Chester Frazier tied Evan Turner’s hands behind his back and held them there for 40 minutes as Illinois coasted to a 67–49 victory over the taller, stronger and sloppier Ohio State Buckeyes. Turner’s four points were about a quarter of his average.
You expect that from Chester Frazier. His ten points were gravy. But it complemented a balanced scoring attack which spread Ohio State’s zone beyond capacity. Dominique Keller had 12 points and six rebounds. Mike Davis was good for eight and six. Demetri McCamey finished with 13 points, two rebounds and seven assists. Mike Tisdale scored 15.
But Ohio State prevailed, as predicted, in the rebound battle. Turner led the way with ten, and B.J. Mullens garnered seven.
Tisdale managed one.
Dallas Lauderdale did as predicted. When he was on the floor, he made everybody his bitch. Unfortunately, the officials occasionally noticed. Lauderdale picked up a foul once every four minutes. Bruce Weber noticed Lauderdale, too. He noticed that Lauderdale was having his way with the mild-mannered Tisdale. So Weber inserted Keller to make a dogfight out of it.
Following a brief contretemps, in which Demetri McCamey shoved tOSU’s PJ Hill (and drew a technical foul), Dominique Keller paced the baseline, looking for someone to slug.
Keller and Davis did a great job of flashing to the middle. Davis’ quick interior passes were dynamite. On consecutive series he found Keller alone under the basket. Each time, Mullens’ arm descended from space to bat the ball away from the basket.
Mullens plays with the easy ennui of a guy foreseeing a paycheck. But against the rail thin Illini, he went crazy whenever ball and rim came within sniffing distance of one another. What Mullens chose to do around the rim, he did. No one came close to challenging his length and athleticism.
So how on earth did the Illini win? How, indeed, did they win handily? The old fashioned way: They made more buckets. Mullens was only good from zero inches out, and a couple of times he missed even those. From the charity stripe, Mullens finished an abysmal two-for-nine.
Ohio State found extra scoring punch from freshman William Buford, who hit for 11 in the first half. Weber and his staff chose to stick Trent Meacham on Buford in the second. It worked. Weber said afterward that Meacham’s defense is one of the overlooked qualities of this year’s team.
After the game, Keller (far right) entertained the media, claiming to be the missing link that might have held the Illini together last year. He also drank a lot of Coca-Cola.®
Keller stayed late, enjoying face time with the press and a gratuitous can of Product Placement.®
THE GOOD
Calvin Brock, again. All the energy, plus rebounding.
Mike Davis was solid. His numbers didn’t wow anyone, but his movement was excellent.
McCamey played within himself, but to the upper reaches of his capabilities.
The team was inspired by the inauguration of a black man from Illinois. Those in attendance were given miniature American flags upon entrance to commemorate Barack Obama’s ascendance to the Presidency. Keller took the court waving such a flag, and celebrated the win with America’s beverage, Coca-Cola.®
Portions of Obama’s inauguration played over the Assembly Hall’s big screen during a timeout. Chief Justice John Roberts’ disastrous brainfart was mercifully edited out.
THE BAD
The Illini still have problems inbounding the ball. Most plays seem to be drawn with Frazier on point. Chester is too tentative for this role. He’s overly cautious. You saw it two years ago when he took over for Dee Brown as the Illini’s chief shot-clock expirer — dribbling, dribbling, dribbling.
Keller’s perfect shot has disappeared. His release has now dropped to his navel. On one pair of free throws he barely drew iron.
Alex Legion’s 1-for-6 shooting effort brings his season field goal percentage to 33%. He’s hitting 29% from three.
THE UGLY
LOOKS GOOD IN ORANGE
ABOVE: Mary Sorensen found the sweater at Kohl’s. The flag was hand sewn by Betsy Ross.
BELOW: An incomplete list of Urbana High Honors Chorus members would just have to include
Shelby Fitch, Kaitlin Nelson, Heather Lard, Sean Smith, James Jones, Lilly Maclin, Lacy Palmer, Connor Williford and Nesime Lambert. They sang the Star Spangled Banner, prior to the ass whoopin’.
