Illinois Basketball: Takeaways from Illini stunning loss to Marquette

When the NCAA dropped the hammer this off-season that Illinois Basketball star forward Kofi Cockburn would be suspended the first three games of the season for selling apparel and memorabilia a lot of people jumped to see who was on the schedule for Illinois.

Not many people expected the Illini to trip up and lose to Jackson State or Arkansas State, but the third team in Marquette would be a step up in competition overall. It was a step up indeed as Marquette was able to stun Illinois 67-66 at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.

After watching some games like Villanova vs UCLA, and Gonzaga vs Texas over the weekend this matchup in the Gavitt games was a bit of a step back. This game featured turnovers, turnovers, and more turnovers especially early on for both teams.

Illinois and Marquette combined for a total of 25 turnovers in the first half alone. Both coaches are known for their defensive toughness but this was more of just bad passing and poor shot selection for a majority of the first half compared to good defense overall. It’s not good when your team has more turnovers than field goals at any point in the game.

Illinois was leading 17-9 just about midway through the first half when guard Andre Curbelo picked up his second foul of the game and sat basically the rest of the first half until the final few minutes. The Golden Eagles shortly after went on a 12-0 run before an Illinois bucket to stop the bleeding. With the fifteen turnovers for Illinois in the first twenty minutes coach Brad Underwood probably felt fortunate to only be down only one heading into halftime.

Illinois came out of the locker room and looked more like the 10th overall team in the country early on in the second half until they were careless again with the ball down the stretch in crunch time.

The Illini were ice-cold shooting from beyond the three-point line making only 3 out of 13 but shot much better in the second half making 6 of 11 from deep which was a key reason why they were able to create some space from Marquette at times. Illinois was able to create space at times but the Golden Eagles kept fighting all night long and would not go away.

Guard Trent Frazier really seemed to do it all for Illinois. We will get more into that a bit later. Marquette was led by their graduate transfer guard Darryl Morsell. The former Maryland Terrapin finished with 21 points on the night.

Illinois led by as many as 12 in the second half but the last few minutes down the stretch it was either a one or two-possession game. Marquette was missing what seemed like every free throw in the final few minutes and it looked like the Illini would escape with an ugly victory but Marquette had other plans.  A late turnover by Illinois after a missed free throw by the Golden Eagles led to a layup for Marquette guard Tyler Kolek and was fouled on the play to take a 67-66 lead.

Illinois had one final possession to take the lead for good but guard Andre Curbelo turned it over again to end the game and Marquette earned their first major win in the Shaka Smart era.

This is a disappointing loss for Illinois when you look back and see the leads they had throughout the second half. With the loss Illinois sits at 2-1 on the year and now gets their talented center in Kofi Cockburn back on the floor. The Illini will be just fine but definitely have some things to improve on moving forward.

Here are a few takeaways for Illinois in a disappointing loss on the road at Marquette.