CHAMPAIGN — College coaches put a lot of thought and planning into the construction of a team’s pre-conference schedule.
There are the obvious powder puff contests that serve as easy victories. There are the big-time tests on the road and at neutral sites. And then there are the challenging games that sometimes serve a purpose for the end of the season.
Illinois coach Brad Underwood has seemingly scripted the perfect schedule this year for his Fighting Illini, who improved to 8-2 overall on Sunday with a 74-57 triumph over the Colgate Raiders before 14,026 at the State Farm Center.
“If you look at what we tried to do with our schedule this year — Oakland is really good, Valparaiso is a Missouri Valley team,’’ Underwood said. “We had a couple of bottom feeders, teams that are 250 or below in the NET rankings.’’
And what about Colgate?
“Look at how many games they have won the last four years, if I’m not mistake it’s a lot more than us,’’ said Underwood. “They know how to win.’’
The Raiders, who have made four straight NCAA Tournament appearances, have been 98-41 over the past four seasons and they are the favorites to win the Patriot League. The most recent Bracketology from ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has Colgate as a No. 14 seed in the East Region.
“We knew they were going to be good. We knew they had size as they played two big. We knew they had a good point guard. We never took them lightly,’’ said Illinois forward Coleman Hawkins. “We knew they were an NCAA Tournament team.
“Like coach said, we are projected to be like a 3-seed right now and they are 13 or 14. These are the type of games that you can get in the tournament.’’
Not only the matchup had a feel of an NCAA first-round game, but what about the noon start?
“You might get one of those in the tournament,’’ Hawkins added. “Just preparing for our future in March.
“Not necessarily looking ahead but having a good feel for what these games could be like going forward.’’
Not only was the result positive for the Illini, but how they got there was also a positive.
Illinois led from start to finish, leading by as much as 22 before Colgate went on a small second-half rally to pull within 62-53 with 3 minutes, 35 second left in the contest.
“Terrific start today,’’ Underwood said. “Impacted so much of the way that game went.
“We talked about (Colgate), you don’t want to play from behind against them because of their size, their pace of play, their post-ups and their ability.’’
A big reason for the quick start from Illinois was senior forward Terrence Shannon Jr., who had just 14 points, but all of them came in the first half and he finished with a career-high five blocks.
“How good was Terrence Shannon? Yikes, five blocks,’’ Underwood said. “I have tremendous, tremendous respect for (Colgate’s) Braeden Smith…I watched every game this team has played this season. Smith is a terrific basketball player and I don’t think he scored on Terrence.
“The job he did on him was elite. Braeden is a kid that can play anywhere.’’
And then there was Shannon’s scoring in the first half and while it wasn’t the 32 he scored against Florida Atlantic, his team didn’t need that.
“We don’t need Terrence to score 30,’’ Underwood said. “We need a lot of guys to participate and do some things. Terrence is going to get his.
“It sure didn’t effect his defense or anything else he did, because he was pretty special tonight.’’
Actually, it was Hawkins leading the way with 16 points, followed by Quincy Guerrier with 15 and Marcus Domask also finished with 15.
“We have multiple guys that can score double digits every game,’’ Guerrier said. “It’s good for us when it happens.’’
Sunday’s victory came after eight days off for first semester finals. Up next for the Fighting Illini is a trip to St. Louis for the annual Braggin’ Rights contest against the Missouri Tigers.
Tipoff this Friday at Enterprise Center in St. Louis is set for 8 p.m. This year’s game can be seen on Fox Sports 1 and heard on the Busey Bank Illini Sports Network, including Danville stations WDNL-FM 102.1 and WDAN-AM 1490.