CHICAGO – A thunderous ‘Let’s go Badgers’ chant erupted as a slew of orange filed out of the United Center with less than a minute to go in overtime. The surest sign disaster had struck for Illinois as they fell to Wisconsin, 91-88.
Blowing leads became a theme in Illinois’ season since February. That trait reared its ugly head in Illinois’ first crack on the Big Ten Tournament’s birch and pine wood court, in one of the biggest stages.
“This wasn’t a scenario in my head.” Tomislav Ivisic said after the game. “First loss here is not what we expected; we have to get ready and clear our heads. Our season’s not over, we’ve got the most important part coming. If we play well, nobody is going to talk about what happened.”
To make matters worse, the Illini are now 0-4 in overtime.
Now, Illinois will have to search for answers over the weekend and will be forced to flip a switch for the NCAA tournament.
“We’ve just got to be consistent,” Illinois head coach Brad Underwood said. “We just lost focus. It’s interesting when we go and re-evaluate our close losses, it’s not the stops, it’s the damn rebounds. We’ve won a lot of close games as well, it’s about the one possession that you have to have and who’s going to make the play.”
A Badger’s barrage
Despite a 15-point Illini lead in the second half, the Badgers clung to their chances of mounting a thrilling comeback. They put together a collection of moments, and suddenly — euphoria — all they needed was a big run.
That moment came, and Illinois fans inside the United Center held their breath. Keaton Wagler had lost a possession that pummeled him into the ground, holding his right leg. It gave Boyd the ball for an easy layup to cut Illinois’ second-half lead by six, to top a 9-0 run for the Wisconsin Badgers.
From there, true March drama ensued.
“The biggest thing is the loss of focus we had with a lead. We can’t really go six minutes without scoring with a 15-point lead and let the team come back and figure it out,” Kylan Boswell said.
When asked why there’s been a lack of focus in these kinds of games, many players said they just can’t pinpoint why.
“I don’t know. If I knew we’d fix it,” Mirkovic told TCR.
With back-to-back threes and a foul, Boyd had given the Badgers their first lead since the early goings of the first half.
Last month, Wisconsin walked into the State Farm Center on Jake Davis wig night and handed Illinois its second straight overtime loss.
Wisconsin had the perfect opportunity to pull up a shocker once again.
On that frigid February night in Champaign, guards Andrej Stojakovic and Kylan Bowell were on the sideline, forced to a limited six-man rotation. But on a windy spring day in Chicago, the Illini confidently trotted into the United Center fully armed.
It wasn’t enough.
Nick Boyd and John Blackwell: Illini killers
He couldn’t help but pump up the Chicago crowd every chance he had.
Despite being baited into a technical foul within moments of the game starting. Boyd sliced and diced Illinois, finishing the night with 36 points and six assists.
The last time Boyd played against the Illini, he played a team without its best perimeter guards and led the Badgers in scoring with 25 points in a thrilling overtime win.
Boyd was Illinois’ main antagonist.
The Robin to his Batman was John Backwell, who finished the night with 31 points and six rebounds. In the last thrilling overtime win against the Illini, he scored 26 points.
Where perhaps Illinois failed the most was rebounding. Illinois was outrebounded 37-36.
“We’ve got to go find somebody just nasty enough to go and want to get a rebound,” Underwood said. “Somebody’s got to go and want one.”
The start of a collapse
Kylan Boswell’s postseason jolt was palpable, getting chippy on Illinois’ first defensive possession. He was almost too emphatic about it that the officials called a technical on him. But Boswell was effective enough to draw a technical on Wisconsin’s Nick Boyd.
There was no question, this quarterfinal tournament game that surfaced, nay, the opportunity for a revenge game was going to have juice.
But as Big Ten games tend to have, that juice was later elevated by questionable officiating.
Despite the juice that overflowed, Illinois head coach Brad Underwood would have to navigate with Boswell being charged with two fouls within the first 90 seconds of the game.
Underwood’s remedy?
Andrej Stojakovic, who dazzled in the waning moments of a thrilling finish. He focused and kissed the glass for a layup to take a two-point lead with 62 seconds to go.
Stojakovic, who had a somewhat turbulent regular season, quickly and comfortably took on the role of the perimeter guard for Illinois. Stojakovic finished with 17 points and seven rebounds through 32 minutes.
But it was in the early stages of the second half that everything felt like it had truly fallen into place for the Illini. For at least the third quarter, the services of Boswell were a luxury and not a necessity. Despite early mistakes, Keaton Wagler reverted to his normal self. The bench came alive.
Wagler scored 19 points, a rebound, and four assists on the night.
The bench collectively outscored the Badgers’ bench 26-5.
What’s next?
Illinois will need to have a ‘good week of practice’ and mentally reset.
“We just need to have a good week of practice,” Jake Davis told TCR. “Intensity, high-energy, good team morale boosters.”
After being one-and-done in the Big Ten tournament, Illinois will cling to its do-or-die mentality in the biggest tournament of all: the NCAA tournament.