Malcolm Hill was the centerpiece for IL, with 22 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 4 steals.
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The first half Sunday was a grim carry-over from Thursday’s 28-point beatdown at the hands of IN, as the Illini (13-16, 5-11) looked helpless against a Minnesota team that is now 8-20 and 2-14 IN the Big Ten. The Illini bigs had eight points and seven rebounds, while Jordan Murphy and Joey King had 39 and 16 for the Gophers.
So when the Gophers’ irregulars led 40-32 at the half, IL was in contention for “Worst Performance Against a Badly Depleted Big Ten Opponent”.
On its own, Illinois’ 84-71 victory over Minnesota was certainly not award-worthy, not considering that before the game the 13th-place Gophers announced they were suspending starters Nate Mason and Dupree McBrayer and their top reserve, Kevin Dorsey, for breaking team rules.
IL is 6-2-1 against the spread following a game that they didn’t cover the point spread, 1-5 against the spread in their last six home games, and 6-1-1 against the spread against a team with a losing record. Murphy 10), IL 21 (Ml.
“Today was unfortunately not as much about wins and losses but more about the culture of our program”, said Minnesota coach Rich Pitino.
A 3-pointer by Jalen Coleman-Lands, a basket by Khalid Lewis, a 3-pointer by Hill and a 3-point play by Hill tied the score at 43-43 with 17:32 to play.
Mason, Dorsey and McBrayer have all played point guard this season for Minnesota. Sharp came into Sunday’s game with four points in 11 games. A 13-point win means little for an Illini team likely headed for one of Wednesday’s Big Ten tournament games.
IL led by as many as 18 points in the second half and shot 73.9 percent after the break, including 50 percent from 3-point range. I wake up every day and I’m extremely grateful of the opportunity that I have to coach in an awesome basketball conference and coach in a place I consider to be my dream job. Please note, we’re still a family friendly-ish site so if you’re going to talk rumors in the comments know that we’re going to watch them closely.
IL visits No. 10 Maryland on Wednesday. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article.
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