The Fighting, Scrapping, Clawing Illini

Yes, there is truly so much going on within the Big Ten, but a quick talk about the pure chaos that has been WNBA free agency.

The Phoenix Mercury have amassed an insane roster, the Indiana Fever are 100 percent ready to win now, but above all else of course, my favorite team has actually made moves and that's all we care about!

Shoutout the Atlanta Dream for attempting to getting out of this current good, but not good enough purgatory with adding Brittney Griner, Brionna Jones and Shatori Walker-Kimbrough, the latter two of which were teammates at Maryland. I’m curious what the fit will look like, but I care way more about having the necessary talent to truly compete, which the Dream feel much closer to than they have at any point since I started caring rooting for them.

All of the moves can be found here, and it’s been a constant lightning bolt of intrigue for the past week.

Last Week’s Hoopla:

While there was an individual team performance that may deserve this headline portion the most — and we will certainly talk about that in a moment — I can’t ignore what Illinois is doing, and how the Fighting Illini continue to do it.

Illinois played three games this week, all wins. The first was an absolute bludgeoning of Purdue, holding the Boilermakers to 38 total points. Then, a battle with Rutgers that took an extra frame to finish, which the Illini did with a 69-65 overtime victory. Finally, Illinois went into College Park, on Maryland’s senior day, and beat the Terps for the first time in program history 66-65.

Illinois didn’t play their best basketball this past week, specifically on the offensive side of the floor where the Illini averaged under 70 points per game. But I think that makes finding three Big Ten wins in seven days even more impressive, and that’s before considering the roster that head coach Shauna Green is working with.

Makira Cook, Illinois’ leading scorer the past two seasons, is done for the year. Gretchen Dolan, a sophomore who was averaging 10.5 PPG in 24 minutes a game, is done for the year. That’s two core pieces of a rotation that didn’t go all that deep to begin with.

In the Rutgers and Maryland wins which, as a reminder, were decided in overtime and by one point, respectively, Illini nearly was at a six-player rotation, with Cori Allen only playing a few minutes in both contests. It’s a unit that is fighting fatigue while doing program firsts against ranked opponents on the road.

Wins this close have to be won on the margins, and that’s what Illinois is doing. Maryland shot the best from three of any of their three opponents this week, and the Terps were 6 of 20 (30 percent). Illinois, on the other hand, went 10 for 21 from three including four huge makes from true freshman Berry Wallace. Even when Maryland wasn’t making mental errors (8 turnovers), Illinois was making even less of them (7 TOs).

Wallace is a key figure in this for me. When both Cook and Dolan were in the lineup, Wallace played a total of three minutes and did not register a stat. In Dolan’s final game of the season on Dec. 28, Wallace played eight minutes and did not score a point.

Wallace is a true freshman with a five-star label, yes, but Green was not utilizing her early in the season. But she has stepped up massively in the absences, playing 95 total minutes off the bench during these three wins, and averaging 12.3 PPG in the process.

Genesis Bryant has had to take on so much of the scoring volume without Cook, and while that has hurt the efficiency, she has still managed to carry the load. She averaged 20.3 PPG this week on 44.4 percent shooting, including 28 against Rutgers. Then there’s Kendall Bostic, the quiet assassin who controls the paint on both ends of the floor. Averaging 13.3 PPG and 12.0 RPG this week feels like the norm for Bostic, but the 14 boards against a rebound juggernaut like Maryland is worth celebrating.

When the Cook and Dolan injuries were announced, there was reason to doubt Illinois’ ability to stay in the NCAA Tournament picture. This is a team that missed the tourney last year, the Big Ten is ferocious and has like way too many bids in current projections, so even a small dip could be disastrous.

Well, as of Feb. 3, Illinois is 17-5 overall and 7-4 in the Big Ten. They have won four straight, sit in fourth in the Big Ten and have proven to be a difficult out against almost everyone. If this win streak expands much further, I think it should get Green into some Big Ten Coach of the Year talks.

The Mighty Can Fall

A little over 24 hours ago, California’s all-time win percentage in Big Ten play was 100. New entrants UCLA and USC had faced the occasional battles, but came out the victor in each and every one of their in-conference matchups.

No more.

On the back of Caitlin Clark’s jersey retirement, it would be an understatement to say Iowa came out on fire for this one. Eight minutes into the game, the Hawkeyes held an 18 to 1 lead. Eighteen to one.

USC’s *first* basket of the game came with 26 seconds left in the first quarter. USC’s *second* basket of the game did not come until the 5:03 mark of the second quarter. The Trojans started the game 1 FOR 21 from the field, and Iowa’s lead expended as high as 19 during this stretch.

Iowa’s defense completely shut down USC for so much of this game, but the Trojans happen to be one of the best defensive teams in the nation, so it remained closer than it perhaps should have been, which let the No. 4 team in the country stay somewhat in the game.

Before Iowa could even really think about how incredible that start was, the Trojans finished the first half on a 25-5 run and held a 29-28 lead at the break. It was a one-point margin that felt like it could be over considering how much positive momentum the Hawkeyes already squandered.

USC threatened to take a tighter grip on the game in the third quarter, holding a pair of six-point leads, but a late Hawkeyes burst gave Iowa the lead back, 51-50, entering the fourth. Then, the Lucy Olsen-Addison O’Grady show.

Olsen was brought to this team to, more or less, fill the Clark role as a primary scorer and ball handler without all *gestures at everything* that is irreplaceable from one of the greatest player in the history of collegiate basketball. I think that made what Olsen did in this game — 15 fourth quarter points, 23 in the second half, 28 overall, against an elite defense with Clark in the building — so special.

Addison O’Grady has been an Iowa faithful throughout her college career, and has always filled her role well. She has been a starter much of this year, but the fit hasn’t been ideal with Hannah Stuelke looking more comfortable at the five. I think that made what O’Grady did in this game — 8 massive fourth quarter points and one nasty late bounce pass on 4-of-5 shooting in front of numerous former teammates — so special.

O’Grady has waited for a chance, and she was given a golden one on Sunday with Stuelke in foul trouble. Olsen has lived in these moments before, but she saw an opportunity over the offseason to take it to another level, and I’m sure she envisioned games like Sunday when she decided to make the move to Iowa. The duo combined for 23 of Iowa’s 25 points in the final frame, and were enough to take down USC 76-69.

Of course, this was a massive team effort. USC shot 35.4 percent on the day and committed 18 turnovers. JuJu Watkins had 28 points, but was an inefficient 8 for 22. Iowa’s Sydney Affolter struggled from the field, but made up for it with an 8-of-10 free throw line and five steals.

Iowa with Caitlin Clark often felt like magic, like you were in the midst of something special you do not get to witness often. That magic was there on Sunday, but not just with Clark in the stands.

Quick Notes

Some results I wanted to note in some capacity here as Big Ten play continues to ramp up

• Wisconsin — With all the noise around the program, all the respect in the world to the players for coming together to earn a huge win over Michigan to break a brutal losing streak. I know it was squandered later in the week, but I still can’t say enough about that resiliency to get such a big win in the first place

• Michigan — On the other hand, Michigan can’t be losing to Wisconsin like that! But the Wolverines turned it around with a massive blowout of an Oregon team that has impressed recently with an upset of Michigan State. Transitive property is having a migraine in this conference, more or less

• Indiana — Hey don’t look now, but the Hoosiers won both of their matchups this week against solid competition after a three-game spell. Karoline Striplin moved into the starting lineup and played well, especially against Nebraska with 13 points, 5 rebounds and 4 steals. I’m eyeing that Sunday road matchup with Minnesota as a huge test to see how real this momentum swing is.

• UCLA — is 21-0 and did it in dominant fashion. Again. Figured I should at least mention the nation’s only undefeated team left in here! The Bruins play Ohio State on Wednesday, then are at USC on Feb. 13. I would mark those on the calendar.

Photo Credit: Iowa Women’s Basketball (@IowaWBB), Twitter

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