Illini let Gonzaga get away with one, neutral site troubles remain.

Bruce Weber said that this was one of the most difficult losses to take as a coach. The sold out crowd that was on hand at the United Center was overwhelmingly partisan in favor of the Illini, and had created one of the best environments the team would see all season. As a personal aside, this was the first basketball game I had ever attended at the UC, and I was amazed at just how loud the place could get. Much, much louder than the Assembly Hall has ever been while I have been in attendance and it has left me convinced that the United Center is one of the best places to watch basketball of any level. It was really cool.

The Illini early on did not hear much from the crowd unfortunately as they came out once again sluggish and shooting poorly. Gonzaga  capitalized on this opportunity and screamed out to a 10 to nothing lead, then to a 21 point lead. The Illini finally got themselves righted but they had a rather large hole to dig themselves out of. The problems early on seemed to be poor shot selection by Mike Davis and Brandon Paul, as well as the fastest two fouls you will ever see on Mike Tisdale who was very quickly neutralized, playing only 11 minutes the entire game on his way to fouling out. Not to mention that Gonzaga was able capitalize on the Illini shortcomings on the defensive end of the court as well.

At about the 14th minute mark however, the Illini did start to claw themselves back into the game. The shooters started making their shots, but more importantly the Illini started to actually clamp down defensively.

Turnovers were absolutely the key for the Illini comeback, Gonzaga committed 21 turnovers all of which came after the first 5 minutes of the first half. Some of it was sloppy ball handling but a great deal of them came in the form of steals from a much tighter man to man defense. Demetri McCamey wont get very much credit for his play today, as he was overshadowed by Dominique Keller and the fact that the Illini lost, but DMAC had one of the best games he has played all year, at least stat wise. 20 points, 6 assists, 5 steals, and only 2 turnovers. For most of the year the gripe on Demetri has been his turnover problem, well Saturday he forced 4 more than he committed, which is something that deserves recognition.

Of course the player who rightly deserves the most credit for getting the Illini into a position where they could beat Gonzaga does got to Dominique. His stats only tell some of the story, 22 points, 9 boards, 3 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks. What that stat doesn't tell you is that in replacing Tisdale, Dominique provided an emotional and physical presence inside and outside that the Illini badly needed to get back in the game. It also doesn't tell you that he hit the 3 point shot to send the game into overtime.

Of course the Illini would not win in overtime, and on the last possession once again there are lots of questions that need answering. Demetri has lived up to many of the expectations that fans have placed on him, but with the exception of last year's Northwestern victory, he has never been the best at making a last possession count. Add this one to last year's Clemson, Bradley, NU, and Utah. Bruce claimed he called for a time out but the official must not have heard him. Whatever the explanation, Demetri took the ball down the court too slowly on the last overtime possession, and the Illini ended up with a bad shot, or at least not the shot they wanted.

Looking forward Bruce intimated that there may be a starting lineup change coming, as the freshmen once again struggled away from Champaign. To his credit, Brandon Paul did seem to shake that somewhat in the second half, (when he delivered an absolute killer dunk) but D.J. Richardson did not. We may see a starting lineup that now features Jeff Jordan, who actually had a pretty good day for himself in Chicago, and who will be more knowledgeable of the offense, and provide much tougher defense. No guarantees on that, but with 5 losses now heading into Big Ten season, the Illini are going to need to make some significant changes in one way or another.