Around the League in 10 Days
Ciao, i miei cari Illini tifosi! (Hello, my fellow Illini fans!) After a week in Italy on pilgrimage, I’m both exhausted and refreshed, and ready to get back to the Orange and Blue.
What a ten day stretch for the women to start this new year. Three ranked teams, two professional basketball players in attendance, and a top ten win, all while I was away stuffing my face with pasta and gelato. After speed-watching those three games after the fact, here’s what I took away:
vs. Maryland (Illini win 73-70)
I got to watch the end of this in the Detroit airport and I was probably a bit too excited for my fellow weary travelers. Just a fabulous victory for the ladies. Maryland committed 18 turnovers, shot 1-12 behind the arc, and we held on for a seed-bumping top ten win.
at Michigan State (MSU win 81-75)
I think both of our freshmen really looked like freshmen in this one. You could tell Destiny and Cearah were really bothered by the Spartans’ size, speed, and physicality. Gretchen had a tough game (1-9 to start) and even a crazy 4th quarter by Maddie (17 points) couldn’t get us over the top.
vs. Ohio State (OSU win 78-69)
Jeloni Cambridge, we’re living in your world. Goodness, she went OFF with Bam and A'ja in attendance. She had 41 points on 15-25 shooting, despite Shauna trying multiple defenders against her. Two of our three-headed monster (Gretchen and Maddie) combined to go 5-23 and OSU pulled away in the end.
In my last article I said we’d know the answers to three questions after this stretch:
How good is our interior defense really?
Umm…I have some concerns. MSU’s Grace VanSlooten was dominating in the post before she got hurt (15 and 9 in only 21 minutes) and we just really didn’t have an answer. Cearah is young, inexperienced, and more of a forward than a center. Lety has the size, but her minutes have dwindled (fewer than seven per game in these three) because she doesn’t have the speed or agility. It stinks because Shauna will have to start doubling the post once we start facing teams like UCLA (Lauren Betts may score 50 otherwise), and then your guards are having to scramble to prevent kick-out jumpers. This might get worse before it gets better.
How will this team respond in a truly hostile road environment?
We’ll need a larger sample size, but I’ll give the ladies a B grade after the test in East Lansing. They got down as many as 15 in that second half, but didn’t lose their composure and made it interesting at the end. We haven’t seen a really raucous student section yet, so let’s put a pin in this one for now.
Can we play from behind against a good team?
Absolutely. We had sizable deficits in each of these games (7, 15, and 13 respectively), but hat tip to Shauna and her staff for the mental preparation and in-game adjustments they make to keep these games close. I’m sure one will get away from us against a truly top-tier team, but we can expect to be in nearly every game.
at Penn State (Illini win 92-76)
Oh yeah, we played another game yesterday. Playing at a sleepy State College against a mediocre Penn State team feels pretty anti-climactic after the gauntlet that preceded the trip. But this game became a must-win knowing what was still to come.
And we won, nice. Great day for the Illini faithful after a 2-0 day for our basketball teams.
- This was kind of a messy game. So, so many turnovers (21), and some stretches of pretty porous defense made this a tough watch at times. Ah well, the fellas have had games like this in State College and LOST, so we'll take a W, for sure...but it won't win any awards for aesthetics.
- Berry and Maddie were Great with a capital G. Berry scored our first twelve points and ended with 28 (tied her career high), while Maddie passed her career high with 26. I mean they combined to go 21-28 from the field, 8-12 from deep. Amazing. I'll rave more about Berry below.
- Aggressive Destiny is my favorite Destiny. This - THIS - is how we reach our potential, with her going to the rim and looking to shoot FIRST. She wasn't perfect, but she had the Nittany Lions on their heels for the entire game. (15 points, 9 assists) When she has to be respected as a scorer, it just opens up so much.
- Speaking of potential, I'm feeling pretty adamant about the following today, so hear me out:
We go as Gretchen goes.
Much to our chagrin, she's in the midst of another slump. And we desperately need her scoring to really be what we want to be. Get this: in our three losses, Gretchen is 10-47 from the field, a mere 21 percent. We can beat Penn State and Rutgers when she's struggling, but not the next tier up. She'll turn it around, but hopefully sooner rather than later.
Stray thoughts:
- Watching Maryland/MSU/OSU really gives you a taste of what that next tier looks like. The talent on our current roster is absolutely a step up from last year, but there’s one more big step up to keep pace with the UConns and South Carolinas of the world. I think we’ll get there.
- I’m not sure I’ve given enough praise to Berry Wallace. She’s been so consistently great that I don’t even pause when I’m rolling through the box score and see her putting up her usual 15-28 points. She rarely comes off the floor because we need her scoring and leadership so much. Keep on rolling, BW.
- The Maryland game confirmed what I thought would be our crunch-time lineup:
Berry
Cearah
Maddie
Destiny
…and Gretchen (offense) and Jasmine (defense) rotating during dead balls
I’ll be a bit concerned when we’re trying to hold onto a three point lead when one of those first four have fouled out. (and yes, we’ve had some foul trouble recently) - The upcoming schedule is even more treacherous than these past two weeks (Torvik ranks in parentheses):
at Michigan (5)
vs. Northwestern (144…we better win this one)
at Nebraska (19)
vs. UCLA (2)
Plenty of Quad 1 opportunities to say the least.
We're 14-3, y’all…this is fun. Go Illini.
Finally, I know you’re here for hoops and not my travel log, but I did have an amazing discovery in the Roman cathedral of Sts. Cosmas and Damian that I just had to share.
Friends, as we’ve suspected all along…Jesus is an Illini fan.
“She said to herself, 'If I only touch the ‘I’ of his garment, I shall be healed.'”
(with apologies to Matthew 9:21)