Illinois basketball came into Sunday afternoon winning 10 games in a row, and a monumental task to get to 11 wins.
Nebraska is a great team this season, and they were at home looking to all but secure a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. A win over the Illini would have gone a long way in making that happen.
This time around, Illinois had different plans. While the Cornhuskers got the best of us in game one in mid-December, the Illini came out and had too much firepower. Despite Nebraska taking a six-point lead at halftime, Illinois made some adjustments and looked great in the final 20 minutes of action. Nebraska couldn’t find anything late, and the Illini ended up winning the game, 78-69.
Here are five glorious observations from the Illinois basketball win over Nebraska
1. Keaton Wagler’s second half was a masterpiece
The end of the first half was a bit worrying for the Illinois basketball program. Nebraska went on a run to take a six-point lead, and what was more concerning was how Keaton Wagler was looking.
Illinois’ star freshman was looking out of sorts. Nebraska did a great job forcing the ball out of his hands, especially late in the first half. Wagler finished the first 20 minutes with five points, three assists, and two rebounds on 2-of-9 shooting from the field and 1-of-5 from three-point range.
One thing I have noticed is that Wagler doesn’t have back-to-back bad halves of basketball. The Cornhuskers felt his wrath in the second half to the tune of 23 points, three rebounds, and two assists while shooting 5-of-6 from the field and 3-of-4 from three-point range.
Wagler was a different player in the second half. He was able to create his own shots, and he was getting his teammates open for good shots. This was a masterpiece of a second half by Wagler, and it saved the Illini in a big way.
2. Illinois realized they were a big team
Coming into the game, I had mentioned that Illinois needed to use our size more. We have bigger players, and the Illini didn’t use that to our advantage in the first game.
On Sunday, Illinois finally realized that we were bigger than Nebraska. We had multiple 7-footers do their thing, and the other Illinois players crashed the glass.
David Mirkovic, Tomislav Ivisic, and Zvonimir Ivisic are 6-foot-9, 7-foot-1, and 7-foot-2, respectively. They had a combined 23 rebounds.
What makes the night even more special is the fact that, as a team, Illinois had a total of 11 offensive rebounds. That is a lot of second-chance opportunities, compared to Nebraska’s six offensive rebounds.
Size does matter, no matter what anyone says. Illinois wielded that size against Nebraska, and it resulted in the Orange and Blue winning the rebounding battle 40-27. If we can do that against other top 10 programs, then we are going to go far in March and even April.
3. Nebraska didn’t really cool down from game one
I was fully expecting Nebraska to cool down from three-point range. They torched the Illini in game one, which was a narrow three-point win by the Cornhuskers.
In that first game, Nebraska shot an incredible 46% from three-point range. This was Illinois’ highest percentage allowed all season. With that being said, it would be natural for the Cornhuskers to come back down to Earth.
That didn’t happen. Nebraska still shot lights out against Illinois. The Cornhuskers were 15-of-35, 43%, from three-point range. Against nearly any other program in the country, that number gets the job done.
Where Illinois really shone was in stopping Nebraska inside the three-point arc. If you take three-pointers away, the Cornhuskers only managed to go 10-of-24, 41.7%, from two-point range. Illinois really held Nebraska in check inside, and it helped secure the victory.
4. The Illini did a great job getting to the foul line
Someone could look at the box score and think that the refs made this a lopsided game. That wasn’t the case at all, though.
I thought the refs called a pretty even game. There was only one foul that I thought should have been different. What Illinois did well against Nebraska was get to the free throw line.
The Cornhuskers are a team that shoots from the perimeter. They don’t have much size, so they don’t get the ball down in the paint a lot. When Nebraska tried to score around the bucket, Illinois had the Ivisic brothers waiting.
On the other hand, the Illini forced the issue in and around the paint quite often. We have players who can get downhill and use their size to get to the rim.
Mirkovic started to use his size in the paint once he realized he shouldn’t be taking bad three-pointers. I loved how Wagler was more aggressive in the second half. And it is Andrej Stojakovic’s game to get to the rim, even though he likes to try to shoot from long range.
Illinois used our size and power to get what we wanted offensively, and it resulted in getting to the free throw line to the tune of 21-of-26, 81%. This helped secure the win for the Orange and Blue.
5. It was a impressive rebound by Jake Davis
Man, the first few minutes for Jake Davis were rough. I commented on those minutes, but instead of having a bad game, Davis flipped the script.
By the 16-minute mark in the first half, Davis was 0-of-1 from the field and missed 2-of-3 from the free throw line. He was also getting torched defensively. It was not a good start to the game.
From that point on, Davis lit the world on fire. He finished the Nebraska game with 13 points, which ended up being the second-most on the team. He also had three rebounds while shooting 3-of-6 from the field, all of which were three-pointers.
Davis has now logged 30 minutes in two games since joining the Illinois basketball program. In those two contests, the Illini are 2-0, and both wins were against top-five programs on the road.
At the end of the day, Davis is a crucial piece to Illinois’ success. He has shown that so much this season, and he proved it once again on Sunday.