Illinois crushes Minnesota in Big Ten opener
Fortunately for Illinois, it didn't have much time to dwell on Saturday night's 81-78 loss to Missouri, its third straight Braggin' Rights defeat that knocked the Illini out of the Top 10.
Not with its Big Ten schedule beginning Tuesday in Champaign - a Big Ten slate, always a killer, that's more difficult than ever.
Big Ten teams entered this week at 61-15, the best conference record in the country. Seven are ranked in the AP Top 25, including the Illini at No. 13.
The Illini's opponent Tuesday, Minnesota, isn't one of them. But the Gophers entered at 6-0, and they raced to an 18-10 lead seven minutes in as the free-throw woes that cost Illinois the Missouri game returned.
This is the type of game Illinois can't afford to lose if it wants to contend for its first Big Ten title since 2005, and the Illini quickly turned the tables. They got the ball inside to 7-foot sophomore Kofi Cockburn, outscored the Gophers 22-2 in the paint in the first half, and raced to an 11-0 advantage on fastbreak points.
A 22-3 run erased that 8-point deficit as the Illini took a 40-29 halftime lead on the way to an 92-65 victory - their first win in a conference opener since 2013.
"I was very curious to see how we would react," Illini coach Brad Underwood said. "This is going to be one of the toughest schedules in the history of this university, and now we've got 19 more. There was a real focus tonight and glad to see that."
Cockburn, who struggled at times in nonconference play, got going early, and the Illini kept feeding him. He scored a career-high 33 points on 12-of-15 shooting and grabbed 13 rebounds.
"Today I focused on getting to my spots and those are the shots I practice every day," Cockburn said.
The Illini (5-2, 1-0) outrebounded the Gophers 53-35, held Minnesota to 27.5% shooting from the field, and led by as many as 36.
"You hold a team in this league to 27%, you are doing a lot of good things on that end," said Underwood, praising Trent Frazier's hounding of Gophers leading scorer Marcus Carr into 3-of-13 shooting. "We have to continue to work and grow but tonight was a big step."
Junior guard Ayo Dosunmu, coming off a career-high 36 points, struggled. The only player in the country averaging 20 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists, Dosunmu finished with 10 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists.
But the one-man attack didn't work in the closing minutes vs. Missouri, and a more balanced effort is needed with the likes of No. 3 Iowa and No. 4 Michigan State coming up. Freshman point guard Andre Curbelo (9 points, 9 assists, 6 rebounds), Frazier (10 points) and Adam Miller (14 points, 4 3s) provided that.
"We know how good of a team we are," Frazier said. "The thing I love about this team is we don't dwell on our losses. After the Missouri game was out the window, we started preparing for this game. We have one goal and that's the Big Ten championship trophy."
The Illini return to action Sunday at No. 19 Rutgers (noon, ESPN2).