Wisconsin vs Illinois Basketball Recap

Wisconsin 72, Illinois 57

The Illinois Fighting Illini were playing at home, on Senior Day, with everything to gain. A regular-season finale against the Wisconsin Badgers gave coach Bruce Weber's team an opportunity to lock down an NCAA Tournament berth.

Instead, a frightened and foolish ballclub did its best impression of a deer caught in the headlights. Illinois endured a grisly train wreck of a performance that has the sons of Champaign very much on the NCAA bubble.

It was hard to understand how this same Illinois club that whacked Michigan State and then won at Wisconsin a few weeks ago could look so disjointed and dysfunctional in a return date with Coach Bo Ryan's Badgers. More specifically, it's hard to fathom how Illinois star Demetri McCamey - who carried Illinois to a win in Madison back on Feb. 9 with 27 points and seven assists - could become so brutally body-snatched just one month later.

When McCamey is at his best, Illinois thrives, but for whatever reason, this dynamic 6-foot-3 junior has fallen off the face of the earth in recent weeks. After blitzing MSU and Wisconsin, McCamey failed to score in double figures in three of his next five games. Predictably, Illinois lost four of those five contests to cast doubt over its NCAA hopes. Yet, this battle with the Badgers offered McCamey a chance to set things right.

Unfortunately for him and for the rest of the Illini, McCamey's Sunday became oh-so-wrong.

Illinois was flat from the outset at Assembly Hall, as the Badgers took a 33-27 halftime lead and then built that modest edge into a 54-38 bulge with 11:17 left in regulation. Yet, for all their struggles, the Illini - because of foul trouble to Wisconsin stars Trevon Hughes and Jon Leuer - were able to mount a comeback. The home team pulled within five points of the Badgers, at 55-50, with 7:01 remaining. Demetri McCamey and his teammates had their big opening, a chance to dictate terms to Bo Ryan's boys in the home stretch and secure a spot in the field of 65.

Instead, McCamey lost his mind... and the game, and very possibly, Illinois's season.

With Wisconsin leading 57-50 at the 5:20 mark of regulation, McCamey threw a bad pass that was picked off by UW's Jordan Taylor. The mistake was considerable enough, but McCamey compounded it by thinking he was wearing pads and a helmet. A two-handed tackle - a textbook wrap-up job - merited an intentional foul, which was indeed whistled. Wisconsin didn't hit both of the intentional foul shots, but the Badgers made one of them and then got the ball back, which subsequently allowed the visitors to milk more of the clock and shorten the game while their two stars - Hughes and Leuer - were able to sit on the bench with impunity.

What was even worse about McCamey's meltdown was that it continued on the Illinois bench, as Weber and then an Illini assistant coach lit into the team's floor leader. McCamey should have been able to receive a steady stream of advice with poise and grace, but he instead got into a heated argument with Weber and then pouted in front of the ESPN cameras that so clearly captured the scene. It's bad enough when a star player doesn't produce on the court; it's far worse when that player carries the kind of attitude that isn't committed to team-oriented play or a respect for a coaching staff.

Small wonder Illinois is in NCAA trouble. Small wonder this season has alarmingly spun out of control for the flustered and rattled Fighting Illini.

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