Bloomington, Ind. — Coaches can teach certain things, even a lot of things. Proper hygiene. How to pick easy classes. Even three-point defense.
Illinois coach Bill Self headed to his favorite chalkboard and practice court Sunday to explain to his players why Indiana dropped a school-record 17 treys on them Saturday afternoon. That's the easy part, even if it looked like advanced trigonometry in an 88-57 disaster.
But outside of medical school, where is heart taught? That's the scariest thing for Self, who knows the answer by heart: You can't teach it. You can have more talent than the other team, which Illinois certainly had Saturday, and it doesn't matter much if the muscle in the chest is two sizes too small during tough times.
You ask the Illini when they're under intense stress: Fight or flee? Their answer: Make sure we have enough change for the tollbooth.
"When things get tough, we don't have the courage to dig our heels in, to really put forth the extra effort to get the stop or a basket or a loose ball," said center Robert Archibald, one of the few Illini who gets it. "I think we've overlooked those things as being important."
That's as incriminating a statement as there is for a basketball team with this much ambition and this much talent. The ninth-ranked Illini walked into Assembly Hall with the belief they were still very much in the Big Ten race. But now they're 4-3 with a game at Ohio State on Tuesday.
If it wasn't for the fact that Illinois is 0-3 in conference road games, I'd like their chances in Columbus.
"When things go south, we tend to unravel and not carry out assignments and not understand that when you make a bad play, the next play is magnified and you've got to make a stop," Self said. "We haven't understood it all year."
There's no doubt this team misses the presence of Sergio McClain, the squat, sturdy forward who imposed his will on teammates and opponents for four years. Self looks around and wonders who will step forward, chin stuck out and eyes ablaze, when the world is falling apart, as it was Saturday. Who will major in floor burns and invective?
Frank Williams is the Illini's best player, but he's quiet and tends to disappear for such long stretches during games that you start to wonder whether he has been abducted by aliens or, worse, agents. He had 11 points, two rebounds and one assist at halftime. He finished with 11 points, three rebounds and one assist.
He's a leader with his play, but even then, it's an uneven leadership. Illinois needs to figure out exactly what he is. A point guard? If he's a point guard, he doesn't handle the ball enough. He needs to shoot more than his teammates do, but it's not just that. He needs to be in position to help his teammates. Too often he throws the ball inside and never gets it back.
In this offense, he's treated as just another guy. He's anything but that.
There was an acceptance after this game, a shrug, a sense that a 31-point loss was just one of those things, like a Midwestern tornado or a Colorado blizzard. Indiana was hot, the Illini said. There was nothing anyone could have done about it. Maybe that's true, but the attitude doesn't bode well for the future.
No comments
Commenting is turned off for this story.