Three is more than two. That simple truism, which only far too recently made its way onto the basketball court, was the basis of Ben McCollum’s defensive game plan against Illinois. He took an Illini team that attempted 50 percent of its shots from beyond the arc this season, and dared them to beat him with twos.
For a half, it worked. Iowa started 5-8 from three and finished the half 6-12 with a 32-28 lead. Illinois didn’t make six threes the entire game, pulling away for a 71-59 win despite shooting 3-17 from deep.
So how did Brad Underwood and Illinois beat math? Well, a few defensive tweaks to help cool Iowa off in the second half helped, but if you plan to trade twos for threes, you need to make more, and to make more, often, you need to take more. Illinois did that with a dominant offensive rebounding performance and a massively underrated performance on the boards by freshman David Mirkovic.
David Mirkovic’s rebounding dominance helped Illinois control the possession game
Keaton Wagler is one of just two freshmen in the country to average more than 17 points, four rebounds, and four assists this season. Presumptive national player of the year Cameron Boozer is the other. He’s been the Illini’s offensive catalyst, and with 25 points and three assists on Saturday night, he seamlessly slipped into that role against a familiar Big Ten foe.
Mirkovic, at times, has been something of a freshman running-mate for Wagler, often operating as a screener in the pick-and-roll and scoring on the interior. He had 29 in the first round against Penn and a 14-point double-double against Houston. His box score against Iowa wasn’t quite as impressive, with just nine points on 3-9 shooting, but his 12 rebounds were a huge reason the Illini pulled away in the second half.
Of Mirkovic’s game-high 12 rebounds, five came on the offensive end, accounting for almost a third of the Illini’s 16 offensive boards on the night. They converted those into 13 second-chance points in a 12-point win.
Ben McCollum’s scheme isn’t just about maximizing possessions with a deliberate offensive approach that fills every second of the shot clock with complex actions. It’s about valuing possession. The Hawkeyes' turnover differential of +122 is the ninth-best in the country this year. Yet, Illinois only lost the turnover battle by one, and attempted six more field goals and seven more free throws than the Hawkeyes.
At 6-foot-9, 225 pounds, Mirkovic isn’t the highest flyer on the floor, but he’s stout around the rim and has a knack for finding the ball off the rim. That skill was one of the most important pieces of Illinois’s Elite Eight victory, and overcoming Iowa’s early three-point barrage.