CHAMPAIGN — Doom and gloom surrounded the Illinois men’s basketball program after three straight losses to nationally-ranked programs Michigan State, Wisconsin and Duke.
The defeats, by themselves, weren’t cause for despair but considering the margin of those losses were a combined 78 points or 26 per game, including the worst in school’s history (110-67) on national television at Madison Square Garden in New York had a lot of Illini Nation questioning how this squad started the season with 12 wins in their first 15 games.
Illinois coach Brad Underwood, who admittedly doesn’t sleep much during the season, re-watched the Duke game on film and in the early hours of Sunday morning decided it was time to implement some changes that he had been considering.
A new defensive approach paid immediate dividends. Illinois held Iowa to a season-low in points as the Fighting Illini snapped their losing streak with a 81-61 triumph over the Hawkeyes before 15,544 at the State Farm Center.
“We’ve been trying to make some changes for a while and haven’t been able to, but enough was enough,’’ Underwood said. “Tomi was back in practice and we just did some subtle things to make some changes defensively.’’
Underwood noted that guards Kylan Bowell and Kasparas Jakucionis combined to hold Iowa’s 1-2 punch of Payton Sandfort and Josh Dix to just 27 points on 7-of-22 shooting and 2-of-10 from 3-point range.
“We implemented a slight hedge on ball screens,’’ Boswell said. “I thought that was big for us guards. Getting off pick and rolls, playing inside and getting back in front of the guys that we guard is difficult. That slight hedge gave us a little more time.’’
The change is something that Underwood has wanted to do for the past three or four weeks.
“It’s really hard to do without Tomi (Ivisic),’’ said Underwood, noting that Ivisic hasn’t been able to practice because of mono and injured ankle. “The people involved in ball screens have to be elite in communication.
“I’m very impressed with them to grasp that in just two days of practice. I thought about waiting until after this Iowa game, but I just felt that we needed to give these guys a little shot of different. It was not perfect, but it was a nice subtle change.’’
The improved defense seemingly ignited the offense for the Illini (18-11 overall, 10-8 in the Big Ten).
Ivisic also played a key role there, scoring 15 of his game-high 22 points in the first half as he made 9-of-13 shots.
“What happened was behind us,’’ said Ivisic about the three-game losing streak. “We knew we had to lift our energy and change some things.
“We had to prove that we were the team that we were before.’’
Just being back in practice was a welcomed feeling for Ivisic.
“I (missed) a lot of practices and I was out of shape,’’ he said. “The past two days were basically my first two practices with the team in a month.’’
After the loss to Duke, Underwood had expressed a desire for Boswell to step up as a leader.
The junior transfer from Arizona, responded with another great defensive effort on Sandfort, holding him to just 7 points on 2-of-10 shooting, but Boswell also contributed 15 points and a game-high seven assists.
“There is nothing on that side of the ball that Kylan can’t do,’’ Underwood said of his guard’s defense. “He had two great practices…holding guys accountable, pushing them but also coaching them and teaching them. He is a wealth of experience.’’
Also scoring in double figures for Illinois were Will Riley (15) and Tre White (14), while Jakucionis just missed, finishing with 9.
Four of the five starters for Illinois, Boswell, Ivisic, Jakucionis and Riley played 33 or more minutes on Tuesday night, and the fifth starter, White, was on the floor for 20 minutes.
“They played great together,’’ said Underwood. “Really nothing beyond that.’’
Iowa (15-13 overall, 6-11 in the Big Ten) never took the lead in the game and the Hawkeyes faced a double-digit deficit for most of the second half.
Former Mr. Illinois Basketball, Brock Harding of Moline, scored a team-high 16 points for Iowa, while Dix had 11.
Up next for Illinois is a trip to Ann Arbor on Sunday for a 2:45 p.m. contest with the 15th-rated Michigan Wolverines.