Wisch: Illini Will Teach Us A Lesson – One Way Or Another
By Dave Wischnowsky -
North Carolina is on tap for tonight.
And Gonzaga is set for Saturday.
Yes, as far as weeks go for college basketball teams, this one is about as big as it gets for the University of Illinois.
And, while the next two games may not make or break the season for the 20th-ranked Fighting Illini (6-1), they undoubtedly will break some big news to us.
Either gently.
Or, even better, harshly.
Which way is entirely up to Mike & Mike. (Tisdale and Davis, that is.)
During the past dozen days, I've been to New York City (Texas, Maryland), Champaign (Yale) and Kalamazoo (Western Michigan) all to watch the Illini shoot hoops. With that schedule, I think it's pretty safe to say that I've seen more of the Illini this year than just about anybody not named Bruce Weber.
And here's what I know: The Illini are very good.
And what I don't: Just how very.
On the perimeter, I believe the 2010 Illini can stack up with any team in the country – name me a quartet more gifted than Demetri McCamey, D.J. Richardson, Brandon Paul and Jereme Richmond. In the paint, however, remains the team's longtime and well-known bugaboo: The strength and toughness of senior big men Mike Tisdale and Mike Davis.
Two weeks ago, at Madison Square Garden, I watched with disappointment as Davis and Tisdale were more or less manhandled by the widebodies of Texas and Maryland.
Then, this past Saturday at Western Michigan, I saw an unheralded Broncos freshman in 6-foot-9, 290-pound Matt Stainbrook essentially do the same, as he scored a career-high 16 points on 7-of-8 shooting vs. Tisdale. Davis, to his credit, held WMU star Flenard Whitfield to two points and zero rebounds after the 6-foot-7 forward entered averaging 17 and 6.
Come 8:30 p.m. tonight, vs. unranked-but-still-dangerous UNC (4-2), the Illini big men will have to be more like Mike (Davis vs. WMU) and less like Mike (Tisdale vs. WMU) when playing defense against the Tar Heels' 6-foot-8 Harrison Barnes, 6-10 John Henson and 7-0 Tyler Zeller.
Then, on Saturday afternoon in Seattle, the duo will be tested once again vs. Gonzaga strongmen Robert Sacre (7 foot, 260 pounds) and Elias Harris (6-7, 245) who had their way with the Illini last December at the United Center.
By this point in their careers, Tisdale and Davis are what they are. And what they are not is big bangers. However, as seniors, the pair needs to show that they can at least hold their own down low against top-line competition such as that of the Heels' and Bulldogs'.
If they cannot, then we're going to learn soon that Illinois will need its pair of talented freshmen, Richmond and 7-footer Meyers Leonard – both of whom possess far more overall skill and fiercer killer instincts than either Davis or Tisdale – to make great strides if the Illini hope to become a true force to reckon with by March.
That might be asking too much from rookies, and the hope here we find the senior big men leading the way vs. UNC and Gonzaga. If we don't, for the Illini, it could be a long week.
And too short a season.
