After a deflating overtime loss to Northwestern in Evanston last week, Illinois was feeling the closest thing to strife for the first time this season when it welcomed No. 20 Wisconsin to Champaign’s State Farm Center on Tuesday.
The Badgers were hoping to end a two-game slide while the inconsistent Illini, after letting one slip away against the Wildcats, were no doubt motivated to answer some critical implications from coach Brad Underwood. And with both squads seeking their first conference wins of the season, tensions were high and neither team was able to find an offensive rhythm. The 43 personal fouls certainly didn’t help.
In a Big Ten-style slugfest, the Illini battled – and this time gave as good as they took – against the Badgers on their way to an 86-80 home victory, moving to 7-2 (1-1 Big Ten). Wisconsin dropped to 8-3 (0-2 Big Ten), having now lost three straight after starting the season 8-0.
As always, each teams scoring totals are certainly the most important digits, but the whole story can’t be told by just that – and these three numbers give some insight into how Illinois successfully defended its homecourt:
Underwood was fuming after Friday’s abysmal offensive rebounding performance at Northwestern, and if the focus of his practice plans over the following days turned out to be as anyone might imagine, the results were evident on Tuesday. After mustering just 13 total offensive rebounds against Arkansas and Northwestern, the Illini snagged 15 against Wisconsin – with seven of Illinois’ nine active players registered at least one offensive rebound against the Badgers. Set to take on one of the country’s top-five rebounding teams in No. 1 Tennessee on Saturday, the Illini will need to make Tuesday’s glass-cleaning performance the expectation, not the exception.
That’s the uniform number of Illinois junior guard Tre White, Tuesday’s knight in gloriously dented armor. After averaging 7.1 points on the season – including just four total points in the previous two games – White exploded for a season-high 23 points and a fantastic all-around performance. Scoring 14 in the first half, White pushed the Illini to a 39-35 halftime lead, helping offset his squad’s poor shooting (14-for-35 on field goals) by going 5-for-6, including two triples. In the second half, White attacked the basket, getting to the line and finishing at the rim – or even above it. With so many of Illinois’ shooters in the midst of recalibrating their scopes, White was efficient from the field (6-for-8), the 3-point line (2-for-3) and the foul line (9-for-10).
You don’t wanna get in the way of Tre White 😤
🔸 23 points
🔸 8 rebounds📍 Cliffs #PlayofTheGame pic.twitter.com/QDyK53X7GA
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) December 11, 2024
21.3
After shooting below 70 percent from the line in each of their last two games, the Illini stepped it up against UW, going 22-for-25 (88.0 percent) from the charity stripe, including 10-for-11 in the last two minutes to close out the Badgers. On the other end, Wisconsin, which entered the game as the best free-throw shooting team in the country (85.5 percent), went just 14-for-21 from the line (66.7 percent), wasting endless opportunities after getting into the bonus with more than 14 minutes left in the second half. That 21.3 percent disparity at the line was the difference-maker in Illinois holding on at home.
