Some baseball fans might have picked up on what I was going for with the title. It’s a play off a poem describing the 1948 Boston Braves pitching staff, whose aces, Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain, went 8-0 in a 12-day span with rain between each of their starts. It’s somewhat apocryphal, because the team’s other pitchers were not bad at all, but it resonated and was eventually shortened to “Spahn and Sain and pray for rain.”
Thus, with Illinois basketball this season has quickly devolved to Hill and Nunn and no bullets left in the gun.
Coming into the season everyone knew this was Hill’s team and Nunn was going to be his best support, but it was expected that everyone else would fill in gaps around those two and make Illinois a decent team. Injuries have absolutely eviscerated that idea, though, and that was painfully obvious as Leron Black sat out Wednesday night with swelling in his knee.
Sure, the Illini managed to eke out a 69-65 win over Yale, but they did so while being out-rebounded 48-25 and out-scored in the paint 32-24. With Black sitting next to Mike Thorne Jr. on the bench, Illinois had 13’6” and 490 of interior muscle as cheerleaders, leaving the bulk of the post duties to redshirt freshman Michael Finke.
To their credit, the smaller Illini lineup got the job done by forcing 23 turnovers out of the Bulldogs (while only coughing up the ball 5 times themselves). But when the ball was loose near the rim, it was tough to watch Finke try to fight through a crowd of 3 guys in vain to get a second chance or stop one from happening.
In years past, Illini fans have under-appreciated guys like Nnanna Egwu, who would mop up game-after-game in the paint and not allow a team like Yale to dominate. If there’s a silver lining to this year, however, it’s that not having an Egwu on this team has made everyone take note of how special Hill and Nunn are.
In the last two games, Nunn has scored 55 points, more than one-third of the team’s total output over that span. Against Yale he was near unstoppable as he dropped 28, including 6 for 8 from three. In Wednesday’s game Hill had some bad luck, missing shots he might normally make, but was still good for 20 points and 7 assists.
The junior duo turned it on when it really mattered. After the Illini had lost an 8-point halftime lead on a 12-0 Yale run, Hill and Nunn buckled down, with Nunn dropping a three to revive Illinois’s offense and Hill dishing out assists and scoring in the paint. In the final minutes, with the lead as small as 2 points, it was Nunn and Hill who made the free throws for Illinois to put the game on ice.
Having those two, and having them healthy, is a blessing, because that’s all the Illini have. Of the 21 points scored by other Illini against Yale, Finke and Maverick Morgan each had 6, but no one else even had more than a single made basket. At a few points in the first half, Hill or Nunn were on the court with four guys with zero points. One of those lineups was Nunn with Khalid Lewis, Alex Austin, DJ Williams, and Maverick Morgan, which is a stark contrast between the team’s most dynamic scorer and guys you should absolutely not count on to score.
There’s hope moving forward, however. After the game John Groce said his freshmen were farther along at this point than Hill, Nunn, and Morgan were in their freshman year. Of course, this is because they’ve had to be thrown to the wolves a few times, but signs of improvement are starting to show. Jalen Coleman-Lands is a great shooter and will rarely have another 0-for night; likewise, Aaron Jordan will find his stroke and DJ Williams will learn to use his length more effectively.
For now, though, it’s Hill and Nunn and the games aren’t all that fun.
