Second Half Turnovers Doom Illini Against Purdue

January 19, 2008
John Brumbaugh

calvin_brock_purdue.jpgIn the 2003-2004 season it was a trip to West Lafayette and a Luther Head put back that highlighted Illinois’ regular season. There was hope a similar trip to the East would be a springboard for the Illini basketball team on to better things in 2008. After a great first half of basketball, it was just not to be. The Illini struggled throughout the second half in the face of some strong defensive pressure from Matt Painter’s Purdue Boilermakers and wilted down the stretch. After taking the momentum and an eight point lead into the break, Illinois’ defense and poise must have stayed in the locker room as the Boilermaker’s took the upper hand en route to a 74-67 win that moved the Illini to 1-5 in the Big Ten.

The Illini were coming off an emotional first win in the Big Ten against Michigan on Wednesday night in Assembly Hall, but they were heading into a building Purdue had only lost twice in over the last two seasons. The atmosphere didn’t seem to affect the Illini at all in the first half as they were the team playing with poise and attacking the rim. The defensive intensity was there, and for the first four minutes of the game Purdue didn’t see an uncontested shot. The Illini were getting to the rim, and when they couldn’t get to the rim, the Illini were finding open shooters on the perimeter from dribble drives. Purdue’s defensive pressure was being used against them for the first twenty minutes and the Illini built up an eight point lead capped off by Chester Frazier’s three pointer in the final seconds of the first half.

The Illini headed into the locker room with all the momentum, and it looked like the light had been switched on for the team from Champaign-Urbana. The first four minutes of the second half looked like an extension of the previous half, but in an ominous sign, Brian Randle also picked up two quick fouls before the under sixteen media timeout. It was at this point in the game when the wheels fell off the wagon for the Fighting Illini. Then the Boilermakers went on a 20-3 run by picking up the defensive pressure and forcing the Illini into seven turnovers in a six minute stretch.

Purdue’s 20-3 run can be summarized by one thing: high pressure defense that forced Illinois into turnovers. The Purdue defense realized the refs were letting them body up the Illini when they were controlling the ball, so they continued to body them up and pressure them more and more. The more Purdue pressured and bodied up the Illini, the more into a shell the Illini crawled. They were not ready to handle the same pressure from Purdue that they so easily turned against them in the second half, and it led to turnovers, passive play, and a team starting the offense out by the half court line instead of closer to the three-point line. Purdue’s defense took a page out of the old Pat Riley and Jeff Van Gundy playbook from their days in New York, the refs will not call every foul so keep putting more physical pressure on to ball handlers until they do. The refs never did, and Purdue flourished.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

  • Two very good games from Shaun Pruitt and Brian Randle. Randle pulled down his second straight double double scoring 15 points and 11 rebounds, while fellow senior Shaun Pruitt also scored 15 points and pulled down 9 rebounds just missing a double double of his own.
  • Guard play was bad for the Illini, especially in the second half. The Illini guards combined for fifteen of Illinois’ twenty-one total turnovers. Freshman Demetri McCamey committed five and Calvin Brock committed six of them.
  • The Illini’s rotation has really tightened in the last few games, and is down to really six players seeing significant minutes. Illinois is down to the starting five (Pruitt, Randle, Brock, Meacham, and McCamey) and Chester Frazier getting more than ten minutes per game, and just Mike Tisdale seeing more than five minutes. The tightening of a rotation always happens as the season progresses, but Illinois is really down to a Duke-like rotation of six players seeing significant time, and the others only seeing spot time.