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Illinois Basketball: Takeaways from Illini’s failed comeback effort against Miami

By Michael Walton

EAST LANSING, MI - FEBRUARY 20: Trent Frazier #1 of the Illinois Fighting Illini during a game against the Michigan State Spartans at Breslin Center on February 20, 2018 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images)
EAST LANSING, MI - FEBRUARY 20: Trent Frazier #1 of the Illinois Fighting Illini during a game against the Michigan State Spartans at Breslin Center on February 20, 2018 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images) /
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LAHAINA, HI – NOVEMBER 19: Ayo Dosunmu #11 of the Illinois Fighting Illini tries to shoot the ball as he is closely guarded by Zach Norvell Jr. (L) #23 and Brandon Clarke #15 of the Gonzaga Bulldogs during the second half of the game at Lahaina Civic Center on November 19, 2018 in Lahaina, Hawaii. (Photo by Darryl Oumi/Getty Images)
LAHAINA, HI – NOVEMBER 19: Ayo Dosunmu #11 of the Illinois Fighting Illini tries to shoot the ball as he is closely guarded by Zach Norvell Jr. (L) #23 and Brandon Clarke #15 of the Gonzaga Bulldogs during the second half of the game at Lahaina Civic Center on November 19, 2018 in Lahaina, Hawaii. (Photo by Darryl Oumi/Getty Images) /

Turnovers killed Illinois in this one

Illinois was sloppy with the ball in this one, easily the biggest contributor to the large deficit that they almost overcame. Brad Underwood’s Illini had a whopping 10 turnovers in the first half, which helped Miami to the point where they led by 27. Underwood himself discussed his regret about the team’s sloppy play to start, which he—to his credit—took responsibility for.

"I did a very poor job of getting our guys ready. We’ll get better. -Illinois basketball head coach Brad Underwood via Associated Press"

Some of these turnovers led to runouts and easy baskets that built confidence for Miami’s scorers. This included diminutive point guard Chris Lykes, who had 4 steals to go with his game-high (and very, very confidently scored) 28 points.

The turnovers were largely a result of the Illini guards either messing up the timing on dribble handoff plays, committing a travel, or lazy passes that wouldn’t have been picked off if they had a bit more strength behind them. But the turnovers were just part of the story, the perimeter defense was just as bad.

While the bigs can take a little more blame for the perimeter defense—with Bezhanishvili specifically leaving way too early after “showing” on several pick-and-rolls—this again is mostly on the Illinois guards.

Despite providing big buckets at different points during Illinois’ big comeback effort, Trent Frazier, Andres Feliz, and Dosunmu all struggled to contain Miami from deep. Lykes had the aforementioned 28 points (that included 9 free throw attempts), but Hurricanes Dejan Vasiljevic (6-for-9 from 3) and  Sam Waardenburg (2-for-4 from 3) also shot great from 3-point range. The fact that Illinois was late on so many closeouts didn’t help either.

Also to his credit, whatever Underwood said at halftime did get the Fighting Illini to calm down, and they only committed three turnovers in the second half following their first-half debacle. Unfortunately, the third turnover of the second half would be the most costly of them all for Illinois basketball.

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