Any thoughts of Illinois (3-0, 0-0 Big Ten) having a chance to quietly slip into Birmingham next Wednesday, steal away with a win against an overconfident No. 2 Alabama squad and then hightail back to Champaign are in the rear view.
On Friday, the Crimson Tide traveled to West Lafayette, Indiana, and got a reminder that the Big Ten, though perhaps down, ain’t dead. No. 13 Purdue (4-0, 0-0 Big Ten) dug in and ground out an 87-78 win at Mackey Arena behind 26 points from Trey Kaufman-Renn that puts Alabama (3-1, 0-0 SEC) on its heels.
No. 13 Purdue takes down No. 2 Alabama 🙌#B1GMBBall x @BoilerBall pic.twitter.com/luRG1pznOf
— Big Ten Men’s Basketball (@B1GMBBall) November 16, 2024
The key stretch came in the second half when an Aden Holloway 3-pointer extended the Tide’s lead to 65-59 with 10:59 left. It unraveled for the visitors from there, as the Boilermakers went on a 13-0 run punctuated by a CJ Cox three that gave Purdue a 72-65 lead and all the momentum it needed to knock off their higher-ranked opponent.
Bama won’t soon forget those moments when it let the game slip through its grasp – and that may bode poorly for the Illini.
Illinois is young, coming off an uneasy win and will be playing on the road for the first time in the regular season when it rolls into Birmingham. The Tide – grizzled and gifted – are now also focused and, frankly, pissed off.
Look, this isn’t “Hoosiers.” Even college basketball’s freshest-faced newbies have faced plenty of elite comp under high-pressure circumstances, whether in high school, in AAU ball or on the summer invite circuits. In the cases of first-year Illini Tomislav Ivisic and Kasparas Jakucionis, they have played in top professional settings.
But Bama made it a step beyond last year’s more cultured Illinois squad, falling only to eventual national champ UConn in the Final Four. This is the sort of team that could go play all season without losing two games in a row. The bear has been poked. The Illini have their work cut out for them.
