Illini basketball played so ugly and atrocious tonight, that their horrendous offense overshadowed the ugliness of the infamous “Northwestern shorts” tonight at Welsh-Ryan Arena. There wasn’t that much of a buzz among the Chicago media for this one. Understandable. Twitter was rather quiet for this one too. And if you did watch the ugliest Big Ten basketball game since 2009 Penn State 38, Illinois 32 I can understand why you weren’t tweeting about it.
Illini basketball is ranked #23, but the train wreck of all train wrecks loss at Wisconsin Wednesday kind of killed the buzz for this game. The fact that Illinois didn’t show up for the first 29 minutes didn’t help.
NU is having a very rough season, but they did get some attention with their designed “by the player” uniforms. They have pictures of a Nintendo controller and a BBQ grill. Just in case you want a little bone-in ribeye with your college basketball. And the word “rise” appears in…well, a place you just don’t want the word “rise” to appear. It’s the worst possible place to put that word.
The first half of basketball probably made Dr. James Naismith roll over in his grave a few times. The offense was about as well executed as the time Kanye West rhymed “floor seats” with “more seats.” The Illini basketball team missed so many lay-ups and put-back dunks that the offense had as much flow as the time Puff Daddy rhymed “Times Square” with “yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.” Illinois trailed NU 22-15 at half on the weakness of 19.5% shooting. Watching Illini basketball play that first half…..I understand now why Michigan State fans always light things on fire. It took 28 minutes and change for an Illini basketball to hit a three. And it seemed that every single lay-up, put-back and dunk was missed. It was amazing how many times you would see the ball rattle through the inside of the basket, but then rattle out. Illini basketball players saw numerous shots rim in only to rim out.
I’d say that’s enough on this game, one of the darkest in Illini basketball history for now. 400+ words is plenty for one of the ugliest Illini basketball games that I can ever remember covering.
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also an analyst for multiple news talk radio stations across the country; with regular weekly segments discussing: Illinois, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Bears and Bulls on NBC and Fox Sports Radio. President Barack Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)