Mizzou braggin', Illini draggin'

Since history is such a big part of the Illinois-Missouri rivalry, it seems only fitting to start with a bit of historical perspective.

The Illini and Tigers started their annual St. Louis meetings in 1980. Since that time, Illinois has hit Christmas with 4 losses in just four of those 30 seasons:

1997-98: Illinois’ 75-69 loss on Dec. 23 gave Lon Kruger’s team a 9-3 record. That team rallied to share the Big Ten title with Purdue.

1998-99: The Illini’s Braggin’ Rights loss had them at 7-4 at the holiday break. They finished 14-18, though Kruger’s young guns rallied to reach the Big Ten tournament title game and set the tone for the 2000s.

2007-08: An overtime home loss to Miami (Ohio) pushed that team to a 7-4 record at the break. As Illini fans well remember, that group promptly lost a home game to Tennessee State and finished 16-19. However, this team also rallied from a cruddy seed to get to the Big Ten title game.

That brings us to this season. After losing 81-68 on Wednesday night, the Illini hit Christmas at 8-4. In Bruce Weber’s mind, they should be 11-1. Here’s his riff when asked about the intensity on Wednesday:

“I think theirs was very high,” he said with a chuckle. “We didn’t match theirs, there’s no doubt. I think it was better than a couple of our other games. And that’s the problem. We shouldn’t have lost the other three games (Utah, Bradley, Georgia). That’s where we failed. Today, they just outplayed us. The other three games, we just failed ourself. That’s why we’ve got ourself in a bind and we’ve got to figure a way out of it. It’s not going to be easy.”

Weber says the Illini get three days off. Somehow, I don’t think Bruce’ll be taking 72 hours’ break before the next practice on Dec. 27. He said he’ll be breaking down tape and talking with his coaches about potential solutions, but it sounds like he already has a few ideas.

Missouri’s 81 points were the most against a Weber team (in regulation) since Purdue won 83-75 on Feb. 2, 2008. He abhors such displays and suggested the Illini will become more of a “pack” defense and stop trying to attack other teams so much.

It’s my belief that strategy ain’t the issue with this group. Due to deadline issues, I walked into Weber’s postgame conference midway through. If I understood correctly, he was explaining that the Illini were supposed to beat Missouri’s pressure by passing and catching the ball. Those who watched the game noticed that several players, Demetri McCamey in particular, kept trying to beat Mizzou off the dribble. Demetri has developed some pretty crossovers and feints and what-not, but that wasn’t what was needed to beat Mizzou. In my opinion, of course.

OTHER QUICK THINGS:
--Illinois' 22 turnovers were a season-worst. Last year's team never broke the 20 mark. The 2007-08 team committed 23 in the Big Ten quarterfinal upset of No. 17 Purdue.

--Brandon Paul apparently had a tender right foot coming into the game – and he either re-injured it or tweaked his ankle in the game’s opening minute. After making two trips to the training room, he battled through 19 minutes and finished with 11 points and 4 rebounds. Weber says he probably won’t need an X-ray and should be good to go after the break.

--D.J. Richardson, the team’s other freshman guard, committed 2 turnovers in Illinois’ first 3 possessions. He had 3 turnovers and an airballed 3-pointer by the first media timeout. He finished with 11 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists, but he had 4 turnovers and shot 1 for 6 from 3-point range. Weber said he played too fast against Missouri’s full-court pressure and D.J. admitted as much as well.

“We couldn’t practice how they played. It’s just an uptempo thing. Some of this, you’ve got to be mentally tough and prepared for it. When the game first started, I was rushing. Coach kept telling me to “slow down, slow down.’ It’s kind of like a freshman thing when you get into a big game like this. It’s probably the most amount of fans I’ve ever played in front of – and it was Illini fans and Missouri fans. (My adrenalin) was pumping a lot, but it’s just a learning process.”

D.J. also indicated several guys in the locker room had their heads in their jerseys and a few guys shed tears. That’s a good sign going forward. Weber said it’ll be important to whether they come back to practice committed.

The Big Ten opener against Northwestern is less than a week away.

LW