NCAA bid vanishes as Illini flaws resurface
INDIANAPOLIS -- A 13-18 regular season left Illinois needing to be perfect at the Big Ten tournament to extend its NCAA streak to nine years.
Three wins in three days gave the Illini a chance at that miracle bid, but they needed a perfect effort Sunday to beat a top-10 team like Wisconsin.
And if there's one thing Illinois has most definitely not been this season it's perfect.
Wisconsin exposed many of the Illini's seasonlong flaws in front of 14,579 in the Big Ten championship game at Conseco Fieldhouse.
The Badgers went ahead midway though the first half, led by double figures throughout the second half, and coasted to a 61-48 victory for their second title in five years.
Maybe it was the effects of playing four games in four days, maybe it was simply the talent difference between the teams -- and maybe it was a combination of both -- but Illinois (16-19) couldn't stay close.
"I think our kids gave a great effort all weekend," Illinois coach Bruce Weber said. "I'm sure it (fatigue) is a little bit of factor, but more than anything we faced a very tough team."
A pro-Illini crowd in a two-thirds-full arena energized Illinois early. Calvin Brock scored 4 points off the bench for an 8-4 lead. Demetri McCamey's steal and dunk tied the game at 10-10.
That was the last tie.
If Illinois needed a break by catching the Badgers (29-4) on a cold-shooting day, they got the opposite. Wisconsin made 5 of 9 3-pointers to build a 29-22 halftime lead and finished 9 of 18.
"If they are going to shoot like that, it's tough," Weber said. "On the third day maybe they won't have legs. They stepped up and made shots."
The Illini's shooting woes, which they managed to avoid for three days, resurfaced. Illinois shot 49 percent from the field and made 47 percent of its 3-pointers over the previous three games, but those numbers fell to 40 and 23 Sunday.
Shaun Pruitt tried to keep Illinois in the game in the second half, scoring its first 8 points. He finished with a game-high 13.
"I think we could have kept our poise a little more early," Pruitt said. "As a team we tried to do too much too soon. You can't do that vs. Wisconsin. The margin for error is very small."
Illinois is the only No. 11 and No. 10 seed to reach the Big Ten championship game. While the Illini lost both games, the 1999 team carried the momentum into 2000. They went 22-10 to start an eight-year NCAA Tournament streak that ended Sunday.
It remains to be seen if this year's run will provide the same bounce. Will it serve as the kind of confidence boost for young players like McCamey as 1999 did for Corey Bradford?
Or was this year's run more a product of a down year for the Big Ten and the ball bouncing Illinois' way in a string of close wins? The Illini defeated Penn State by 1, Purdue in overtime and Minnesota by 4.
They'll find out next season.
"I feel good about our kids," Weber said. "Obviously, I wish it would have been a more successful season, but they continued to battle and didn't quit. Even today they gave it their all. We finally figured it out at the end."