.
“Completely my fault,” Underwood said. “I went to five-way switching. We blew more switches than we have all year long. That is completely, 100 percent on me. It’s been something that’s been very good for us. I thought we could give them a little different look. Bad coaching. Really bad coaching on that side.”
Illinois executed its defensive game plan in the first half against Northwestern. The foundation of Underwood’s scheme is to limit three-pointers and force opponents into tough twos.
Both happened in the first 20 minutes at Welsh-Ryan Arena. Northwestern was just 1 of 4 from three-point range in the first half, but took a 34-32 lead into the break because it converted those tough twos at a 58 percent clip.
After halftime was when the defensive breakdowns happened. Northwestern shot 10 of 14 from three-point range — a blistering 71 percent — in the second half and overtime.
“As the game wore on, we just kind of got lazy in some switches, didn’t stick to our principles and gave up some threes,” Illinois guard Marcus Domask said. “Just stuff that is uncharacteristic that we’ve got to clean up if we’re going to win these games.”
Quincy Guerrier said the defensive lapses were the product of poor communication.
“Communication is about being connected,” the Illinois forward said. “Being on the road, we have to be connected. We have to be tough. We outrebounded them. Usually when you outrebound a team by (14) you’re supposed to win games, but it’s hard to win games when they shot 61 percent from three at home.”
Barnhizer, Buie and Ty Berry all made multiple three-pointers for Northwestern in Wednesday’s win. Berry made all three of his three-pointers in the second half and finished with 14 points after being held scoreless in the first half.
Barnhizer and Buie were a combined 6 of 7 from three-point range in the second half and overtime and finished with 23 and 29 points, respectively.
How his team fared against an Illinois defense that tries to take away three-pointers — that tries to make teams attack the basket and funnels dribble drives at Coleman Hawkins — stood out to Northwestern coach Chris Collins.
“They really press up and want you to be a two-point (team),” Collins said. “We were getting a lot of pull-ups and floaters in the first half. We found some things in the second half to kind of get Ty (Berry) free off some off-ball movement. I thought we set some really good screens, but I was really proud of his patience. … He knows we need him to score. He knows he’s an X-factor, and he really didn’t get many looks in the first half.”
***
Illinois ultimately wasn’t able to match Northwestern’s three-point barrage despite posting a double-digit rebounding advantage behind a slew of offensive rebounds and making more free throws (18) than the Wildcats attempted (13).
Missing 20 layups was at the heart of that issue.
Illinois finished Wednesday’s game shooting just 42 percent at the rim. Fifteen made layups on 35 attempts. One successful dunk on three tries.
It was reminiscent of the Illini’s Jan. 14 home loss to Maryland when they shot just 39 percent at the rim.
“Nothing else to say,” Underwood said. “When you get the ball to the rim, you’ve got to make them. I’ll take those shots every single day.”
Hawkins scored 22 points to lead Illinois and was the most efficient of the starters shooting 8 of 16 from the field. Domask also had 22 points but on 9 of 18 shooting. Guerrier had 15 points on 4 of 12 shooting, and Terrence Shannon Jr. finished with 12 points on 3 of 8 shooting.
“You’re always going to miss some,” Domask said. “There’s some we definitely should have made. I give credit to them. They were contesting everything and walling up at the rim. They’ve got length and made it a little tougher.”
***
Justin Harmon played 15 minutes in the second half in a closing role. Then played the entirety of the overtime period. That left Ty Rodgers on the bench.
While Harmon did make a mid-post floater with 36 seconds remaining in regulation that gave Illinois a 76-74 lead, he finished with six points, three rebounds and two fouls in 28 minutes. Rodgers had six points, seven rebounds and two assists in just 16 minutes.
“It kept (Northwestern’s Matthew Nicholson) on somebody else,” Underwood said. Like many Big Ten teams, the Wildcats used their 7-footer to only loosely defend Rodgers. ” Ty didn’t play bad. It didn’t have anything more to do with anything other than the matchups we had.”
***
While Buie got hot from three-point range later in Wednesday’s game, he operated mostly in mid-range opportunities when he wasn’t getting to the rim in the first half. The latter were the shots Illinois was willing to give him.
“One-foot floaters from 17 feet and he makes them?” Underwood said. “Great. Great. That’s not an easy shot. To his credit, he’s one of the best guards in this league and has the ability to make some of those. We were going to let him shoot those all night.”
Domask found himself on Buie defensively often during Wednesday night’s game.
“He’s really good,” the Illinois guard said. “We know he can shoot it, he can drive it and he can pass it, too. You’ve got to play him straight up and just do your best.”
That was a matchup Northwestern went to often.
“They pride themselves on mismatches with how they play, and I felt like we had some mismatches, too, and we tried to exploit those on the other end,” Collins said. “I thought it really paid off.”
***
Guerrier matched 11 rebounds with his 15 points for his sixth double-double in his last eight games. Hawkins also had a double-double with a game-high 13 points. The duo had a dozen offensive rebounds between them, as Illinois turned 21 total offensive rebounds into 19 second-chance points.
“I know from the naked eye, I’ve seen a lot of basketball, they are absolute animals on the offensive boards at every position,” Collins said of the Illini. “They are just so tough. … I thought in the first first half our initial defense was pretty good. We were getting them to miss. We just couldn’t get the rebound. Down the stretch of regulation and then into overtime we started getting some of those. That was huge to not give up those second-chance points.”
