While there is no such thing as a must-win game in mid-December, No. 20 Wisconsin and previously-ranked Illinois will have a strong urge to return to the win column Tuesday night in Champaign, Ill., after a disappointing week.
Wisconsin (8-2, 0-1 Big Ten) lost its conference opener at home to Michigan last Tuesday before absorbing an 88-74 defeat to No. 5 Marquette on Saturday at Milwaukee.
“We don’t have time to feel sorry for ourself,” Badgers coach Greg Gard said.
Wisconsin led the Golden Eagles 45-42 two minutes into the second half before Marquette’s pressure took its toll. The Badgers committed seven turnovers over the next nine minutes when they were outscored 25-10 and chased a double-digit deficit the rest of the way.
“I’m sure I’m going to find that the vast majority (of the turnovers) were self-inflicted,” Gard said. “We have to play off two feet better. John Tonje, it’s an ongoing quest with him to play off two feet because it’s going to allow him to finish better. It’s going to allow him to get to the free-throw line more and it’s going to allow him to make better decisions because he’s not going to get caught up in the air with the ball.”
If it’s any consolation to Gard, Illinois’ defensive style is nothing like Marquette’s.
Per KenPom.com, the Illini rank a distant last in the Big Ten by forcing turnovers on just 14.6 percent of possessions. On the other hand, they lead the nation in effective field-goal percentage defense (40.6 percent) and only allow opponents to shoot 25.1 percent on 3-pointers.
Illinois deliberately runs opponents off the 3-point line and encourages them to shoot inside the arc.
While the Illini were successful with that strategy at Northwestern on Friday, the Wildcats found ways to power their way into opportunities from the mid-range. Northwestern overcame a 10-point second-half deficit to win 70-66 in overtime, dropping then-No. 19 Illinois (6-2, 0-1) from this week’s rankings.
Wisconsin’s Tonje (21.5 points per game) and John Blackwell (15.2) are both adept at breaking down defenses off the dribble. Illini coach Brad Underwood will be fine if the duo spends more time working inside the arc, but he doesn’t want to see his squad put together another indifferent day on the offensive glass.
The Illini missed 42 shots from the field against Northwestern but grabbed just seven offensive rebounds. That’s not ideal for a team that entered the game among the national leaders in offensive rebound percentage. It’s an area Illinois needs to excel with its abundant 3-point shooting.
“I’ve gotten soft in practice and not as demanding as I should be,” Underwood said. “We could talk about it. We could work on it and practice it. We were one of the top teams in the country last year in rebounding missed 3s. It’s something we chart. It’s something we stat.
“We fell in love with it (in the Thanksgiving Day win) against Arkansas. … We’ve got to find some guys tough enough to want to go (offensive rebound).”
Underwood is not referencing Kasparas Jakucionis or Tomislav Ivisic with those remarks. Jakucionis nailed six 3-pointers in the final 18 minutes against Northwestern, while three of Ivisic’s game-high 12 rebounds were on the offensive end.
Ivisic has averaged 15.4 points and 9.4 rebounds with four double-doubles in the last five games and five total on the season.
–Field Level Media
