By the skin of their teeth, Illinois basketball holds on for an 81-77 win at Washington. Mike Carpenter reacts (sometimes angrily) during a tense second half, which saw a double-digit Illini lead evaporate. But, clutch plays from the backcourt trio of Kasparas Jakucionis, Kylan Boswell, and Tre White help save the day. With the victory, Brad Underwood's team finishes their lone west coast trip with a perfect 2-0 record. Next up: Wednesday night vs. Penn State.
The 200 Level with Mike Carpenter: A Fighting Illini Fan Podcast
Defeat-less in Seattle (01/05/25)
It is the 200 level, my carpenter in the basement studio on a snowy Sunday afternoon. The bears beat the packers, which now means they'll probably keep Ryan pulls, so be careful what you wish for. And Illinois leads the Washington Huskies by 11 at halftime, not a perfect half, but a pretty good continuation of a lot of the things we saw in Oregon. I thought defense mostly for the first 15 minutes was stellar and then Washington got red hot. Oh, and there's a cute Husky on the, I will say Huskies are a great mascot and a beautiful dog. Washington, not a great basketball team metrics wise. I know the record is 10 and four, but they had some bad losses in that non-conference as well. I'm really looking for these first four minutes for Illinois to reassert their will. I thought they closed the half. All things considered pretty well against Washington. You can't let that Davis guy go off for a double digit second half. If anything, it seemed like that was the one thing that was keeping Washington in it was they finally started making threes. Jake Davis was late on a couple of closeouts. That was frustrating and you saw him get taken out for a Dre who's been really good. So you got the starters back in there, Bentham Rickhouse as we start the second half has been much more active today. I know he's not made a three. He's over two from three, but he has a nice layup take and he's been better on defense. We got 1950 to go. So here's Washington on offense, starting five against starting five. And here's a take from a sober. Is that how you say his name? But he misses it and a rebound from Ibisitch. So for those in YouTube that are creeping in on this snowy Sunday, hello to you as you pop in. What if that chat thread is you got thoughts on the game column Boswell who had foul trouble in the first half? Three from Bentham Rickhouse is up and good. Pure way to go, Ben. Second straight game where he's just looked more comfortable out there 45 to 31. And that was a deep three as well from dead center. So it's back to a 14 point Illinois lead with 19 15 to go a sober. I need to look up their names. I'm sorry, everybody up and in. So when I take from him to bring it back within 12, it seems like Washington's offense will run through. So. Ossabur. Ossabur should we go with that? Or Davis who's been red hot as well. Great. Ossabur. Ossabur 14.6 points. That was his first two of the game Illinois on offense with 1850 to go. Here's Casperis left corner backing his defender down and he uses a little. Yeah, that's a offensive foul. Use a little bit of his elbow there right in front of the ref. So DJ Davis. That's a JD Davis 14 points on five and nine shooting for freight from three. It felt like all four of those were made consecutively Washington ball trailing by 12. What we'll do is as we hit each of the time outs here, we'll hit up the sponsors, including Hamilton walkers, State Farm H and Brian Hanson, Dogtown, Heating Earn Plumbing, and Owen Builders LLC Washington on offense with 1840 to go Boswell on Davis. Hopefully that helps keep him under wraps a little bit this half a take here. And a foul on Casperis. That'll be his. Nope. Looks like they're going to get Washington on that. Same thing they got Casperis on for creating a little too much space. It looks like that was a foul call or was that just a travel? Maybe just a travel 1830 to go Illinois back with the ball. Casperis brings it across pick on the ride from him, Rick House tries to spring out. Nope. Not going to spring opening their Casperis kicks it to Ben left side of the arc. Kind of a no man's land right here. He needs help. Time out if you need it. Almost got a five second, but did not. Here's Kylan trying to take it to the rim up and no good. He's got to make those around the rim. This is becoming a problem because those are just points you're leaving off the board and he's not getting the foul calls like he did in the bragging rights game. Three for Washington is up and no good off the front end rebound Illinois. But yeah, I love Kylan. He's tough, but his inability to finish around the rim is a problem. Here's Thomas Law. Three is up. No good. Long board to Davis. Someone's got to stop the ball here. This will be Kylan stopping it. Going down low. Osabur. Osabur. Jesus. Get it right. Carp. We'll get foul. I don't think that'll be a shooting foul though. Should be on the ground. Where was he lining up with the free throw line? Are we serious? Seems generous. All right, so 14.6 points and 9.1 rebounds a game for a great Osabur. Why can't I say his damn name? We're just going to call him great from now on. I'm sorry. I can't tell what value emphasized in his name. Misses the front end of the first one. Second free throw upcoming still a 12 point Illinois lead 1736 to go. This one's up and good. So it's down to 11, which is where you started at the beginning of this half. So two and a half minutes into it holding steady offensively Illinois. A lot of shots at the rim. Not shooting too well from three today. Here's a three from Kylan. Looks good. Didn't go in and a board for Washington. So right now Illinois I believe is two or ten from the arc, something like that. Here's great. Again, baseline. Nice take and a foul on Eva Sitch. You're going to have to get more as in there for some defense because Osabur is much more active this half. The bearded lumberjack for Washington with a nice entry pass and Thomas Lobb just a little bit too slow to shut off the baseline on that. So you'll probably see more as come back out here. Thank you Ryan, Osabar, Osabar, 10 point Illinois lead. I don't want to say that this is a precarious lead, but I as good as the first, let's say 12 minutes of the game were the last 10 have not been very efficient for Illinois on either side of the ball. Now, fortunately another miss there for Washington. They've only dented into that lead by one despite not a great start from Illinois offensively. 17 minutes to go. Here's Kylan to Kasparis. Kasparis gets a pick but does not take it. Kylan, a little bit errant pass there but he does recover it. He tries to draw the foul and he does. So that will be the first team foul and this one is on Osabur. Not sure how many he's got on the game. A rock and environment in Seattle, a small kind of old-timey looking pavilion. A lot of empty seats, clearly a football school and they have packed 12 announcers on this who have been very, very, I thought, keeping praise on Illinois for much of the game. But you do kind of see that they're occasionally in that spot, a three from Trey White be there, no up and no good, a board, Morez Corral's it, back to Trey, Trey, up and under. Nice layup from Trey who's been just rock solid yet again. I think he's got 11 on the game. It's been interesting to see these pack 12 former pack 12 announcers though try to remember we're on the big 10 at work. This is not an out of conference game against Illinois. I think they've been more than fair but you can tell occasional excitement when the former pack 12 team does something good and a nice job by Ben and Rick Austin knocked the ball loose. It will stay with Washington but active hands defensively. Yeah, Trey's just body control around the rim is excellent and man, things seem to come pretty easy for him around the rim and the way that they're not for Kyle and they are for Trey and I know that's a few more inches in height that he has but he's just very, very steady. All right, Casper is on, no foul called and we're back to a 10 point lead there, good take from number nine and I don't, I wouldn't call that a flop maybe against Casper is but he was trying to get the whistle blown. Kyle and trying to take it to the rim kicks it out to Trey White. The three is up and no good but a board former as trying to make something happen and he is going to get called for the traveling and he did kind of sputter out of there. So we're here with a 10 point lead. I don't want to say precarious position because it is a double digit lead on the road. So don't take those for granted, but Washington is just annoying enough and I will say that whether it's a 10 point win or a one point win, a win is a win is a win. I would like to be able to file this under games that you just get the dub move on and don't think about it twice. As we got a break here reminder, Hamilton Walkers downtown champagne for steak seafood and spirits and this is a place that I'll be going to the next few weeks to pay off a bet excited to do that. Try to get there about once every couple months if not once a month because why not. And while it is a very luxurious kind of place, it is one not pretentious. So if you want to wear jeans in there, you can't don't feel like you got to get dressed up in a suit and tie and to the prices would not suggest that this is some, you know, five star restaurant, but I will say out of any place that I've ate at and champagne or band of the food is far and away the best, the bartenders far and away the best. And it's the service that really sets them apart and they pamper you. It's the bread and butter that they bring out to you. It's the fact that if you get a salad, they ask if you want pepper. It's those little touches that make you feel like, Oh, I'm, I'm in a nice restaurant. So that's Hamilton Walkers steak seafood and spirits in downtown Champaign also got to thank dogtown. Plumbing state for our major Brian Hanson, Oh, and Bill was LLC. I'll hit those guys up as we go through each of these time outbreaks from a line. I brickroll definitely flat today. Too many turnovers. It just, just a general sloppiness from Terry missing Boswell's production because of the early fouls that that is true, Terry. He was so good against Oregon, but same problem. Not finishing around the rim. He had a three that he missed there in the first four minute stretch. We're going to come back with a 10 point lead and Washington ball. I think we need Dre out there, but at whose expense? Kylan is good defensively where you'd like him to sort of key on Davis and just shut off that potential offense for Washington. I think Dre can do that sometimes too, but Boswell, a more reliable D defender with more size too. Oh, yeah, this is a, I don't know what to think about this. This is one of those were at this point in the first half when we were up 10 to two and then he stretched to a 17 point lead. I thought this could be a Laffer and now it just feels like, Oh boy, this is not going to be an aesthetically pleasing game. This is one of those just escape, you know, and come home. Get the win. The lack of effort or concentration, I think it is just one of those, the ebbs and flows of basketball where you were not going to repeat your performance because Oregon. Now I am surprised though, that Washington is seemingly repeating a lot of the things they did against Maryland. I thought if anything, maybe they got it out of their system with a win against Maryland back on, was that Thursday night, Asabar trying to find Davis, but good D from Kylan up top and a three from Washington is up, no good, good defensive possession there for Illinois forcing an off balance three. All right. Here's Bos. We'll bring him to cross. He wants the three. He draws the three and he makes it yeah, four point play possibility. Great job getting his defender in the air and extra patient on kind of going under that foul and making the three. What a big play from Kylan. Good to see him on the board. I think his first points of the game. Yeah, you know, it's funny if he starts making shots around the rim, the dude's like all big 10 caliber, which you could argue because of his defense, he's already probably honorable mention kind of guy, but his shooting percentage would not reflect that. And yet I like him on the court. There's a comfort that he brings out there, Boswell misses the free throw darn it. So one miss from him and one miss from Trey so far today, two very good free throw shooters, but it is back to a 13 point lead 15 oh four to go. Here is Washington on offense. Trey White has to recover after a pick three not taken by Washington. And this has been him. Rick outside number 12. I don't know that this guy's name. Nice take and finish little hook half way up kind of thing there from court right with a K. Sure. Why not? It's a back to an 11 point game back and forth. Here we go still the same margin that you went into halftime with Washington playing you even thus far from Rick house defended on the three point line, Casper is trying to create some space does a good job doing that. Maybe a mismatch here as he tries to break down his defender. He takes it up does not draw the foul and it will go the other way and that did seem to be a little bit too loose at the ball, but fortunately so was Washington back in Illinois's direction with 14 10 to go, Kylan trying to take it to the rim up no good and Trey gets it and the foul Trey freaking white. God he's good. What an emergence from him, Kylan again terrible finished by the rim. I knew he drew contact, but he was nowhere. What is going for his size you would think that he'd be so much better around the rim. So what you had there is a four point swing potentially five of Trey can make this free throw because Washington had a break and an errant pass got it right back to Illinois. 14 10 to go here is Trey white from the line. I want to say he's got 14 already free throws up no good. That's the third miss free throw for Illinois today, a very good free throw shooting team. Not today, 52 to 39 just a weird kind of vibe right now and yet you're up 13. So now just string together some stops. Here is Washington on offense Davis with a 16 footer is up and good. Why the hell wouldn't it be that pisses me off. It's fine. It's not about the defense. I would give him the 16 footer. You had to have him go off the pick, but could he just stop? Just annoying. That's all. Sorry. I just had to get that out there. In the corner looking for Morez now he shoots a three up and no good and a good board from Kylan Jake Davis trying to take it up himself and he just he draws the foul. Is that what happened there? I think he got lucky. I don't know where the hell Jake was going on that. So watching the replay, he's driving it and he might have gotten swiped from the defender in the back. That would make sense. Okay. Or how did that ball go that direction? So Illinois does draw the foul. That's the fourth on Washington three on Illinois. Not too many in the early going here in the second half. Here's Eva Sitch. Yeah. We're just a little bit sloppy with the ball right now. Kylan does not take the pick from Eva Sitch. He does make the way up. Oh my God, Kylan weaving points on the board. And this is a possible three for Davis, no good close up from Dre. It's a layup and a three from Davis is no good. And that's a long board to Osabore and an opportunity for Washington here. And it's kind of a free for all. This is going to be Eva Sitch on Osabore and a foul on the floor I would hope where they got to travel. Man, I just want to be clear. I like Kylan a lot. Make a damn layup. You're six, three, six, four. You got the body for it. It's like he's thinking first draw contact and then secondary tertiary whatever the fourth priority is making it just make the way up. Here's another drive up and good. Yeah. There we go. Thank you, Kylan. You can get to the rim that will it feels like he just has not been finishing 12 30 to go. So back to a 13 point lead back and forth. We go Illinois has expanded their lead by two since halftime. Here's a three. No, no, they pass up the three baseline. Take here from Washington and a good job by Eva Sitch against a wing, keeping him relatively in front of him and Jake Davis doesn't block out. Now it's not, it's been a reversion to what Jake Davis had been doing before the Oregon game. He didn't close out on two threes in the first half. He didn't block out there. I don't want to say, well, those eight points are on you, but kind of all right. So we get a foul on Washington, it's 11 point lead for eight minutes in. You're just maintaining the lead from K Andrew, interesting point that you have here. I love early fouls in the Alana. I have forces Brad to be engaged early. Then we use the rotations liberally and we kill teams on fresh bodies and pace, whether shots are falling or not. There might be something to that K Andrew. I mean, Kylan is fresh this half because he only played three, four minutes, maybe in the first half and that could pay dividends as we go. Now Casper said to play a lot and I think he has had a couple of minutes here to sit. If I recall, I don't think he's been on the court for a couple of minutes. Hmm. Weird game. Trying to kind of gather my bearings while I have a timeout, a reminder that the two under levels brought to you by dog town heating air and plumbing. You need them now more than ever. Cold week ahead, snowy week, dog town heating air and plumbing can make sure that your furnace is operating tip-top as ours is, fortunately, we're lucky to have them as our HVAC people. We've been using them for a couple of years and appreciate how quick they are to respond to any question or any service issue that you may have at your house. So really reliable, good people that's dog town heating air and plumbing, your home's best friend at 217-840. Sorry, everybody. Okay. Yeah. We're trying to figure out if we have school tomorrow. Two, one, seven, eight, four, one, forty seven, twenty eight. That's two, one, seven, eight, four, one, forty seven, twenty eight. Yes. That is right now as a teacher. That's the question. Tomorrow is an institute day where we would do meetings. We do not know yet what we will be doing, whether it's in person or virtual. And the funny thing is with the weather, as I recorded this at four thirty on Sunday afternoon, it could be worse. We have maybe a couple two and a half inches out there and it started a lot earlier than people thought, but the bad stuff is starting to hit and then followed by winds and my little two wheel drive, small SUV, not great, not great when we get more than a few inches. So after this, I plan on making my old fashioned, which I have on Sunday evenings, and then I'll shovel the snow for the first time. And I don't mind shoveling snow to maybe three times max. I think that's all this thing is going to be. We got lucky in some ways. It's just weird though to have friends in Chicago, not getting a flake and a friend that's in Louisville and they've already gotten eight inches and now they're getting freezing rain on top of that. So hey, it could be a lot worse for us here in Champaign Washington looks to be halfway decent. All right, so the next game for Illinois, Penn State on Wednesday night, whenever I see that name, you always tighten up a little bit. I think that is a pretty tough matchup coming up on Wednesday night and you'll be getting back our presume from Washington tomorrow, probably about a four hour flight. These guys are young. I think they can whip back into shape pretty quick, probably just a light practice on Tuesday and a shoot around Wednesday. Let's get that win. Get this win to start, but Penn State, as always, when you look at them on the schedule, it's a little bit. Ah, crap. Not again. Okay. So here comes the out of bounds play, Eva Sitch gets up from Kylan left corner, trying to break down his guy. He creates space and it's up and in nice take from Eva Sitch was worried they were going to get him for a little elbow there, but they did not. All right, Washington ball back to a 13 point Illinois lead with 1140, get some stops, get some buckets. Let's stretch this lead. Nice take from Washington, but Illinois does grab the board and yeah, Kylan comes away with it. Good stuff. All right. Teams around the rim against us are not very good. And that says something about Illinois will Riley will have an open three be there will. No good, but a board from Drane Kylan, we're fighting over it. They each say my bad, they hug it out. Two tough dudes at one of the board. All right. From K Andrew, I know he's struggling around the rim, but I feel so strongly that Kylan will look like a Demetri Mikaimi highlight reel every year, every game next year. Yeah, that's the biggest similarity I see. I love Demetri. I think Kylan has a lot of the same, well, his body type is very similar for sure and his ability to get to the rim. So I think you're right about that. I have no doubts that he will get better out of K Andrew. He's a tough player and just feels like a weird kind of stretch of him not getting that. Now along to from the lumberjack looking fella on Washington, Brydenbach, who looks like he should be playing for Northwestern, considering both teams were purple and only is natural fit. It appears. Well, Riley kind of gets caught in No Man's Land but finds Ben and we do have Kasra's back out there, 15 on the shot clock, Ben right side of the perimeter, trying to drive it in. He's got a smaller guy on him and he does not draw the foul, Dre tries to knock it off of Washington's leg but Washington gets the ball back. So 10.30 to go and it's still an 11 point game and here's a three from Brydenbach. Oh my God, this is going to be really annoying, isn't it? An eight point lead. The 4,000 gathered at this old ass arena going nuts. Boy, this is just the prototypical annoying game, isn't it? Here's Kasparis. Picked up his dribble so it's over to Dre in the left side of the perimeter. Dre trying to drive it in. Great take from Dre. God, he's good. It's really cool to see Dre come into his own as Big Ten play starts. I've always liked his attitude on the court. He's clearly athletic. Now he just looks really comfortable out there. All right, Washington back on offense. Can we get a stop? Honestly, the defense has not been good for the last 15 minutes of game action. Here's Washington, a 16 footer, no good and a board. Nope. And Dre does get it, but it will be out of bounds off Illinois. Just get the damn ball. And by the way, that should have been a rebound for Bentham Rick House, who has been better today, but get the freaking board. You're six foot nine. Put your two hands on the orange ball and secure it for a team that's been very good rebounding. It's just little plays like that where you're like, guys, geez, clean this up. 9.30 to go. Washington is dented in the lead by a point. They were fusing to go away. Bridenbach. It is favorite spot in the perimeter, but he passes it off. Good job by Eva Sitchke in the passing lane. Washington keeps it though with 10 in the shot clock. Let's see. Here's a guard with Dre on him, five on the shot clock. The take is up and no good and a board for Casperas still 10 point lead with 9.10 to go. Okay. Kylan with the ball. 5,000 Washington, only three on Illinois. The take is up and good for Kylan or they're going to call it on the ground. Looks like they'll call that foul before he got the shot, but he did make the layup. It will be on the floor and Illinois will get the ball out of bounds, but they're a foul away from being in the bonus and yeah, he was fouled around the three point mind. Good job from Kylan there, who's pretty good at drawing fouls. All right, Benham Rickhouse, left corner. He's going to try a little one I want to get his man. He misses the layup and he does get fouled. He will go to the line. Well, I mean, I appreciate the toughness to get the ball back. I think we're seeing with Ben today a lot more confidence. He didn't finish there at the rim and as I'm watching this again, it's like he did a finger roll too close to it and it just rolled off the front. It didn't even get above the rim. Now he's not someone that shoots many free throws. This right here, I believe will be one in one and with five points for rebounds today. The free throw is up and it's good. Nice, Ben. Back to an 11 point lead, you're maintaining the 11 point lead. Oh, one of those games, huh. Looks like we'll have a substitution if he makes this second free throws up. It's good. Okay. So Ben makes both. He's got seven points and four rebounds trying to see you came in for Illinois here. It's a central set, so it looks like Morez must have come out, but your five right now are Dre, Kasparis, Kylan, Morez, and Ben and Rick House. Okay. So Boswell, the long three from Davis is up and in. It literally bounced around the rim and went in. Oh my God, just very annoying. Back to a nine point game. Here's Kylan trying to drive it in up and he draws the foul on Davis. No, not on Davis on somebody else. Okay. It's like, Hey, we're up nine on the road. We've been maintaining a double digit esque lead for the majority of this game in no, in no way am I like disappointed with Illinois's effort. It's just these are games like this. We know you're better than the opponent can just get really frustrating as Kylan misses a free throw. All right, we'll make this and go back up 10. All right, Illinois, interesting shot attempts per game. 32% of theirs come from three, 24% from free throw. Those are the most in the big 10 for both of those. The least amount of their attempts come from two point range, not surprising. Kylan does make the second. It is a 10 point lead. Get some stops. 838 to go, Illinois's eight for 10 from free throw, so 66% under their average for sure could be worse, but you hope a couple of those points don't hurt you later. All right. So Davis with another three, Colin was late around the pick guys, I don't know. Don't let him shoot. And this is one thing. This I talked about this macro. I love Brad Underwood micro stop letting guys get on heaters like that. But there has to be something you can do to force the ball into other people's hands. And yet this dude's on a 22 point heater. KJ three is up and no good, but a board from Kylan and he gets fouled from Davis. So he will go the line with one and one. Alana brick girl, the Wisconsin game, are you referring to Demetric Trice when he went off at the end of that? The thing is, Dave has been doing this all freaking game. I don't know how Kylan got that lost in the screen. Yeah. That's what Alana brick girl was referring to DJ Davis. Of course career high, six made threes. Why wouldn't it be? Why wouldn't it be? Maybe don't let him shoot. I mean, seriously, you got fouls to give, get hands around the picks if you need to slow him down. Kylan free throw is no good, a seven point game in a very precarious position now for Illinois. It's an adversity boy. You would hate to lose. I mean, well, of course you'd hate to lose this game and you have no business losing this game, but you let them hang. Here's Davis with Casper son, him finds awesome boar with more as on him. You got fouls to give. So get physical if you need to, awesome boars up and it's no good. But a foul on marez we're going to come out of the break with a seven point lead. And awesome boar going to the line problem is, I mean, the offense hasn't been great for Illinois, but you are not playing good defense. You aren't. You had Washington with 10 points, I want to say with the eight minute timeout, something like that in the first half and just poor, piss poor defense. Maybe this game is starting to frustrate me a little bit. I don't know if you can tell. All right. The two at a level brought to you by state firm agent Brian Hanson online at Brianismyguy.com life auto home business renters. You name it. Brian is my guy and he can be your guy as well when a Brian's watching this game. He's much more even keeled than I am. I get a little bit frustrated watching these, but this is where you look at Casper is very quiet. This half, you're going to have to start having your big time players make the shots to respond to DJ Davis. Sure. Great. Yeah. He is good. He is good. Maybe even great boy, oh boy. From K Andrew, Washington starting to dictate pace last six, seven game minutes or so. Yeah, it does feel like we're laboring out there. It's a Danny sprinkle effect. When you go against Danny sprinkle, you better bring your A game. I only say that half ingest because he had a very good year at Utah state last year and he's trying to get this Washington program back on solid footing. But boy, oh boy, man, what's some of these teams in purple? And I will say what would be frustrating about this, a loss like this would be immensely frustrating because road games will not get much easier than this. Just won't. You don't play USC this year. Washington is the easiest road game on the schedule. You already lost one in Northwestern and in basketball, you got to afford your team a stinker or two and maybe even a few more than that, depending where they're at. But to know what the ceiling is of this team and then feel like, well, wait a second. You respond to that with a game where you aren't getting quite punked by Washington. But they're starting to out tough you a little bit and that is disconcerting and you just start closing out on the freaking threes. Get your ass on DJ Davis and put a hand in his freaking face. If great Ossebor has to go down and score two-pointer every time, so be it. Do not let the team beat you from three and that's what Illinois has been very good at. It's part of their identity and yet they let this guy spring loose for 22 points. And is he done yet? I hope. But we're going to have a tight game down the stretch because you let this scrub, no offense DJ. I shouldn't say that. This guy I've never heard of, which sounds very arrogant of me, I admit. This good basketball player go off and look great for a day where you shouldn't. I'd ask one of you in the chat thread to find out what his points per game averages, but I frankly don't want to know. I mean, if it's like six, I would be like, yeah, that makes sense. Now, Ossebor, fortunately, not very good at the line. He's two for five. He missed that one. Seven forty one to go, Illinois looks to have their starting five minus Eva Sitch out on the court. Now, Ossebor makes the second. Here is Dre and then Casperis will bring it across from Ryan. Yeah. DJ Davis has been struggling until the Maryland game. So that seems to have taken the lid off of the rim form. Here's Casperis. The take. He's got to be careful. He's coming up. Trey. Trey back out to Benham Rickhouse, the three. No good. It's out of bounds off Casperis. I thought he knocked it off the Washington guy, but that was an open look for Benny's got to make that. Damn man. Okay. So there you go from K Andrew, DJ Davis averaging 7.5 shooting 30% from the field. Yep. All right, here is Washington on offense trailing by six again, just get the win Vegas by the way. It's six and a half before this game started. Here's Eva Sitch on great Ossebor. This is going to be Ossebor, Eva Sitch on him up and no good. And Eva is just saying, what do you want me to do defensively, but they get another foul on him. He will go to the line. Just not getting any stops, not getting any stops. Two man game for Washington. Either they're finding DJ Davis for a three or they give it to Ossebor. And I'm watching this replay here to see what the foul will be on Eva Sitch and he got his knee in there. So yeah, that's a, that's a foul and I would agree, brickroll. It's not been a good game for Eva Sitch. He's got height on Ossebor, but he's kind of getting punked around by his big body. So it's a five point game with seven to go. This is not good. And this would be an awful loss for Illinois. They would take a lot of the wind out of the sails. Hey, but you know what? Xavier Scott's coming back. J.C. Davis is coming back, I will be doing a football pod early this week. It is a four point game, nine one scoring run for Washington in under two minutes. And Illinois has got to respond, gut check time. Here's Casperis and he damn near loses it. Casperis gets fouled on the put back. Thank God. Now forcing the issue a little bit, almost turned the ball over. Dre goes up for the shot. Good job by Ossebor. Just going straight up, so no foul on him, but Ossebor does foul KJ on the put back. So it'll be two shots. Illinois is in the double bonus anyway for the rest of the game with 640 to go, 61, 57. Okay, just looking to KJ's face where we wipe and sweat off. I don't know who really knows. Okay, first free throw for KJ is up. It's good. Five point Illinois lead. I think you might have to put even, sorry, you might have to put Johnson in there against Ossebor, but I don't know how many fouls he has because I know he's got a least couple. Even since he's still out there, Casperis second free throws up and good. It's a six point Illinois lead. All right, Kylan back in, Dre taking a seat. I would imagine Kylan will ride for the rest of this game. And just beyond Davis, hopefully he doesn't get caught up in any of those screens again. I don't know if there was a double screen on the last three or what. I couldn't really tell from the camera. All right, here's Washington on the take. It's up and good. And just like that, it is a four point game. We are unable to stop them. I'm trying to think the last time we stopped them. Legit. It's been a while. Kylan up and in, a nice pass from Eva Sitch and a good finish from Kylan to go back up six with a 615 to go get a stop. We've been so good defensively this year and we are just struggling to get a stop. Another take there. Up, no good and no foul. Thank goodness. Eva Sitch can test it. Here's Kylan. Kylan looking for Benham Rickhouse. What makes the three finds Kasperis Kasperis over to Trey White. Trey White in the left corner. Nothing really opening up for Illinois. Trey's taking it himself up and good. Big shot from Trey. There we go. A point Illinois lead was 545 to go. The one guy I'm okay with shooting that mid range jumper. Trey White. Well, Kasperis can't every now and then too. And we get a foul on Kylan even though this guy just fell over himself. Let's foul on Illinois. And that's Diallo. So the headband guy. That's Diallo. Sorry, I'm not good with opponent's names and not trying to be in a disrespectful way. It's just, you know, shoot 19 other teams in the Big Ten. It's a lot. Or 17 other, I guess, what, 18? I should be able to count. Trey White with 20-11 at Oregon. I just missed what he has today. He's pointing out some sweat on the ground from when the Washington guy fell over himself. Yet they called the foul on Kylan. No, it's okay. I'm not hung up on it at all. Okay, here we go. 539, Washington ball. One more foul from Illinois will put Washington in the bonus. Here's Asabore and Chady Davis, the three's up and good. That was an easy play. Absolutely maddening. And that pisses me off. 25.712 shooting. Trey White was on him. Didn't get over the pick. Guess what? Double his ass. There are three guys on that offense right now for Washington that are not a threat. Wow, Illinois somehow avoids getting the ball stolen, Trey White up and good, so good around the rim, seven-point lead and a timeout for Illinois. I know sometimes guys go on heaters. I get that. That was entirely too easy. That was a two-man game, and here's the thing. That's probably on Eva Sitch for not coming up when Asabore set the pick. What he did was he sagged down to like 10 feet away from the freaking basket, so he's a non-factor as Davis comes around the pick. I don't know, man. He's a lead, tenuous. Oh, my God. Okay. Owen Builders LLC, online at Owen Builders LLC.com, looking to staff, expert craftsmen. You can check out a gallery of their awesome work online at Owen Builders LLC.com, and while you're there, get a free quote for your next home project at Owen Builders LLC.com. K Andrew says, "Roster, doesn't matter. Brad loves giving up career days." Listen, it's probably, I wish there were a way and there probably is, it would take a long time to dig through this, to find out how many random dudes with like sub ten points per game averages have career days against Illinois. You can go back last year to Kern, the guy for Penn State, he's actually been pretty good this year, and I'm already not looking forward to seeing him again. Like Kern, I think. Today J.C Davis, that's our guy, DJ Davis. That's why I keep stumbling over his first name. I like J.C Davis, and I like these coming back. Oh, God. Illinois football makes me very happy. But yeah, if there were a way to look that up, okay, Andrew, that'd be interesting. I do think though, that's probably a phenomenon that a lot of fan bases feel like. It's so anecdotal that it would be difficult to say, "Well, man, nine times a year, some guy goes off against Brad Underwood coach teams for 15 points more than they're at. Yeah." Does it feel that way sometimes? Absolutely. It does. They can drive you nuts. Again, I say all this. I love the macro here as an Illinois basketball fan, but when you're watching the game, if you're a big-time program, you still need to be improving here. What's been frustrating about this second half is it's been Osabor, or it's been Davis. That's been enough for them to hang around. When your advantage is the depth of this team, and when your defense has been really good this year, that's disappointing. Figure it out. If anything, get aggressive now for somebody else to make a shot for Washington, because no one else on Washington has been doing it all game long. If you look up at the scoreboard after this game, and if you somehow don't hold on, and it's because of two guys, that's bad. We have 508 to go. Here's Washington with the ball, seven-point lead for Illinois. Get a stop. Here's Davis off the screen, Casper's helps, Davis, Baseline, kicks it to court, right? This is going to be Diallo trying to drive it in, even Sich helps, from Rick House, good D, but it goes in. That I can live with. That is a hard shot to make the dude made the shot, okay. But it is really unbelievable how Washington will not miss. Now, to me, the narrative kind of changes. If you win this game, you've weathered the storm. It would be a tough win at this point. It's actually your own doing, but let's just get it done. Here's Casper's creating some space. The floater is up and good. NBA move if I ever saw one. God dang kid, 420 to go back to a seven-point Illinois lead. Get a stop and a score, and you feel great. All right. No pick up top. Kylan on his guy, DJ Davis, is it going to be Illinois ball? It's going to be out of bounds as Kylan dives for it. Damn. Good job by him, Rick House, closing out on that. Backing the ball loose. Damn. Casper's. That move, that floater. Hi, our dog. I'm tense. He asked how I'm doing today. I'm tense, our dog. 71-64. I'm going to get this one off the ground. This guy's been busy this second half. All right, good job, kid. For 10 to go, and it looks like as I look out there, Davis is inbound and get with Casper's on him in the inbound, and this is where, okay, Eva Sitch does not get out quite in time, but you know what, he got out enough to force more of a fadeaway three. That was better. Okay, good stuff there off the screen. Here's Kylan trying to drive it in up and good. Nice, Kylan. There we go. Nine-point lead. 73-64. All right. Forcing the issue, made the layup a huge layup, and maybe a timeout here for Danny Sprinkle. Yes. Okay, 3.46 to go. Nine-point Illinois lead. I love this take from Kylan. Great stuff, Kylan. I got the under four timeout, woo. While we have this timeout, just a quick reminder of all of our sponsors here. We got Hamilton Walkers, downtown Champaign, Steak, Seafood, and Spirits. Love the guys, Hamilton Walkers, and appreciate them being with us this year in the 200 level. It's been a good year so far. Hopefully, the spring is as good as the fall, because the fall is really good. I also got to thank Owen Builders LLC, Luke and his staff, expert craftsman, and you can check out a gallery of their work online at OwenBuildersLLC.com. Dogtown Heating Air and Plumbing, your home's best friend, 217-841-4728. And finally, got to thank State Farm Agent Brian Hanson online at brianasmyguy.com. Life auto home business renters, you name it, Brian is my guy, and he could be your guy as well at brianasmyguy.com. From Terry, Maryland, Oregon tied at 74 with three minutes left. Okay. Big time game, Maryland bouncing back. I don't know, I don't want to say Washington is legit just because they're hanging tough with you. They did be Maryland. Maybe a wide switch turned on, and now you see Maryland, in fact, is still really good because they are tied with Oregon right now up in Eugene. I don't know why those games are on at the same time. It feels like they should have had more staggered for Big Ten today, but regardless, I wouldn't mind watching that, but we got our own game with 3.46 to go in the nine-point lead, and you're getting to that point where if you can get another two, maybe three stops, it's over. And you got double bonus so you can have plenty of opportunities to go the line and closing time. Let's do it. All right. Mike Hall and Rafael Davis in the studio. I don't know. I'm just passing time. That's nothing to the conversation here. All right. As we get back to Seattle, Washington, in the Alaskan Airlines Arena, capacity 9,000, probably a couple of thousands short of that today, but they have been treated to a competitive game that got all the way down to a five-point Illinois lead. Is that right? DJ Davis with 25 points and seven to 13 from three, most made by a Big Ten player this season. Of course. Well, hold on a second, in a Big Ten game, didn't Will Riley make eight in this first game? Okay. Okay. Here we go. Ryan who's got the four-point lead, Maryland or Oregon? Let me know. All right. Here is Washington back on offense, Kylan up top, good on the ball defense. This is going to be a three, not from Davis, but some other guy and he makes it six-point lead for Illinois. Okay. Here we go. It was down to a four-point lead. I see you're saying, Ryan, I was like, did it get down to five? No, it did get down to four. So 315 left, of course, Washington makes a three, they're 10 for 25 from long range today. Here's Casparis, Casparis driving it up and wow, finds Kylan for the easy layup. He's special. Now you're good, Ryan. For a second, I was worried this had gotten back down to four and that would have, ooh. All right. So here we go. Eight-point lead with three to go. Get a stop. Get a stop. The lumberjack over at a DJ Davis, DJ Davis with a drive here is great Ossebor and up and fortunately no foul against Eva Sitch in a quick timeout for Washington. We can't stop them. Now fortunately we are counter punching, but to me the not red alarm, but the yellow alarm is that we are not able to get the stops to put this thing away quite yet to possession game with 247 to go. I think that timeout was for Washington, I believe. So Illinois with a chance here to extend their lead again, but I mean, that's great. That's great. I like your playmakers and your chances to get your own buckets, but get a fricking stop. And at a certain point, man, it is players making plays and Washington does have a couple dudes making plays today where that three that was two possessions ago was not from Davis. It was from another one of their wings who I don't know if he had hit one yet. But regardless, you got to find a way to make a stop. You just have to. I mean, that's the beauty of basketball. The end of the day is pretty simple, right? You score. You stop. You win. And so Kylan over to Casperis, we got 240 to go. Here's some Rick House three. No good and just try to get the board. It trade does get the board. Call the timeout. Nope. Thomas love. Okay. To Casperis, 15 months on the shot clock, somehow we corralled that someone on Washington just fell over. Here's Casperis. Come on. One more pass. Kylan with the ball to Casperis. We got four in the shot clock. The three is up. No good. The air ball, six point lead with two 14 to go. Yeah, Kander, I don't know why Ben shot that early in the shot clock. You aren't playing the clock necessarily yet. It's not like running. It's a two possession lead, so you take the best shot available, but that was not the best shot. And while it wasn't hotly contested, it was contested enough where you say, okay, live to see another day. Go to see another shot two 14 to go. Washington, we have not been able to stop. Can you find a stop here and maybe then draw a foul? All right. Here's Washington over the screen. Looking for Osabore. Good defense so far for Illinois. Two minutes to go. Here's number 12. Hermrickhouse on him up. No good and a board from him, Rick house fantastic D from Ben. Wow. This will be maybe the last possession Washington can play without fouling. If you can get a bucket here, you're in great shape. Chill out KJ. You got time. Eva Sitch three. No good. And it's a foul on Casper's. That is so fricking stupid. Come on. Now you put them at the line with a minute 38 to go. Come on. Phone headed crap. That pisses me off. First off, why was he in such a freaking hurry on that possession? He passes it to Eva Sitch with like 15 left on the shot clock. Eva Sitch shoots it, brick. What are you, what are you doing? Davis makes the free throw. It is a five point freaking game, man. It's the first time I've been legit pissed today. What is that? Have the awareness. 138 to go. God dang it. Here's Davis from the line. Two timeouts for Illinois. If you need to use any, it is a four point freaking game when you could have ice this thing. God dang it, man. Here's Casper's with 20 in the shot clock. Around 30 in the game. Kylan on the left side. Back to Casper's. 40 feet away from the basket. We got 12 in the shot clock. He is at a tray, tray up in the perimeter. He's going to drive it over to Eva Sitch. The three is up. It is no good, but a board for Kylan. Nope. They're going to say he's out of bounds as he falls to the ground. That three was in and out. I mean, Ryan, we could say we're getting hosed by the refs, but you know, Kylan's going for that board. Maybe he was pushed. Maybe he wasn't, but I don't know, man, a minute 12 to go. If you don't get a stop here, you are in a dangerous spot. Here's Davis with 110 to go. Casper's on him. Davis over the screen to number 12. Davis wants the three. He no goes baseline up and it is good. It is a two point game. You have allowed Washington to come all the way back. Will Brad use one of his two timeouts? He will. This is very frustrating and he will pisses me off about that is with a minute 38 to go. And I hate to key it on one play, but you have 15 seconds on that shot clock. And Casperus is in a hurry to break his guy down. Pulled it out to Eva Sitch, two missed threes. The second one was in and out fine, but eventually players make plays. You have let this team hang the frick around and find yourself in this precarious position. And you risk allowing a major, big win in Oregon, a lot of momentum you could have had from that to just, if not evaporate, go away quite a bit. Now I know Washington beat Maryland and they are playing tough today, but this has been a piss poor defensive effort from Illinois. Make a frickin stop. You score 75 points on the road. You should win that game. And for a team that's not led today, not once in this Washington team, if they get a stop, they have a chance to do just that, Illinois will come out of a timeout. This is the first time all year long I've been pissed, not the Tennessee game, not the Alabama game, pissed to find yourselves in this position. And we have a bad inbound and it is tied, unbelievable, 40 seconds to go. I'd like to know where Brad Underwood, where he draws up his inbounds plays, Casper's up and in, 32.7 to go, that's just, you're up too, get a stop, timeout for Danny Sprinkle. I do not understand how in year eight we are so inept at inbounding the fricking ball. You call the timeout for that. And just to be clear, I like Underwood overall, I like the macro with Underwood, it's that micro stuff that can drive you freaking nuts. Yeah, the team needs to execute better, I get it. But could we, on a play-to-play basis, when a game is in crunch time, could we feel confident that the correct play will be drawn up? That is a freaking inbounds play and I know from the sideline, it's not from under the basket and you aren't in the coffin corner all the way down there, like that's a sideline inbound. That ain't that hard. I mean, it's uncanny. Between K. Andrew, you mentioned the opposing player going off and then the inbounds issues. It's just, it doesn't need to be that hard. You're up by 12 with nine to go. You allowed them to hang. You're up by nine. I mean, we're, to the point you're up by nine as little as, what you up by nine with 346 to go, weren't you? Time to get a stop. Now, Illinois's the double bonus, Washington is in the bonus. Does Washington go for the three at home or do they try to find Ossobor down low? This is Davis with Casper us on him. Screen you got to switch. They do. It's Benhamrick House on Davis, looking for another screen. And this is going to be a steal, no, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, who's ball? Who's ball? Jump, jump ball, Illinois ball, 14.6. Oh my God. Okay. That's gross. Man, oh man. So watching this replay, who got the hand on the ball, Trey got the hand on the ball, knocked it loose. Good. No call from the refs. Thank God for that. Then it's a scrum. And then who gets down there? Trey White to get the jump ball. Illinois ball. But now we got inbound. Okay, could we show what's going on the court right now? Thank you. Sometimes they have these extended shots of the coaches like I want to see what the inbounds looks like. Okay. This is to Casper us. And he is going to get fouled with 12.6 to go. It's double bonus. Okay. Andrew is frustrated with Brad Underwood sitting on the bench. I lived through the Weber years and the gross years where they never sat on the bench. I don't mind it because eventually sometimes it's if your team knows what to do, you don't need to be barking at him, but yeah, I he's up now. Okay, two shots, double bonus for Casper us. There was 12.6 left on the game clock. The first free throw was up. It is good three point Illinois lead. Here's the important one. I'm Greg. It shouldn't be this hard. We'll talk about that. Greg. I agree. You made it harder than you needed to despite Washington making some plays and credit is due to them for making plays, but all right. Here's Casper's. The second free throw is up. It's good. It is a four point Illinois lead timeout Illinois smart. Thank you, Brad, calling that. That's what he would have done in the Missouri game and they made that free throw and I know we didn't foul. Now, the question is with 12.6 and up four, do you even broach the idea of fouling? You've got 17 fouls. I don't think you do. A three point game would make that different, but you're up four from Ryan. If you win, you survive the trapez trap game, thankfully before Penn State comes to town. What is Danny sprinkle yelling about? Why are we always facing coaches that lose their marbles? And can you really take a guy named Sprinkle getting angry seriously? I don't know if he can. All right, this is the huddle here 12.6 to go got between the Bears game and this intense sports on Sunday, January 5th and you, hey, you heard you, you watch for those who are on YouTube. Again, the first time I've been pissed this year, frustrated in other moments like, you know, Northwestern was, oh, come on, but it was early enough in the year. Okay. It sucks. I hate losing to them quit doing that, but like visibly, audibly upset today. It took his old January 5th, I'm getting better at it. From Ryan, TSJ has become an incredible Twitter follower during these. He is locked in. So he's watching it. That's cool. Okay. Andrew, if it gets down to five seconds or so foul with the four point lead, I don't know. I don't know if that would be the easiest thing would be just get to stop. I'm kind of surprised that we are not doing any pressure. So we're giving them this. This is Davis who will be bringing it up. KJ on him. They're going to try to drive it. It's up and it's good. So it's a two point lead with six point seven to go. Now that sets up the press for them. Here is Kylan and he gets foul with six point three double bonus in those moments. I don't understand why you would call a timeout and not try to put a guy on the ball for three quarters of the court. Davis had a full head of steam, a grand total of six seconds elapsed. Now it was a good take and good finish, but why not try to slow him up a little bit? Now here's Kylan, two shots, first one's up and good. Back to a three point lead, but here's the important one. Oh boy. Does Illinois know what to do with six point three? If he were to miss this, do you foul? Terry gave us a bit of a spoiler. That's my hulu account, Terry. It's a couple of seconds behind 80 to 77. It's up. It's good. Up four. I don't understand why we aren't getting a guy in the ball here. Okay. So Illinois, five seconds to go. Here's Washington. While they were going to foul, Davis three is up. That's no good. Illinois wins. Oh my God. You survive the trap game and you beat a spunky Washington team. Now was I frustrated? Yes. Were there legitimate reasons for frustration? Yes. Did you close it out? Yes. Did you get a road win? Yeah. Are we going to remember that game as one of the best of the year? No. As that game was tightening up, it was clear, okay, just survive and move on. And they did just that. So do I have any lingering concerns after that? I'd have to see what happens because Penn State because I don't want to be overreactive and say that, well, because certain things didn't go great against this team, therefore, there are trends to worry about. At the end of the day, I would love to be able to look back on that and say, well, that Davis kid just went off and that was that. And if it's as simple as that, then maybe you can live with it, but you escaped. You got the win. That's all. I mean, from Wesley and I tend to agree with you, Wesley, this is Illinois team a month ago loses this game, still the same mistakes, but they stayed the course. Yeah. And I mean, Wesley, they made the free throws at the end of it. They did get, I mean, Trey White. Here are the game yet again, a quiet like, did he have 20 points yet again, something like that, but he gets the hand on the ball and he gets the jump ball, which eventually leads to two KJ free throws to go back up for massive in this after the errant inbound pass that allowed that game to get within two, no tide, KJ big a way up to free throws late. Kylie makes both of his free throws. You won the damn game. Okay. Thank you to our sponsors. First time I've gotten all year. I don't want to cookie for it. Okay. I'm not trying to say, Hey, look at how far I've come that it's January 5th and it took it long. Man, that old fashioned is going to taste especially sweet tonight. And shoveling snow will be a little more palatable after Illinois wins 81 to 77. So here's what we got. We'll have a second half pod. I'm pretty sure on Wednesday for the Penn State game, I'm going to get a. Football podcast up here in the next couple of days as well, just reflect on the Citrus Bowl and the additions coming back and then hopefully we find out about gay back is sooner rather than later, but pretty special time to be an Illinois football fan. And you have an Illinois basketball team that in the eyes of the national riders and those who vote in the AP poll, they aren't going to be saying, Oh, wow, they only won by Fort Washington. No, you won at Washington, something Maryland couldn't do and you smoked Oregon a few days before by 30. But therefore expect a big jump in the polls and it is warranted because you held on today. All right, everybody, thank you in the YouTube feed for tuning in. I appreciate you. Sorry if there were any moments for the mic clip, my poor dog, I'm going to go up, give her some pets. I bet she heard some of those things and said, what is wrong with you? And that's a good question, actually, before I get out of here, a reminder, hey, we won. So why not read a book about a line I've asked a ball? I do appreciate everyone that's bought the tuner level book that is available locally. Game day is a few more copies stopped in there to get to some citrus pulse swag yesterday. Jane Adams book store downtown champagne and of course Amazon if you are local. In the meantime, everybody, if you are in the winter storm area, stay safe and we will talk soon. Illinois wins. That's all the matter. It is the two hundred level. I'm going to go up and get a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit. [Music] (upbeat music)