Examining Loyola-Illinois game
INDIANAPOLIS — The state will be divided Sunday.
Champaign natives and most downstate fans will be pulling for Illinois. Chicagoans — the ones who didn’t attend Illinois — will be wearing maroon and gold scarves and cheering for Loyola.
The 11:10 a.m. tipoff at Bankers Life Fieldhouse between top-seeded Illinois and No. 8 Loyola will air on CBS as a highlight of the NCAA Tournament’s second round.
Illinois (24-6) is back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2013 and going for its first Final Four (and beyond) since its runner-up finish in 2005. Loyola (25-4) is trying to repeat its magical Final Four run from 2018.
Here are four storylines to know for this battle — for state bragging right and a spot in the Sweet 16.
1. Which big man will dominate? Few teams have succeeded in slowing down Illinois center Kofi Cockburn. He even overshadowed Big Ten Player of the Year Luka Garza of Iowa in the Big Ten Tournament.
While the Illini have multiple options, their safest scoring philosophy is getting the ball into Cockburn’s sure hands in the post. The 7-foot sophomore has 16 double-doubles this season and scored in double figures in every game but two, averaging 17.6 points and 9.5 rebounds.
He’s a unique challenge. “It’s hard to trap him,” Loyola coach Porter Moser explained. “The moment he catches it, instantaneously he’s making his move. He’s not probing to see what kind of defense there is. He’s just going through whatever you do, whether you trap it or dig it. We watched every post move.”
Staying out of foul trouble will be important for Cockburn, as will making his free throws — he’s shooting only 54.1% from the line.
Krutwig, a 6-9 senior, is effective in other ways — versatile and light on his feet with a keen court awareness. Underwood described him as a “point center.”
The Missouri Valley Player of the Year averages 14.9 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.9 assists.
“He’s a unique guy,” Underwood said. “He might have one of the best floaters in college basketball. That thing’s a teardrop and he’s terrific. He’s an excellent passer. He sees the game at a pace that is very slow and sees things ahead. But he’s a very capable scorer. I think he’s the head of the snake for them.”
2. Does Illinois have too many weapons to stop? Moser scoffed at the idea of anyone thinking Illinois is a two-man team in Ayo Dosunmu and Cockburn. He’s right.
The Illini have had more players emerge as scoring threats over the last few weeks. They featured six double-digit scorers against Ohio State in the Big Ten Tournament championship game. Four scored in double digits in a first-round blowout of Drexel.
Dosunmu (20.6), Cockburn, Trent Frazier (10.4), Andre Curbelo (9.1) and Adam Miller (8.3) each average at least eight points.
Moser explained why the Illini offense, ranked eighth in efficiency per Kenpom.com, is so dangerous with its spacing and ball screens.
“(Underwood) puts you in a pick-your-poison situation with these ball screens,” he said. “Are you going to watch the roll with Kofi or are you going to bottle up Ayo and Frazier and the shooters they’ve got, Curbelo, who is an elite passer off ball screens? They space you and they’ll come at different angles and hawk screen you. It’s a really dynamic punch when you have an all-American guard and an all-American big together in a ball screen.”
Loyola’s shooting isn’t its strong suit, but the Ramblers have scoring options outside of Krutwig.
Lucas Williamson, a Young graduate, scored a season-high 21 points in the first-round victory against Georgia Tech. He was one of four double-digit scorers in the game.
Neither team is known as the best 3-point-shooting team in the tournament, but Braden Norris has made 9 of 16 combined in the last two games.
Illinois won’t want to let him get hot.
3. Pace will be important. Illinois will want to turn this into Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Loyola will want this to resemble a pothole-filled stretch of Lake Shore Drive.
Both teams have remarkable defenses ranked in the top five.
Loyola was ranked first for most of the season before sliding to third after beating Georgia Tech. The Ramblers’ adjusted tempo ranks 342nd, according to Kenpom.com.
Loyola allows only 55.7 points per game. Only three opponents have scored more than 70 points on them, and those were all Loyola losses.
Williamson, the MVC Defensive Player of the Year, and Aher Uguak are the defensive keys, but all of the Ramblers play with hustle. They’ll be working their hardest to muck up Illinois’ offensive flow.
The Illini have been held to 70 points or fewer only three times, going 2-1 in those games.
At the start of the Big Ten season, Illinois narrowly beat Indiana 69-60 and Purdue 66-58 before falling to Maryland 66-63 in low-scoring contests.
Since then, most teams didn’t figure out how to slow the Illini, who are playing at full speed.
4. The winner earns state bragging rights. It’s easy to pit this as David versus Goliath, but that wouldn’t be entirely accurate.
Yes, Illinois has higher-ranked recruits. The Illini have the No. 1 seed and a more logical argument to make the Final Four this season.
But Loyola can’t be discounted. The Ramblers proved that in 2018 and in their first-round comeback victory Friday.
They own the only national championship in the state (1963) and the most recent Final Four trip.
This game provides a strong argument these teams should be playing each other every season. Start scheduling this and building an exciting in-state rivalry.