Illinois Stuns Iowa in Second Round of Big Ten Tournament

Typical typical Iowa. After kicking off the season with a decent start, and looking like a team that could be a potential one seed that could go all the way, the Iowa Hawkeyes crumbled when a chance at the Big Ten Title came their way. Iowa started off the season great, winning a decent amount of games over non-conference opponents before the start of the Big Ten season. When conference play did begin, however, Iowa kicked it off with a bang, winning their conference opener at home against the then-ranked Number One Michigan State Spartans, albeit without star-player Denzel Valentine, but still a great win at home to knock off a Big Ten Juggernaut. The Hawkeyes, then went on to open their Big Ten season 7-0 including another game against the Spartans in East Lansing with the return of Valentine as well as two hard-fought games against the Purdue Boilermakers. The Hawks then lost a close one at Maryland before getting back on their feet, but after a loss against the Hoosiers four games later, the Hawks began to crumble. After a quick 7-0 start in Big Ten play, the Hawkeyes finished 5-6 to end the season with a conference record of 12-6, enough to get them a bye in the first round of the Big Ten title, but not a potentially crucial double bye. Thus, in the second round of the playoffs the Hawks met, and were upset, by the Illinois Fighting Illini in typical Iowa fashion.
The Iowa Hawkeyes have not been known to do particularly well in the Big Ten tournament, losing many games in which they were the favorites to win, and this year was no exception. After gaining a bye in the first round, the Hawks met the Illini in the second round. The Illini started the game off quick, opening with an 11-4 lead. For the next few minutes, the Hawks attempted to catch the Illini, but were unable to come up with needed defensive stops, or find any reliable scoring other than Peter Jok and Jarrod Uthoff, as is often the case for the Hawkeyes, thus after a TV timeout was called with 7:30 left in the first half, the Hawkeyes trailed 24-13. After playing resumed, the Hawks finally began to go on a run and with 3:24 left in the half, Iowa took a 29-28 lead off a jumper by Jok. The teams battled back-and-forth for the remainder of the first period, but after a three-pointer by Illini Jalen Coleman-Lands, the Iowa Hawkeyes had a 35-37 deficit after a shocking first half.
The first half of the second period did not go well at all for the Hawkeyes as the Fighting Illini were able to increase their lead to 11 with 10:49 left to go before the final buzzer sounded. However, the Hawks were not to be put away that easily. With a 16-5 run, the Hawkeyes stunned the Illini by tying the game with 1:40 left after a three-point play by Nicholas Baer. The Illini responded with a jumper by Malcolm Hill with a 1:15 left coming out of a timeout, and after either incredible defense, or just plain horrible offense, the Illini won the game after neither team scored in the time remaining.
The biggest problem for the Hawkeyes in this match up was probably the lack of the distribution of offense. Other than Jok and Uthoff, only Nicholas Baer managed to score more than three points in an awful offensive performance for the rest of the team. After Jok fouled out, the Hawks were just plain unable to find a scoring option, and ended up being upset by the Illini.