Takeaways: Illinois 73, Northwestern 66
Northwestern outscored Illinois by seven points in the second half. But it wasn't enough to overcome a 14-point halftime deficit as Illinois beat the Wildcats, 73-66.
The win enabled the Illini to sweep the Cats for the third straight season and extend their rivalry winning streak to eight. The loss also snapped Northwestern's three-game winning streak.
The game was defined by two runs: Illinois opened the game with a 15-4 run to take command of the game, and the 'Cats responded with a 19-2 run halfway through the second half to add drama for the stretch run.
The Illini held on for the narrow win, and held on to their lead in the Big Ten conference with an 11-3 record.
The Cats were led by Ty Berry, who scored 16 points on 5-of-8 shooting. Chase added 12 points and Pete Nance 10 for the Wildcats.
The Cats were crushed on the glass, where Illinois won the rebounding battle 47-30. The Illini were led by Kofi Cockburn, who finished with 19 points and 15 rebounds, and the hot shooting of Alfonso Plummer, who also scored 19.
Here are out takeaways from the loss that dropped Northwestern's record to 12-11 overall and 5-9 in Big Ten play:
Northwestern's shot selection needs to improve: At this stage, there are only two options: Either head coach Chris Collins has spoken with Audige and Boo Buie about their shot selection and they have ignored him, or he doesn't think it's that big of an issue. Both options are inexcusable and a systematic failure to adapt this team and this offense.
The Cats cut Illinois' lead to five with 8:52 remaining, fueled by a 19-2 run and the hot shooting of Berry. Audige and Buie combined to shoot 2-for-9 from the field and 0-for-5 from beyond the arc, from that point until the end of the game. Their whole game tally isn't much prettier, as the backcourt duo finished 7-of-28 from the field and 0-of-10 from three.
Both Buie and Audige seem to be operating on a shoot-to-get-shot, shoot-to-stay-hot program that rarely yields positive results. Buie at least has the three-point percentage to barely back up some of his, let's say, ambitious, shots. He was at about a 36% clip from beyond the arc heading into this game.
But, he's barely cracking 40% from the field. Audige is below that mark, slashing a grisly 38.9/27.1/67.9 before today's game against Illinois. These aren't from a small sample size, either. Buie is taking nearly 13 shots and 6.4 threes a game; Audige is taking nearly 12 shots and nearly five threes a game.
In a game that came down to the wire, on the road, against a Top-15 team that is leading the Big Ten, Audige and Buie consistently hijacked the offense, disrupted the flow of a run and took ill-advised shots that eased the pressure on a floundering Illinois team. Rather than feeding Berry, who finished the game above 50% from the field and beyond the arc, or working through progressions, they played misguided hero ball that let Illinois reset, and retake control of the game.
The current system of green lighting every passion project from Buie and Audige is ineffective for their personal stat lines, scoring down the stretch and getting wins. It needs to change.
The kids are alright: Northwestern got a great game from Berry and Casey Simmons.
Berry sparked a second-half comeback that got the Cats within one; he finished with 16 points points -- 10 in the second half -- and hit 4-of-6 shots from behind the arc. In a game with the aforementioned struggles of Buie and Audige, the Cats were fueled by Berry's offense and a swarming defense, with key plays by Simmons.
Simmons hasn't had the offensive firepower to find a consistent role in the Northwestern rotation so far this year, but he made a strong case on his defense alone today. Twice, Simmons generated his own offense with a steal leading to an easy dunk or layup. Plus-minus is a very clouded stat, but Simmons posted a laudable +8 in just 13 minutes against the Illini, in what ended as a seven-point loss.
In a year that was supposed to be defined by an upperclassmen-laden squad, it has been a welcome sight to see serious quality stretches from Simmons and Roper as freshmen, and Berry as a sophomore.
Northwestern needs to adjust its strategy against big-time, Big Ten bigs: NU started Robbie Beran and Nance again at the forward and center spot against Illinois, and the Illini's domination of the glass continued. They combined for 41 minutes played and eight fouls.
The Cats roster does not have the titan-sized Big Ten bigs to go head-to-head with players like Cockburn, Purdue's Zach Edey or Michigan's Hunter Dickinson. While Northwestern doesn't have the tools to go right at those players, they do have the guys to go around them.
Beran and Nance are mobile and flexible bigs that can draw that type of the player out to the perimeter or in the midrange. There, they can use their mobility and shooting to get easy jumpers or draw fouls off drives.
But if Collins and the team are going to use them like they're standard Big Ten bigs that can match up head-to-head, he's going to get today's result: foul trouble for his best players and a brutal rebounding differential.
Illinois started out with Cockburn guarding Nance, but Northwestern did very little to attack that matchup offensively. Pulling Cockburn out to the perimeter to guard jumpers or pick-and-rolls, pushing him to a high effort defensively, as well as offensively, is key to tiring him out and staying competitive. In turn, those attacks can put Cockburn in foul trouble himself, rather than letting him bull rush into Beran, Nance and Ryan Young with abandon.
If the Cats are going to play Beran and Nance, they need to style their offense to make up for their inherent defensive difficulties. This isn't to say Nance is a bad defender; he just can't be expected to play Cockburn, Edey, Dickinson and others straight up without foul trouble or limiting his own offensive stamina and performance.