Illinois wins on road in matchup of top-four teams.
www.stltoday.com
Associated Press
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Trent Frazier, Andre Curbelo and No. 4 Illinois arrived at Crisler Center ready to make a point.
“We’re the hardest-playing team in the country. That’s our statement,” Frazier said. “Even without our best player, we’ve got a lot of guys on this team.”
Duly noted.
“I would be challenged to find a better win in college basketball this year — a better road win anyway. I mean, in all the analytics, they’re up there,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. “So I think it’s got to make a pretty solid statement.”
The Wolverines (18-2, 13-2) looked physically overwhelmed for much of the night, unable to create good shots and unable to keep the Illini off the boards. It was an eye-opening blowout — especially since Michigan has rolled to similar margins of victory against other good teams this season.
“They played with great activity from the jump of the ball. They hit us first. We weren’t prepared,” Michigan’s Isaiah Livers said. “It felt like they were on a run the whole game.”
“We will learn from a loss like this, and the type of performance that we gave tonight was not acceptable at all,” coach Juwan Howard said. “We’re going to come in tomorrow, watch film and see what areas where we can improve on. It’s going to be, I call it a horror film.”
“Obviously the past month, with everything going on between the two teams, we wanted to come in with a chip on our shoulder,” Frazier said. “The energy tonight was incredible. It was so special out there tonight.”
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We have all heard for decades that you want your team to be peaking at the right time in a BB season, with all pistons firing toward a great run in the Dance....
I have a feeling that we are seeing a team that has learned from their mistakes (misery, terps, etc) and , as trent said, a chip on their shoulder...
We have to support the Illini with all the positivity we can muster to reach the goals of the program and Illini nation to finally get it done....