Illini seniors up to the task
CHAMPAIGN — Before Illinois took the floor against Iowa on Saturday night, Bruce Weber had the team’s checkered past stricken from the record.
“You can be negative and dwell on a lot of stuff that you can’t change now,” Weber said. “What you can control is what’s there. We have a three-game season.”
In a somewhat-related move, Weber required the Illini play Wiffleball during much of the Friday night time slot normally reserved for the scouting report.
Whether it was due to the historical whitewashing or the happy Wiffling, Illinois’ four seniors came out and delivered.
Mike Tisdale, Mike Davis and Demetri McCamey combined for 63 points — the highest single-game total of their careers — as the Illini went with their old starting lineup and controlled an 81-68 Big Ten victory at Assembly Hall.
Tisdale overwhelmed the smaller Iowa big men for a season-high 25 points. McCamey (18 points, 7 assists) had his best numbers in six weeks. Davis (20 points, 9 rebounds) just missed his 29th double-double.
“Everybody’s been hammering us the whole season,” Davis said. “Talking about, ‘Seniors this, seniors that, seniors not stepping up.’ Us four took it as a challenge to just play well.”
Fellow senior Bill Cole added just 2 points, but he posted 6 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 blocks to win the team’s Matto “Play Hard” chart.
“We thought we’d been playing well as a group for the past couple games,” Davis said. “But we wanted to take it out tonight and step up and just shut people up and just tell them the seniors are here — and we’re here to step up and lead this team to a big seed.”
Presumably, Davis’ last thought referenced the NCAA Tournament’s Selection Sunday that looms 14 days away.
Despite winning just five of its last 13 games, Illinois (18-11, 8-8) is included in the 68-team field by all 73 amateur and professional bracketologists listed on The Bracket Project website.
Weber, in addition to banishing the past, has been attempting another psychological improbability: To get his guys to believe they’re not in the field (to stay motivated) AND get them to believe they’re in the field (to give them confidence for games like Tuesday’s trip to No. 8 Purdue).
“The problem is, they all listen to stuff,” Weber said. “But we were in (the field) last year. “After we played Ohio State (in the Big Ten semifinals), everybody had us in.”
Of course, Illinois wound up on the wrong side of the bubble and settled for a No. 1 seed in the NIT.
“And that’s what we talked about — learn from the past,” Weber said. “That’s why Purdue is so big. If you could get a game like that, that’s another name on the resume-builder. And your RPI and everything.”
If they’re going to win at Purdue for the second time in three seasons, the Illini could use a healthy D.J. Richardson. The sophomore guard left for good with 17:50 to go after tweaking his hamstring.
Freshmen Jereme Richmond (shoulder) and Meyers Leonard (ankle) also are functioning at less than 100 percent.
“We can’t be settled with one (win),” Tisdale said, before referencing the fact Illinois hasn’t won two games in a row since Jan. 6. “That’s our forte so far. We’ve got to change that right now.”