Klee: It's the season of hope
ST. LOUIS — The Illinois players filed out of the visitors locker room like any other loss.
Shoulders slumped, heads down, searching for their families in the stands.
But the Illini also said they learned plenty — and matured a touch — after a Braggin' Rights game that seemed to be headed toward a blowout.
No. 9 Missouri withstood a gutsy rally by No. 25 Illinois and won 78-74 in front of 22,087 at the Scottrade Center on Thursday. Missouri has won three straight in the series for the first time since 1999.
And it seemed more like an escape than anything. Missouri (12-0) entered the game leading the nation in margin of victory — 27.7 points through 11 games. Thus, the Illini's hope was to keep it close until the final minutes and "make 'em sweat," as assistant Jerrance Howard said. They did, erasing a 14-point deficit to take a 62-61 lead with 7:01 remaining.
With four senior starters, Missouri and its experience won out. Perhaps the key play wasn't one of Joseph Bertrand's brilliant scoring moves or one of Missouri's seven three-pointers. It was a loose ball in the final minute that Missouri corralled and Illinois (11-2) missed.
"That might have been the difference," Bertrand said.
"And we lost the (Matto) chart by one," Bruce Weber added.
The mood in the postgame locker room was just like it is after most losses — down in the dumps. But the Illini took solace in a 21-6 second-half run that sent 50 percent of the crowd into hysterics.
The near-comeback seemed improbable considering A) a first half in which the Illini often appeared overwhelmed B) the rough four-game stretch that preceded Thursday's game. And the near-hero was just as improbable.
Bertrand made all nine of his shots and erupted for a career-high 19 points. He scored on floaters in the lane and crafty layups — scoring moves that he often shows in pickup games but rarely in real games. His previous career high: 11 points against Lipscomb. Not quite the deafening stage of the Scottrade Center.
His mom, Lolita Bertrand, sat courtside across from the Illinois bench. As Joseph was attempting to create a Braggin' Rights star, Lolita was text messaging updates to her oldest son, Justin, who had a night shift at work.
"We almost pulled it off," she said.
"I wrote on the board (before the game), 'Play with courage. Compete. Have energy,' " Weber said. "If they do those things, I'll be happy."
Meyers Leonard had 14 points and 13 rebounds for Illinois . Brandon Paul had 19 points and a career-high 10 rebounds. The Illini suffered 17 turnovers against Missouri's pressure defense.
As the Tigers hoisted the Braggin' Rights trophy at center court — and ESPN analyst Bob Knight autographed the bill of an Illinois ballcap — the Illini entered the tunnel with shoulders slumped. Despite a rally that would've been one for the ages, they expressed no signs of a moral victory.
"Good effort by our kids. We grew up a little bit," Weber said. "The big thing now is where do we go from here?"
I wanted to be the first to comment on this after the Ilinois loss. Does Bruce irritate the refs so much that we can get a fair game called? I noticed throughout most of the game everytime Missouri had the ball inside and Illinois tried to play defense, Illinois was call for the foul. However I noticed when Illinois penetrated or got the ball inside it was contested. Illinois players seemed to have to grab every ball thrown to them with both hands due to the hands of Mizzou reaching, slapping, hacking and whatever else and yet somehow it was rarely if ever called. Its amazing to me that one side would continually be called for the foul and the other side wasn't. Mizzou shot something like 22 fthrows and Illinois shot like 7 or 8. There is you game right there. For two years in a row Illinois has gotten raped in St Louis(remember the tight game with 45 seconds and Tisdale was called for intentional foul effectively ending an otherwise close game) and no one raises even a little stink about it. Illinois AD should call whoever is responsible for this scheduling and tell them this series is over. This is absolute nonsense that one side would be repeatedly whistled for doing the same thing as the other side. Please you wolves in sheeps clothing(like Paul Klee or Bob Asmussen) try and tell me how Mizzou has recruited better athletes and thats why it was called the way it was. My next post will deal with exactly that.
They could have called ten fouls on Leonard and many on other players on both sides. We do seem to get the short end of the stick frequently, but this was not one of those times. They just outplayed us. Our comeback was pretty impressive. We have some positives to take away from this game. Let's be happy with that. The officiating was not the differerence in the game. Missouri's play compared to ours in the last three minutes was the difference.
Weber's body language needs work. He is a chronic whiner about calls. He should take a page from Lon Kruger's book: Kruger never said a word to the refs while the cameras were on. Then during timeouts, he would take the ref aside. The refs are on TV, too, and they don't want to be shown up. Lon understood this. Weber, well, he's an idiot.
My post wasn't really a question. Yes the officiating made a huge difference. Illinois shot a better fg % had more offensive, defensive, and total rebounds and scored more points in the paint. Yet somehow Illinois shot 10 ff while Mizzou shot 23. Usually in a closely contested game between two ranked teams the ff difference would be slight if any. If you think it didn't, I'd like some of whatever your smoking. I don't think the referees had any malice towards Illinois but I do believe the get caught up in the hype and the emotion and that does affect their judgement.
To the previous post: I really feel Brandon Paul's game is the polar opposite of Nick Anderson. Nick's early ability was to dominate at the rim, and play a solid game from 15ft and in. Brandon seems so content shooting threes, and often unable to handle the ball in traffic. It is hard to imagine he could ever become much like Anderson. Developing an outside shooting touch is one thing. Having the DNA to attact the basket with authority is quite another.
To the previous post: I really feel Brandon Paul's game is the polar opposite of Nick Anderson. Nick's early ability was to dominate at the rim, and play a solid game from 15ft and in. Brandon seems so content shooting threes, and often unable to handle the ball in traffic. It is hard to imagine he could ever become much like Anderson. Developing an outside shooting touch is one thing. Having the DNA to attact the basket with authority is quite another.
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