Fighting Illini Fall To UNLV 64-48, Thats the Chicago Way

Christmas time is here, happiness and cheer, time that all the children call, their favorite time of year. Or perhaps more accurately, this is the time of year that Illini fans have become accustomed to radically reassessing their team's potential. Last year was the rather nauseating loss to UIC, the year before that a baffling loss to Georgia, and so on and so forth for about five years.

UNLV had some grim reminders about what we worried our shortcomings might be at the beginning of the year, that the team is young, very important parts are unproven, and that all of that mixed together will probably give us inconsistency and frustrating games.

The team looked about as young as it gets, with the freshman laden bench amounting to three points in 47 minutes of play, but did manage to compile a third of the team's turnovers. A lot had been made about finals week, and the freshmen hitting a wall and so on, but whatever it was, there hasn't been much in the way of bench contribution since before the Gonzaga game.

More than finals and more than the pressure of playing in the United Center, I think the biggest challenge, for the whole team, has been facing more aggressive and physical defenses. Gonzaga is a quality opponent, but its strength is certainly not man to man defense. St Bonaventure, Coppin State, and now UNLV though, have given the Illini fits, and caused serious scoring droughts. While with the Bonnies and CSU Illinois was able to out-talent them with their starters (the bench couldnt') In UNLV the Illini found an aggressive defense that had both talent and depth, a recipe, apparently for Illinois shooting 24% from the field.

The story on Meyers Leonard is out. He is big, he is talented, and cannot be left guarded one on one. This is, in no uncertain terms, a good thing. If you are forcing defenses to collapse on your big man, it can only mean open shots for your perimeter players. I heard others complain that early on Meyers would get an entry pass only to pass it off when the extra defender closed. This is what we want! Getting a player like DJ Richardson or Sam Maniscalco an open three finding an open Tyler Griffey for a flush down low are the benefits of having a defense over commit like this. I have no complaint about Meyers Leonard only getting 7 points, provided he stacks up the assists and rebounds to make up for it. (Leonard finished with 6 boards and 3 assists.)

The problem seems to be though that the passes and reactions are either errant or too slow to get much of an advantage. DJ, Sam and Brandon Paul are all normally quality three point shooters, and DJ's long range shooting was the only bright spot, of the day (19 points on 17 total shots) and what prevented the Illini from being blown out. Sam and BP? Not so much. They combined 2-13 from three point distance, and drove home just how crummy a shooting night it was.

The shooting funk present even at the free throw, line, as normally steady hands came up with lousy numbers. Meyers Leonard was 1-6 and Brandon Paul was 2-4, the team shot just 9-18 from the line.

I saw someone write that if they were coach, they would remove the three point line from Ubben, and I think I tend to agree. This team is more varied in its talents than last year's edition, and has other ways to score, Meyers Leonard and Tyler Griffey have been for the most part quite good down low. But the guards still seem to love the long jumpers too much. UNLV over played on Illinois' passing lanes, and it turned into turnovers. Lots of them. But situations like that also allow for more penetration, which was once again gone from this offense.

The team was shooting threes when the Rebels were in the double bonus. It seems to me that in that situation, even shooting 50% from the line will give you a better shot of a productive possession than the ice cold jump shooting.

I can pile on and on I suppose. But it is still early in the season, and this was just the first loss of the season. Its not one I really enjoyed watching it certainly isn't the end of the world. What is important is for the Illini to learn from it and fast, because Missouri isn't the only team that is looming for the Illini, the Big Ten slate is brutal, and it is filled with defenses that make UNLV pale in comparison.

Nobody said this would be easy.