NU lets another one get away
NU jumped out to a nice start and then held the lead for a 12 minute stretch from late first half into the second half. Illinois regained the lead with about 11 minutes left on the second of back-to-back threes from Brandon Paul.
in a crucial possession down the stretch, NU had nothing. coming out of a 30 second timeout with about four minutes left, Juice threw up a jumper at the shot clock buzzer.
i'm on board with Shurna taking a 3 for the win at the end of regulation, especially since NU shot 32% from 2PT vs 34% from 3PT. thank god Rowley wasn't in the game at that point, so we could actually make a put-back layup after getting a rebound.
i thought Marcotullio (and Crawford, to a lesser extent) acquitted himself well in his first trip to a hostile environment. Nash stepped up on the offensive end and finished with 16 points, although almost all were in the first half. i have no idea why Mirkovic is taking 13 shots, 4 of them from behind the arc.
as some have already pointed out, if NU let's Mike Tisdale run all over them, what will happen when they face a legitimately good big man? that was a disappointing loss, especially with Sparty coming to the town on Saturday.