It’s been a while since Illinois was a nationally relevant program. At the beginning of the century, they made eight straight NCAA Tournament appearances, including a national runner-up finish in 2005. There’s a proud history in Champaign that younger people don’t know much about as a result. For a time, it looked like this season might not mark a return to that, but things just might be taking a better turn.
Illinois went above .500 in Big Ten play for the first time on Wednesday night by going to Wisconsin and ending a 15-game losing streak to the Badgers, edging them 71-70. Their last win over the Badgers was in 2011, when these players were still in grade school, and it also ends a four-game winning streak that the Badgers had.
The Fighting Illini solved the Wisconsin defense to the tune of over 49 percent shooting, including 7-16 from long range, while turning the ball over just seven times. They scored 30 points in the paint, with freshman big man Kofi Cockburn continuing to be a difference-maker with 15 points and a team-high six rebounds. But Wisconsin stayed close in part by out-rebounding Illinois and only committing one more turnover, and they converted well at the free throw line while Illinois could have easily blown this one with their 8-15 showing at the charity stripe.
Illinois doesn’t have a bad loss, save for perhaps to Missouri in the Braggin’ Rights game, but in non-conference play they whiffed on their best opportunities, getting blown out at Arizona and losing at home to Miami in a game where they fell behind big and ran out of time to complete a rally. They have wins over Michigan, Purdue and now Wisconsin in Big Ten play, which go a long way towards making up for that, and now get two in a row at home to try to get some momentum from this win.
It was a given that Brad Underwood probably needed a year or two to get this program going again, and over that time, it might have been easy to forget that he’s a pretty good coach. He won big at Stephen F. Austin and in his one year at Oklahoma State before Illinois plucked him away from an uncertain situation in Stillwater. He has the Fighting Illini looking like they just might turn the corner after all in year three, as they appear to be coming alive just in time after there was reason for a little concern in non-conference.
Side Dishes
The two undefeated teams in the country remained so through Wednesday, though Auburn got a scare from Vanderbilt. The Commodores were able to hang in first from Saben Lee’s career-high 27 points, and later from Aaron Nesmith coming alive for a couple of clutch shots, but Auburn made the plays after the Commodores got within one late to pull out an 83-79 win. San Diego State, meanwhile, took care of Wyoming 72-52 in Laramie.
Also in the SEC, LSU held of Arkansas 79-77 in Baton Rouge, getting 16 points and 16 rebounds from Darius Days as one of four double-digit scorers and two blocked shots by Charles Manning in the final seconds to hang on.
Georgetown needed to get back on track after losing their first two Big East games, and they did just that, blowing out St. John’s 87-66 on Wednesday night behind 24 points from Mac McClung. In a matchup of teams needing to get going, the Hoyas are now 1-2 in Big East play, while the Red Storm is 0-3. Later, Seton Hall scored a solid road win by getting four double-digit scorers to knock off Xavier 81-69 in Cincinnati, moving to 3-0 in Big East play.
Other results of note: Duke held off Georgia Tech 73-64; Kansas handled slumping Iowa State 79-53 in Ames; Florida State picked up another road win, this one a 78-68 win at Wake Forest; Alabama thumped Mississippi State 90-69; Indiana edged Northwestern 66-62; Cincinnati ran away from Tulsa 75-44; Stony Brook got a big 81-77 win at America East favorite Vermont behind 28 points and 11 rebounds from Elijah Olaniyi; Rhode Island dropped Davidson to 0-2 in Atlantic 10 play with a 69-58 win over the visiting Wildcats; NC State edged Notre Dame 73-68 after being down by five at the half; East Tennessee State scored a big 64-57 win at UNC Greensboro; Texas A&M-Corpus Christi handed Stephen F. Austin their first Southland loss by edging the Lumberjacks 73-72; Oklahoma won in Austin for the first time in five years with a 72-62 win over Texas; and in a surprise out west, San Jose State nipped Nevada 70-68.
Jeff Capel will get to be in Pittsburgh a little longer if he so desires, as the school has extended his contract by two more years to run through the 2026-27 season. Capel has quickly changed the momentum around the program, as they had fallen greatly before his arrival but have a clearly improved product on the court. The Panthers went on to even their ACC record at 2-2 on Wednesday night with a 73-65 win at slumping North Carolina.
TCU has received a Notice of Allegations from the NCAA related to the FBI investigation into corruption and former assistant coach Corey Barker. In March, the school fired Barker after he was named in a superseding indictment against Merl Code and Christian Dawkins, two key figures in the probe, with the government alleging that he accepted $6,000 in bribes to send players to Dawkins’ sports management business. Since Barker was never charged with a crime, he never became a big figure in the story like several other assistant coaches.
A day after the Big 12 fined West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins $10,000 for comments he made about officials, the Pac-12 reprimanded Washington State head coach Kyle Smith for the same thing. Smith referred to a play in the Cougars’ loss to USC last Thursday where two players were tied up, calling it “terribly officiated”, then seemed aware that he would hear from the conference office in saying, “I don’t know, do I get fined for that? Probably.”
Tonight’s Menu
The slate is heavy on mid-major action, especially early on.
- It’s a busy night in the state of Michigan as Purdue heads to Michigan in an important Big Ten game (7 p.m.), while later on Minnesota visits Michigan State (9 p.m.)
- A nice matchup in the American Athletic Conference is on the slate early as Wichita State hosts Memphis (7 p.m.)
- The CAA slate is highlighted by Hofstra visiting Northeastern (8 p.m.), while a bit earlier Delaware visits James Madison in a matchup of teams hoping to get a little momentum (7 p.m.)
- A full slate of Atlantic Sun action is highlighted by Liberty hosting North Alabama (7 p.m.)
- In the Sun Belt, Little Rock takes their 5-0 conference record into Troy (7 p.m.)
- A good matchup to watch in the MAAC is St. Peter’s visiting Siena (7 p.m.)
- In the Ohio Valley Conference, a pair of 2-0 teams clash as Murray State travels to Jacksonville State (9 p.m.)
- The Pac-12 takes over later on as Arizona visits Oregon and Washington goes to Stanford at 9 p.m., then Oregon State hosts Arizona State in one of the last games of the night (11 p.m.)
- Also out west is a good one in the Big Sky as Eastern Washington hosts Montana (9:05 p.m.)
- One other late game to check out is Saint Mary’s hosting BYU (11 p.m.)
