Resilient Illinois responds
MINNEAPOLIS -- Bruce Weber was as curious as anybody to see how Illinois would respond after a heartbreaking, double-overtime loss to Indiana last week.
"I had no idea, I'll be honest," the Illini coach said, recounting a story about sitting next to the team doctor before Tuesday night's game against Minnesota. "I said, 'I'm not sure, Doc. I don't know.'
"Sometimes kids are more resilient than fans and coaches and adults."
Sometimes they are.
Trent Meacham made all five of this 3-pointers and scored 19 points as Illinois continued its dominance of Minnesota with an 84-60 victory.
Meacham bounced back from a 1-of-10 shooting performance in the loss to Indiana last week, going 6-for-7 from the field for Illinois (11-14, 3-9 Big Ten), which has now won 18 straight games over the Gophers. That's the longest active streak in the Big Ten.
"You're going to go through slumps during the season," Meacham said. "If I was 1-for-10 last game, the percentages are going to catch up to themselves."
Blake Hoffarber had 11 points for the Gophers (15-8, 5-6), who have now lost four conference games at home and likely will have to win the Big Ten tournament if they want to get into the NCAA Tournament in March.
The odds on them getting an at-large bid were long coming into this one, even before they were embarrassed by an Illinois team that has fallen on hard times.
"You get beat like this at home and it's the last thing (we're thinking about)," Gophers coach Tubby Smith said.
The Illini had lost five of their last six conference games, with the only win coming at home against lowly Northwestern. They came into Williams Arena smarting from an 83-79 loss to Eric Gordon and the Hoosiers.
"It showed me that the outlook of a child is probably a little different," Weber said. "The fans are agonizing. The coaches are agonizing. The kids responded pretty well."
But Meacham came out firing from the start and Sean Pruitt -- 13 points, 5 rebounds -- added the muscle inside before they turned up the defense on Minnesota to break the game open in the second half.
The Gophers made just 20.5 percent of their shots in the final 20 minutes.
"We just couldn't shoot at all tonight," said Spencer Tollackson, who was 4-for-10. "From layups to 3s to free throws, we couldn't make a shot."
And they couldn't defend, either.
Meacham made two 3s in a row to cap a 9-0 run for Illinois in the opening two minutes of the second half for a 48-35 lead. He added another 3-pointer in a 10-0 run moments later to stun what was an amped up crowd at the Barn, giving Illinois a 60-39 lead.
Smith could only watch with his hands on his hips, not recognizing a team that played so well in a convincing victory over Iowa on Saturday.
They had much more difficulty containing the athletic Illini, who made shots from the outside and beat up Minnesota down low in a complete effort. They shot 59 percent for the game and held Minnesota to 33 percent.
"We were just pathetic defensively," Smith said. "It was as bad as I've ever seen. That's because we've got guys that didn't show the toughness that they needed to show."
As for the Illini, a small but dedicated group of orange-clad fans who made the trip to the frigid Twin Cities cheered loudly in a nearly empty Barn as the clock expired.
"Tonight we played a full 40 minutes," Meacham said proudly. "That's what we've been missing all year."