Surely demons were flying out of this team as if its head were spinning like Linda Blair’s. Be gone, Purdue hex! Away, post-Michigan State letdown! Out, out, Big Ten road woes!
Saturday’s final score shouts that Illinois sent all that ails it flying from West Lafayette to East Jesus. It turned Mackey Arena into Lackey Arena, pounding poor Purdue 82-61. Keady, bar the door: Coach Gene Keady’s team suffered the school’s worst loss in this building.
No 10th straight loss to Purdue. No typical close call away from home. No sweat for coach Bill Self, right?
Wrong. One coach you wouldn’t want to be is first-year coach Self. He inherited a potential Final Four team fraught with sensationally inconsistent talent and inexplicably moody performers. For Self they are the Frightening Illini. The one thing he can usually count on is Self-flagellation.
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Saturday’s triumph proved only that Self is officially set up to be a statewide hero or scapegoat. He will be the toast of Champaign or the roastee on talk shows from St. Louis to Chicago. Congrats, Bill. With the Chicago sports landscape so bleak, your team is now Chicago’s Team. Don’t fail us or we’ll feed you to the Soldier Field crowd at an XFL game.
Saturday the Big Ten title all but fell through Mackey’s roof and stuck like a hanky in the front pocket of Self’s sharp black suit. To a troubled team Self has brought a calming charm and a kiss on the cheek from Lady Luck. Iowa has fallen on its face and out of the race after losing Luke Recker and losing to Northwestern. Illinois was able to exorcise its Michigan State demon without having to face a get-even game this season at East Lansing.
Meant to be? Illinois broke its Purdue curse mostly because the Boilermakers have been victims of their own bad luck. In the last week injuries cost them their leading scorer (Rodney Smith) and rebounder (John Allison). With graduated nemesis Brian Cardinal watching in the second row, Purdue had to play three or four guys who looked liked smaller, slower Cardinals.
Said the Illini’s 6-foot-11-inch Robert Archibald: “I had to do a double-take when I saw how little the guy guarding me was.”
The Illini were able to get the ball inside so easily that they shot 20 first-half free throws, making 15. Yet they led by only six.
“Purdue was short-handed,” Self said, “and we were lucky to be ahead at half. I said, `Guys, we should be up by 15.’ We weren’t just missing layups, we shot three air-ball layups.” He smiled easily–a saving grace for the coach of this team–before adding: “I guess we saved some for the last five games.”
The Illini pulled away because they were just too big and deep. They also made 22-of-27 free throws, “which is really good for this team,” Self said rather ominously. A potential No. 1 seed that doesn’t consistently make free throws?
A team run by a point guard who doubles as its one unstoppable scorer? Of 6-3 Frank Williams, an NBA scout at Saturday’s game said: “He’s their only sure NBA player. Those arms allow him to play 6-6 and he has an arrogance about him that he can make shots whenever he needs to. But he’s so concerned this year with getting everyone else involved that he turns his effort on and off too much. He’d better be full bore in March.”
Purdue crept to within four early in the second half because the man Williams allegedly was guarding, 6-1 Carson Cunningham, went Frank Williams on Illinois. Cunningham finished with 25 to Williams’ 10.
Brian Cook led Illinois with 17, but he easily can give Self 17 scoreless minutes. “He’s been a Dow-Joneser,” Self said of Cook’s up-and-down play. “But he’s playing with a lot of confidence now.”
Yet here’s a 6-10 artiste who’s much more comfortable stroking threes than trading elbows. Cook made all three he attempted Saturday. Cory Bradford single-handedly shot down Michigan State by making six threes, but he can go colder than a Final Four in Minneapolis. Marcus Griffin? “He’s been in a funk,” Self said.
If this team hits on four or five cylinders, look out. If it hits on one of two in an early-round NCAA game, look out below. The most dependable cylinder has been Archibald, the mountainous Scot who can move mountains in the lane. But of course, he has a degenerative disc that restricts his minutes.
Congrats, coach. So far you’ve done a beautiful job. So far.