Illinois Basketball: 4 observations from Illini victory over Northwestern

Illinois basketball came out firing against Northwestern on Tuesday night, only to see everything slip away.

A double-digit halftime lead quickly turned into a game when the Wildcats narrowed the Illinois lead down to one-point late in the second half. Some late-game heroics by Ayo Dosunmu sealed the deal for the Illini, as the Orange and Blue would come away with the victory, 73-66.

There is a lot to unpack from this win, though. While it is a win, there are starting to be some question marks with the program.

Here are four observations from the Illini win over the Northwestern Wildcats.

1. We get complacent

I think it is pretty evident that the Illinois basketball team has the talent to win the national title. We can play with the best of the best when we want to. But, man, this team can also get complacent.

It seems that when Illinois goes into a game against a bad team, they might be overlooking that program. This has happened a few times this season. We were down 19-4 against Penn State earlier this year. Northwestern took a 15-point first half lead in the first matchup. These are only a couple of instances this season.

I like to call what Illinois does, sleepwalking. They were sleepwalking through the first half of those games mentioned above. They were sleepwalking through the entire Nebraska game. And, on Tuesday night, Illinois was sleepwalking through the second half of the game against the Wildcats.

If you break the numbers down, the Illini lost the final 21:18 of that game. Northwestern beat Illinois 42-35 in the final 21:18 last night, which is the entire second half and the final 1:18 of the first half. That is how bad Illinois was sleepwalking.

We need to wake up and stop sleepwalking. This gets us in trouble and ends up making games way too close. If it continues, it will bite us in the butt.