3. Illinois got the old Marcus Domask on Sunday
In the first game of the Big Ten Tournament, Marcus Domask laid an egg. Illinois looked solid as a team, beating Ohio State 77-74, but Domask didn’t look himself.
Domask finished that first Big Ten Tournament game with seven points on 3-of-16 shooting from the field. In the next game against Nebraska, he started to get some of his mojo back. He accounted for 16 points on 5-of-11 shooting from the field.
Wisconsin felt the complete wrath of Domask, though. He finally fully snapped out of his funk, and Domask torched the Badgers. He had his patented fadeaway shot go in early on, and from that point, his confidence was through the roof.
Domask finished the Big Ten Tournament title game with 26 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field, he made his lone three-point attempt, and he was 9-of-10 from the free throw line.
I love it when Domask gets aggressive toward the basket. He is so good at backing his man down into the paint and finding a way to score the basketball. When he does his fadeaway, it is an extremely efficient shot. But I also find his probing to be even more impressive.
Domask can get into the paint and get shut down by a defender. That doesn’t mean he is done with the play, though. Domask then keeps his pivot foot and looks for any little gap he can squirm through to get to the bucket. There were multiple times on Sunday that I was amazed by a Domask bucket around the rim.
Illinois needs Terrence Shannon Jr. and Domask to be superstars in the NCAA tournament. If we get the Big Ten Tournament duo that we saw against Wisconsin, then a national championship appearance is not out of the question.