What happened
What Julian Reese and Derik Queen did to Illinois in January in Champaign was the equivalent of taking body blow after body blow for 40 minutes. The knockout punch came significantly earlier Friday night in the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals. Rodney Rice delivered it with five first-half three-pointers, while the Illini offense was a shell of the powerhouse that pummeled Iowa a night prior. The end result was the same as January. A blowout win for the Terps.
What it means
Even finally at full strength, it turns out Illinois can’t avoid the Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde nature of this season. Friday night’s disaster in Indianapolis was full-on Hyde. Maryland is arguably the worst matchup for the Illini in the Big Ten, but in a season devoid of many close games, Illinois has mostly found itself on either end of a blowout in the last four-plus months. That doesn’t seem compatible with an NCAA tournament run.
What’s next
Illinois has been viewed as an NCAA tournament lock since beating Iowa in the second-to-last week of the regular season. The only difference the Big Ten tournament was going to make was in seeding, and a 1-1 finish probably keeps the Illini right where they were before even making the short trip from Champaign to Indianapolis. So all that’s left is the wait for Selection Sunday, where the Illini probably wind up a No. 7 seed and get a tricky No. 10 seed in the first round.
What was said
“I feel like sometimes when the ball’s not going in, our energy can just drop. That comes with being mature. We can’t let that happen in March. That’s the biggest thing. They’re going to feel me, for sure, if I feel like the energy is dropping. I’m not going to go out like that. I don’t think we have those issues consistently. Just at times I can tell our group energy can die down. You just can’t let that happen in March.” — Illinois guard Kylan Boswell on how Illinois has to approach the NCAA tournament
