NCAA Tournament X: High Five (+ 5) - Houston

I’m going to guess you didn’t expect to have me starting this Elite installment of High Five with journeyman NFL quarterback Kirk Cousins quoting decade old rap lyrics. Well, regardless…

I mean that pretty much sums up Illinois‘ win over Houston last night. We walked into their trap and took over their trap. And the best part? We beat them at their own game. The Illini were more than tough enough to absorb Houston’s punches and respond with punishing body blows of their own.

Illinois was the better team for the most of the night, but more importantly, they were the tougher team. We owned the glass (43-34), stood strong against the Houston pressure (just 9 turnovers), and in a game which was billed as strength (the Illinois offense) against strength (the Houston defense), it was the Illini defense which dominated the game - holding the Cougars to just 0.94 points per possession. It was Houston’s second worst offensive performance of the season from an efficiency perspective. Mind you, this defensive effort came immediately following the second round game against VCU in which the Illini forced the Rams into their worst offensive performance of the season. All of a sudden, the Illinois defense has turned from a question mark into an exclamation point.

After a first half rock fight which saw the two teams combine to shoot an icy 31% from the floor, Illinois found a rhythm on the offensive end of the floor to match their defensive intensity and sent Houston to the moon with a 17-0 death blow over a seven minute stretch from 18:06 to 11:20 in the second half.

The Cougars never really recovered. That 17-0 burst was essentially the ball game so I thought I would it would be fun to walk it back in this “Houston, we have NO problems” edition of High Five…

1: 29-26 Illinois
Keaton Wagler took some lumps in a first half which saw him miss several layups and seemingly spend as much time on the floor as standing upright. In the second half, though, it was immediately apparent that he had learned the rules of engagement for the evening. He drilled a step back three on the Illinois possession just before this clip, and he fully orchestrated this bucket as well…

Houston’s Emmanuel Sharp jumps the pick and pop action so Wagler instead skips a pass across to Jake Davis and Houston is immediately outnumbered. David Mirkovic misses the open three but Wagler digs the ball away from Chris Cenac on the offensive rebound, discards him with an elbow and finishes through contact. Kelvin Sampson said it best:

2: 29-26 Illinois -

A 17-0 run is every bit as much about the 0 as it is the 17 and the Illinois defense was fully on point throughout this stretch. Here’s another example of the perfect intersection of plan…

and execution…

3: 31-26 Illinois -

This clip picks up exactly where the previous one ended. David Mirkovic grabs the defensive rebound and he’s off to the races…

Brad Underwood regularly raves about Mirkovic’s ability to process in the moment and how it’s allowed Mirkovic to become such a valuable weapon as a ball handler and facilitator. That processing is on full display here. The minute he sees his man (Tugler) fall down and out of the play, he takes off knowing that with Tugler trailing the play, someone else will have to step up to stop the ball. That happens and Jake Davis gets an easy two.

4: 31-26 Illinois -

More defense. Andrej Stojakovic works over the top of the ball screen and never loses contact with Kingston Flemings who misfires on a closely contested free throw line jumper...

Flemings made a living this season in the mid-range, but Illinois’ size bothered him all night and he struggled with a 4-10 performance from the field.

5: 33-26 Illinois -

Here a little sleight of hand leads to an Illinois bucket…

It starts with Tomislav Ivisic coming from the block to set a high ball screen for Keaton Wagler and get Illinois into its familiar 5-out alignment. The best part of this possession, though, is how Tomi subtly “flips” the screen by disguising the direction of his ball screen until the last second. It’s a great little wrinkle to disrupt hard hedging and you can see how Houston’s Chris Cenac ends up on the wrong side of the screen which opens a driving lane for Wagler. Illinois wants the action to go to Mirkovic’s side of the floor so he can be the cutter when Wagler eventually draws the help defense. So good.

6: 36-26 Illinois -

Andrej Stojakovic flat out won this next possession for Illinois...

The threat of Tomislav Ivisic in the pick and pop gets Houston out of sorts and in rotation. Milos Uzan gets stuck in no-man’s land trying to help on Tomi and the minute Stojakovic’s man (Emmanuel Sharp) leaves him to fill Uzan’s vacated spot, Andrej smartly cuts right to the basket. Tomi finds him and Stojakovic in turn finds David Mirkovic in the corner. Stojakovic then grabs the offensive rebound and kicks out to Jake Davis for the triple. In addition to going to get the offensive rebound, here’s a guy with just a 7% assist rate on the season giving the ball up not once - but twice in the possession for “better” shots. Stojakovic has been fantastic this entire tournament.

7: 38-26 Illinois -

This possession is pure bread and butter. Five years from now, if I wanted to show someone why this team was such an offensive wagon, I might show this clip...

Teams keep trying to double Keaton Wagler and Illinois just keeps punishing that decision. Houston finds themselves in rotation once again and the ball movement is borderline erotic.

8: 38-26 Illinois -

If you’ve followed Illinois basketball over the past several years - you’ve likely become familiar with the term “drop coverage”. That strategy has been a hallmark of Brad Underwood’s defense dating all the way back to Kofi Cockburn. These last two games though? Something different altogether. I’‘m not sure we saw a single possession of drop coverage against Houston. What we saw instead from Underwood and defensive coordinator Cam Crocker was aggressively showing on ball screens to force the ball out of the hands of the Houston guards and into the hands of players who Illinois was happy to have shoot. One guy in particular was Chris Cenac - who we basically dorked all night and he cooperated by shooting just 3-12 for the game…

I’m not sure if we’ll see the same strategy tonight, but I’ll be keenly interested in seeing what the Illinois defense has in store for Bennett Stirtz and Iowa.

9: 41-26 Illinois -

I think we’re all just going to have to get comfortable with the reality that we’re going to get two or three single pass possession step-in three point attempts such as this one from David Mirkovic in every game…

They aren’t always my favorite shot, but when he’s on the left wing? Let ‘er fly David.

10: 44-26 Illinois

And finally the Ben sequence...

Great defense on one end and a “why not” contested three on the other to cap off 17 straight points from the Illini. That run would push the Illinois lead to 18 and despite the annoying free throw issues from Illinois in the final two minutes, Houston never got closer than three possessions the rest of the way. An Elite effort to be sure.

HIGH FIVE!