Remembering 2004-05: Not-so-super performance

Remembering 2004-05: Take that, Sparty!

Remembering 2004-05: Cool at Kohl

Remembering 2004-05: Working OT against Iowa

Remembering 2004-05: A milestone moment

Remembering 2004-05: A scare at Purdue

Remembering 2004-05: Big Ten opener's a blast

Remembering 2004-05: Illini braggin' but draggin'

Remembering 2004-05: Chicago gets taste of No. 1

Remembering 2004-05: UI climbs to No. 1

Remembering 2004-05: UI 91, Wake Forest 73

Remembering 2004-05: UI 89, Gonzaga 72

Remembering 2004-05: UI 87, Delaware State 67

Remembering 2004-05: UI 92, Lewis 61

Remembering 2004-05: UI 78, Southern Illinois-Edwardsville 58

Remembering 2004-05: N-G front pages

Remembering 2004-05: Midnight Madness

Remembering 2004-05: Orange & Blue Scrimmage

EACH WEEK, WE'LL TAKE A LOOK BACK AT A MEMORABLE MOMENT IN ILLINI HISTORY, THANKS TO THE WORDS OF THE NEWS-GAZETTE

This week: In our continuing series on the 2004-05 Illini, Bruce Weber's unbeaten Illini rediscovered its offensive touch in another win against a nationally ranked Wisconsin team.

Date: Feb. 12, 2005

Headline: Slow ride — Illini take it easy in sweep of Badgers

By BRETT DAWSON

CHAMPAIGN —All this time, they had you fooled. Had us all fooled, really.

You thought Illinois' high-scoring, high-octane, high-flyin' Illini were your textbook up-tempo basketball team, all fast breaks and three-point makes.

But in front of a record-setting crowd of 16,865 on Saturday at the Assembly Hall, the top-ranked Illini were un-masked in a 70-59 win against No. 20 Wisconsin.

Turns out this is no run-of-the-mill running team.

Not only can these be grindin' Illini when push comes to shove (and bump and bang), but Bruce Weber's brainy bunch can solve just about any problem thrown its way.

"We like to get out and run, but we just do that to put pressure on the defense and maybe get some easy baskets," Illinois guard Deron Williams said. "After that, we're trying to run motion and set up plays and score like that. We've proved all year we can win against any style."

After Saturday, Wisconsin can't refute that.

For the second time this season, the Big Ten team best built to beat the Illini - sound defensively, talented and patient at the offensive end — was beaten at its own game by an Illinois team that controlled the halfcourt game.

The Illini didn't manage a single fast-break point.

Instead, Illinois (25-0, 11-0 Big Ten) worked the shot clock and worked over the Badgers, shooting 57.9 percent in the second half.

When Wisconsin made a run, Illinois quashed it with a drive by Luther Head. When the Badgers tried to claw back at the end, Illinois ran its motion offense until deep into the shot clock, and twice, Dee Brown buried deep three-pointers in the final five seconds of a possession.

"Those are daggers," Williams said.

And this is one sharp team.

For all the talk of Weber's motion offense and Illinois' defensive prowess, the thing that might impress the Illini coach most about his players is their brains.

"They've become much more cerebral," Weber said. "They've learned how to play. They've learned the game. There's a lot of teams that don't learn the game, and they don't have a feel, and they don't read things. We can put counters in on plays because we know what people are doing out of a timeout, and these guys can go out and react pretty well to it."

Take Saturday's second half, for example.

In the first 20 minutes Illinois used its drive to get into the paint, but the result often was sloppy shots and off-point passes. At halftime, Weber told his team — leading 27-26 at the time — it still could slash against the Badgers, but to jump-stop for crisp kickouts or pull up for straight-up jumpers.

The result? Head found Williams for an open three-pointer off a drive to open the half, and Head took over late with a series of drives to the basket for open midrange shots, finishing with 26 points without benefit of a three-point field goal.

It was a textbook example of how a more athletic team can control even a slower-paced game — a stark contrast to North Carolina's midweek struggles against dialed-down Duke.

"We were sloppy in the first half, don't get me wrong," Weber said. "But I think we adjusted in the second half. We realized it was a halfcourt game, what we had to do. I thought we played with more emotion but also a little more (intelligence), a little more cerebral."

They say nobody likes a smart aleck. But Weber is pretty partial to his smart Deron, Dee and Luther.

With three guards so adept in the open court and so cutthroat in a halfcourt game, it's no wonder Illinois is able to adjust to varying styles of play, an adaptability that's fast becoming the Illini's calling card.

"We just can adjust to anything people bring,"said Brown, who scored 16 points. "We'll slow it down and play if that's what you want to do, if that's the strategy you've got to try to beat us. If you want to run, I think Deron, Luther and myself, that's our game. But we'll play your style and slow it down also."

They did it to Wisconsin on Saturday. Bo Ryan, the Badgers' coach, said his team played exactly the way it had hoped to - minus a miserable 7 for 16 from the free throw line - and noted that Wisconsin grabbed the lead on the first possession of the second half.

But it didn't last.

"We had some answers, and they came down and had an answer and a half," Ryan said.

A 70-point effort — and a 43-point second half — against the Badgers also might answer some critics questioning Illinois' offensive output in a lackluster win last week against Indiana and a come-from-behind win Tuesday at sputtering Michigan.

"I'm baffled — 10 days ago we beat Michigan State and made 12 (shots) in a row, and I was called an offensive mastermind genius," Weber said. "And a week later, everybody's going, 'What's wrong with your offense?' Nothing! People have played us different."

Those changes don't seem to faze the Illini.

Nothing much has, really.

During the week, Weber said his team's intelligence and maturity has helped account for its ability to take on all comers despite wearing the target being No. 1 puts on a team's back.

Asked about that, Williams pondered Weber's reasoning for a moment, and he wasn't certain he agreed.

Maybe the Illini are cerebral, Williams conceded.

Maybe they're just smart enough to know one simple equation: Winning is greater than losing.

"I'm just not used to losing, and I've never been used to losing," he said. "I don't like to lose, and the other guys on the team don't like to lose, and while we're No. 1, we want to stay here."