5 painful observations from the Illinois basketball loss to Penn State

2. Illinois acted like we could coast for much of the game

The start of the game on Wednesday night set the tone for the rest of the contest. From the jump, Illinois looked disinterested in being there.

In the first five or so minutes, Terrence Shannon Jr. looked checked out. It was like he just woke up from a nap, and rolled onto the court. After that point, he turned things on and had a career night. He was incredible in the game.

I wish the rest of the team woke up, though. For much of the first half, Illinois played like we thought we were the better team. It was like we stepped onto the court and thought Penn State would just fold like a lawn chair. That didn’t happen, though. They came out punching, and we didn’t have an answer until at least midway through the first half.

Illinois started to play hard and looked like they cared toward the end of the first half. That is why we went into halftime with a seven-point lead. But, again, Illinois came out in the second half and acted like this game was over. It was like we thought Penn State was just going to cower in fear and we would steamroll them.

The Illini made mistake after mistake in the second half. We missed multiple layups and shot 43% from the field. Illinois missed six free throws and was only 13-of-19 from the charity stripe. This sloppy play eventually bit us in the butt.

When Illinois needed to flip the switch, it wasn’t there. In the final 2:20 of the game, Penn State went on a 13-2 run to beat us 90-89. During that stretch, the Illini were 0-of-2 from the field and 2-of-4 from the free throw line. We also had two rebounds, one turnover, and one foul. This resulted in one ugly loss.