After losing a heartbreaker to Gonzaga in overtime Saturday, Illinois will return to a place that has offered it solace this season. The Illini will host the Iowa Hawkeyes at the Assembly Hall on Tuesday evening, where they are 8-0 this season and 85-16 under head coach Bruce Weber.
Despite Iowa sitting in the Big Ten cellar at 0-2, Illinois cannot overlook its conference opponent, as it has lost three of its past four games itself – meaning nothing is certain anymore for the Orange and Blue. Weber said the Hawkeyes run a lot of screens and that their shooters will force the Illini to guard more than they did in their nonconference games.
“I just challenged them,” Weber said of the team’s play on defense. “If we want to compete in the Big Ten — I think we’ve got enough ability to do that — we have to make a choice and make a decision to make defense a little bit of a priority.”
If the Illini want to compete with the likes of Purdue and Michigan State, they will have to find consistency down the stretch.
“Each game is a different problem – whether it’s scoring inside, or it’s rebounding, or it’s threes or it’s just our overall defense is just not very good,” Weber said. “But we still could have easily won the game against Gonzaga. It was there for the taking. There’s a lot of reasons, but the thing that probably just killed us down the stretch was our shot selection.”
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Weber noted he may make changes to the lineup before Tuesday night.
“I don’t know whether it’s Billy (Cole) or Dominique (Keller). We’ll just kind of see how practice goes (Monday). Whether it’s one, two or three guys, we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Keller led the Illini comeback that forced the extra period against the Bulldogs on Saturday, as he scored a career-high 22 points off the bench.
But Weber’s priorities remain on the other end of the court.
“The sad thing is, the last two games we’ve had freshmen guard the best players. That’s where we’re struggling. That’s where it’s at because they shouldn’t have to. I shouldn’t have to put Brandon Paul on (Matt) Bouldin at the end of the game.”
With all five starters averaging double figures in scoring, the Illini have proved they can shoot and score against anyone. How Weber’s squad guards the Hawkeye attack will likely determine the outcome of Tuesday’s contest.
