Friday, March 05, 1999
Indiana hopes to give a third 'L' to Illini
BY SCOTT MacGREGOR
The Cincinnati Enquirer
CHICAGO — Bob Knight said there were no patsies in this league. Indiana's first Big Ten Tournament opponent gets the chance to prove it to him up-close and personal tonight.
When the Hooisers open the tournament with a 10 p.m. EST quarterfinal matchup, they'll be facing an unexpected opponent: Eleventh-seeded Illinois, which owned just three conference victories coming into the tournament, upset No. 6 seed Minnesota 67-64 in Thursday's first round, moving on to play Indiana (22-9), which beat the Illini twice this season.
By the numbers, Thursday's Illini win was an upset. But Knight believes the conference is so strong top-to-bottom, even last-place Illinois (11-17) has to be taken seriously.
“I don't think I've ever seen so many teams capable of beating one another,” Knight said. “I don't think there are any weak teams.”
Indiana finished strong in the conference (three straight wins and four of its last five, though Knight wants better defensive consistency), while Illinois lost six of its final eight. But both teams have what everyone wants and so many teams in this league have: A go-to guard who can take over.
At Indiana, it's junior A.J. Guyton, who averaged 20.3 points in the Hoosiers' last 13 games and hit game-tying and game-winning shots late at Penn State. For the Illini, it's Big Ten freshman of the year Cory Bradford, who blitzed the Gophers for 22 points on 6-of-7 shooting from three-point range.
The Illini had blown a 22-point lead by the midway point of the second half Thursday, and Bradford had hit the deck hard after taking a shot to the abdomen. But he bounced back to nail three straight three-pointers, and the Illini held on.
“I just slowed it down, calmed down, and the shots came to me,” Bradford said.
Guyton and Bradford could nullify each other. But Illinois has no player athletic enough to match up with Hooisers forward Luke Recker, their leading scorer at 16.5 points per game. In Indiana's overtime win at Illinois, Recker had 22 points and six rebounds.
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