Indiana falls behind 21-2 and finds itself no match for Illinois

CHAMPAIGN - The only way Illinois could have enjoyed this more was if Kelvin Sampson had been on the visitors bench and forced to put Saturday's result on his permanent record.

Playing with palpable intensity and nailing almost every shot, the Illini crushed Indiana from the start for a 76-45 Big Ten whipping before the first Assembly Hall sellout this season.

With Trent Meacham and Demetri McCamey teaming for 5 early 3-pointers, Illinois zoomed to a 21-2 lead en route to the program's widest victory in the 103-year history of this contentious rivalry.

Meacham swished 7 of Illinois' season-high 13 3-pointers to account for his game-high 21 points. At the other end of the floor, the Illini forced 19 turnovers and turned them into 31 points.

"As I said in the locker room," said new Indiana coach Tom Crean, "we never guarded well enough and we were never tough enough today to earn a shot at this win."

Meanwhile, the tough love that Illinois (14-2, 2-1) showed the baby-faced Hoosiers (5-10, 0-3) bordered on child abuse.

Not because they wore Indiana uniforms, but because the Illini had to wait seemingly forever to atone for their 10-point loss last Sunday at Michigan.

"We looked at the Michigan game, we didn't play our defense," McCamey said. "We weren't pressuring the ball and getting into passing lanes.

"Coach Weber stressed throughout the week that we had to get into passing lanes and get steals and everybody play with high-energy and maintain that."

Not only did the Illini produce 11 steals, 7-foot-1 Mike Tisdale rejected Indiana's first 2 shots to set the tone for the team's season-high 9-block effort.

Though the suspense was gone from the game by the second media timeout, Crean and Illinois' Bruce Weber never stopped coaching.

Midway through the second half with Illinois leading by 26, Weber noticed senior point guard Chester Frazier wasn't quite inside IU freshman guard Verdell Jones' jock while defending him 40 feet from the hoop.

"Guard his (butt)!" Weber hollered.

"It's about getting better," Weber said afterward. "That's our biggest obstacle, just getting better."

Meanwhile, Crean kept screaming "Stance!" at his guys when they were on defense and ordering a million different plays when they were on offense.

Here's how obsessed Crean was about not wasting teachable moments: Weber called a timeout with 1:37 left to get walk-on guard Bubba Chisholm into the game - and the timeout was supposed to be just long enough for Chisholm to get on the floor.

Crean ignored that and gathered his team around him to draw up a play and offer more high-decibel instructions.

"We're rebuilding in a lot of ways," Crean said. "I plan to be here a very long time. Our staff plans to get this program back to where it has to be, to where it's competing where this is a meaningful game. ...

"Will that happen? I have no idea. But I know every day, we're not going to change what we're trying to do."