INDIANAPOLIS — Illinois coach Brad Underwood could tell the energy of his team was off Friday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
A day earlier, the Illini players were “bouncing off the walls of the locker room” as they got ready to face Iowa in the Big Ten Tournament second round, and that energy showed up in a 106-point outing. Before the quarterfinal matchup with Maryland, Underwood said his team’s spirit was more subdued.
The result was a dud of a game for the defending conference tournament champions. The No. 7 seed Illini trailed second-seeded Maryland by 26 points at halftime and fell 88-65 to break a four-game winning streak.
Maryland advanced to Saturday’s Big Ten semifinal against Michigan. Illinois now awaits its seed in the NCAA Tournament on Sunday.
“I didn’t do a very good job of getting these guys ready to play two days in a row,” Underwood said. “We have to understand — and that’s my job to help them understand — the urgency of the end, and what that is.
“(Maryland) is really old, other than (freshman center Derik) Queen, and we’re really young. And that’s my job. That’s where I didn’t do a good enough job to get these guys to understand, when you’re playing for a championship, the other teams have got that same goal.”
The Illini were out of the game nearly from the start as the Terrapins attacked them in multiple ways.
Sophomore guard Rodney Rice had four 3-pointers in the first 6:09, five 3s and 18 points by halftime and seven 3s and 26 points for the game.
At one point in the second half, Rice made back-to-back 3-pointers. On the second, he fell down while making a cut and laid on the floor for a moment, kicking his leg. He then picked himself up, caught a pass, hit the 3 and fell back down. He was fouled on the play but missed the free throw.
Underwood declared Illinois’ perimeter defense “abysmal” and as bad as it has been all season. Against Iowa, Illinois gave up 94 points, including 30 points and eight 3-pointers to Hawkeyes forward Payton Sandfort. But Underwood said he thought Sandfort made some hard shots Thursday.
The effort was different against Maryland, which shot 11-for-23 from 3-point range.
“The job we did today was awful,” Underwood said. “We let Rice step into four in the first half that (anyone) could have made. There was no bite. There was no sting.
“That’s where I’m really disappointed. We trailed everything. We were really late, nonaggressive. And when you’re nonaggressive in basketball and the ball doesn’t go in for you, the other team gets confidence, and then you get these opportunities where that rim looks like a 55-gallon drum.”
Meanwhile, Queen, the 6-foot-10 Big Ten Freshman of the Year, dominated on the inside early, at one point tipping the ball up twice on his own missed shots before making the basket on his third try. A bit later, he ripped the ball from Illinois freshman center Morez Johnson Jr. underneath the Maryland basket and made a layup.
Queen finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds.
It didn’t help that the Illini played more than half the game without 7-foot-1 center Tomislav Ivišić.
He missed Illinois’ first game against Maryland because he had mononucleosis, and the Illini thought this one could be different than their 21-point loss on Jan. 23. But Ivišić missed much of the first half after he was called for two fouls five minutes into the game and for his third foul 12 minutes in. He picked up his fourth less than two minutes into the second half.
“Tomi’s a really great player,” Illinois forward Ben Humrichous said. “We have to find ways to step up when he’s off the floor.”
Kasparas Jakučionis led Illinois with 15 points, 10 rebounds and four assists. But he also had six turnovers. The Illini committed 17 turnovers — which Maryland turned into 22 points — compared with three from the Terrapins.
Humrichous said the turnovers were “a group effort” — from being sloppy in transition to not making the simple plays to letting Queen affect the passing lanes.
“Not being mentally prepared,” Johnson added. “Coming off the Iowa game, we scored 100 points, we all thought it was going to be easier than it was. We have to be better prepared for games.”
Multiple players decried the lack of energy and focus. But they also said they hoped that the poor showing against Maryland will be a wakeup call as they take a few practices to regroup before the NCAA Tournament begins.
The Illini used a brutal loss to Duke a few weeks ago to fuel four impressive wins. They think they can do it again, especially if it sinks in that their season is on the line.
“This team is really, really talented, but there’s a lot of youth here, a lack of experience, which is why some games are super good and some games are super bad,” Ivišić said. “We lack consistency there. … Every game from now is going to be tough, it’s going to be hard. We’ve just got to go in with the mentality that this might be our last game. There’s no coming back after we lose.”
Michigan 86, Purdue 68
Danny Wolf had 18 points, 11 rebounds and six assists, and No. 22 Michigan snapped a three-game losing streak with a 86-68 win over No. 20 Purdue in the last quarterfinal.
The second-seeded Wolverines (23-9) allowed the game’s initial six points, then led for the final 37 minutes in an impressive bounce-back win to advance to a semifinal against No. 11 Maryland (25-7) on Saturday.
Vladislav Goldin added 15 points and eight rebounds. Tre Donaldson had 13 points and Roddy Gayle Jr. scored 11.
Trey Kaufman-Renn led sixth-seeded Purdue (22-11) with 24 points and nine rebounds. Big Ten player of the year Braden Smith, who averaged 24 points and 8.5 assists in two regular-season meetings against Michigan, finished with 12 points on 5-of-18 shooting, 2 of 10 from 3-point range. He had six assists.
The Associated Press contributed.
Big Ten Tournament
Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Indianapolis
Wednesday’s games
- (13) Northwestern 72, (12) Minnesota 64
- (15) Iowa 77, (10) Ohio State 70
- (14) USC 97, (11) Rutgers 89
Thursday’s games
- (8) Oregon 72, (9) Indiana 59
- (5) Wisconsin 70, (13) Northwestern 63
- (7) Illinois 106, (15) Iowa 94
- (6) Purdue 76, (14) USC 71
Friday’s quarterfinals
- (1) Michigan State 74, (8) Oregon 64
- (5) Wisconsin 86, (4) UCLA 70
- (2) Maryland 88, (7) Illinois 65
- (3) Michigan 86, (6) Purdue 68
Saturday’s semifinals
- (1) Michigan State vs. (5) Wisconsin, noon, CBS-2
- (2) Maryland vs. (3) Michigan, 2:30 p.m., CBS-2
Sunday’s final
- 2:30 p.m., CBS-2
