Illini's Weber concerned following Challenge loss

COLLEGE PARK, Md. --Once or twice during every nonconference slate, Illinois coach Bruce Weber gauges his team's play and senses impending Armageddon.

After the Illini's 69-61 Big Ten/ACC Challenge loss at Maryland on Wednesday night, Weber remained in the locker room for several extra minutes to deliver a few warnings.

"We just didn't play very smart," Weber said. "I told them, 'If you feel good about it, we're in trouble. If it hurts a little bit and you want to get better and you'll do it in practice, then we have a chance to become a better team.' "

For much of a ragged night, Illinois (4-2) played hard enough to hang with a Maryland squad that entered the night with a 129-2 nonconference home record during Gary Williams' 18-plus years as coach.

There were 15 lead changes and 10 ties during the opening 28 minutes, at which point the score was 44-44.

Then, Terps freshman swingman Cliff Tucker came off the bench to nail an open 3-pointer and take a blocked shot coast to coast for a layup.

Illinois eventually sliced an 8-point second-half deficit to 62-60 on Shaun Pruitt's putback of his own miss with 1:15 to go, but he missed the subsequent free throw.

The Illini then produced just 1 point on its five possessions in the final minute as Maryland hit 7 of 9 free throws to wrap it up.

Weber didn't like the fact that his Illini hit just 33 percent of their shots. He didn't like the 29 3-point attempts, the most since last Dec. 21 against Idaho State.

He didn't like the lack of aggressiveness, which showed up in Illinois' 9 free-throw attempts.

Oh, and he didn't like the lack of production from his top three veterans.

Senior forward Brian Randle picked up his second foul at the 14:53 mark and sat for the rest of the first half. He finished with 7 points and 7 rebounds in 24 minutes.

Pruitt, the team's other senior, tried a career-high 16 shots -- many of them against double- and triple-teams in the post -- but hit just 4 and wound up with 10 points and 8 rebounds.

Junior point guard Chester Frazier, the Baltimore native playing in front of dozens of friends and family, didn't score in 36 minutes of play. He did produce 7 rebounds and a team-high 5 assists, but Weber had to sit him down less than four minutes in because he was too wound up.

"When it comes down to it, you're as good as your upperclassmen," Weber said. "You're not going to win if those are your upperclassmen."

One last team-wide warning?

"We have to get better in practice," Weber said. "We've just got too many guys in practice who don't go hard enough to make strides and put in the extra time. If they don't start doing that, we're going to have trouble beating good-quality teams."