Illinois Hangs on Against Hawkeyes

Illini Dominate Iowa on Backboards

Iowa's Kris Murray and Keegan Murray (15) defend Illinois' Kofi Cockburn (21) during a game on Dec. 6, 2021 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa. (Rob Howe/HawkeyeNation.com)

IOWA CITY, IOWA - Fran McCaffery tried to explain the rebound disparity in Iowa’s 87-83 loss to Illinois on Monday night.

The checklist of failures was long, and McCaffery went through them. But the Hawkeyes’ coach knew that giving up 52 rebounds, and only getting 23, needed no justification.

“This rebounding line is completely unacceptable,” McCaffery said. “I’ve been coaching for years, I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s completely unacceptable.”

There was going to be a size difference between the two teams — Illinois center Kofi Cockburn is 7 feet tall and weighs 285 pounds, and Iowa starting post player Filip Rebraca is three inches shorter and 55 pounds lighter — and the Hawkeyes knew it.

But that kind of difference, added to the 24 second-chance points the Illini got off 19 offensive rebounds, had a deeper explanation.

“We have to do a better job of finding a body, getting some of those long rebounds,” McCaffery said. “Some of those were in tight, some of those were kept alive by Kofi and the other bigs.

“Maybe the ball didn’t bounce our way a couple of times. But at some point you have to put a body on somebody.”

“We get a couple of more offensive rebounds, a couple of more defensive rebounds and not let second-chance opportunities, that could have flipped the score early on and in the second half, and also at the end of the game,” said forward Keegan Murray, who led the Hawkeyes with 19 points. “It would have helped to get a couple of more rebounds, for sure.

Cockburn was the giant that was expected — he had 18 rebounds to go with his 17 points. But guard Trent Frazier, who is 6-2, had eight rebounds. Forward Coleman Hawkins, at 6-10, had seven.

Rebraca had a team-high eight rebounds for the Hawkeyes and Kris Murray had five, but no one else for Iowa had more than two.

“They were shooting a lot of threes, so there were a lot of long rebounds, but they obviously had a big size advantage against us,” Keegan Murray said. “At the end of the day, it’s who wants it more. All of their guys were crashing the boards, and we didn’t have enough guys down there.”

The Hawkeyes, 7-2 overall, fell to 0-2 in the Big Ten, and this game had a similar trend to last Friday’s 77-70 loss to Purdue. They rallied from 19 points down in the second half in that game to get to within one possession late, and in this one they came back from 15 down to get within 72-69 with 2:27 to go.

Iowa would get to within three points three more times, but could never get that crucial stop.

“We’ve got to follow through the whole game,” said guard Tony Perkins. “In the middle, we have to bring the same intensity.”

Iowa got intensity from its main group off the bench — Perkins, Ahron Ulis, Kris Murray, Connor McCaffery and Payton Sandfort. The Illini (7-2, 2-0) got off to a 20-10 lead before the Hawkeyes answered with a 21-2 run. Perkins had 12 points during that stretch, but Illinois finished the half with a 17-5 run for a 39-36 halftime lead.

“That group was really good, because our starting group didn’t have it,” Fran McCaffery said. “That was clear, and obvious.”

Iowa led early in the second half when Keegan Murray, the nation’s leading scorer at 24.6 points per game, scored the first four points after getting just two in the first half.

Murray was coming off an ankle injury that kept him out of the game against Purdue, and he admitted it took him a while to get going.

“I just had to get my feet under me,” he said. “With my ankle injury, it’s tough just coming back from it, getting your feet under you. The first half, I was trying to get the feel of the game back. The second half, I kind of got that back, got my mojo going, got back into a little bit of a flow.”

“He wasn’t himself early, and maybe that’s understandable — he’s coming off an injury, he’s coming off a game in which he didn’t play,” McCaffery said. “Then he missed a couple of free throws, which he normally doesn’t do.”

Illinois answered with a 23-7 burst and seemed to have control of the game. But Iowa had one more answer, and it was Murray who provided most of the production. He had 12 consecutive points in the final 3 ½ minutes.

“He really got it going in the second half,” McCaffery said. “At one point, you didn’t think he would get 19 points, but that just tells you that’s how good he is.”

Alfonso Plummer and Jacob Grandison each had 21 points for the Illini. Frazier had 18.

Perkins had 16 points. Patrick McCaffery had 12, and Ulis added 11.

Iowa’s defense forced 18 turnovers, including three 10-second calls. The Hawkeyes had 26 points off turnovers, 17 on fast breaks.

“We turned them over 18 times,” Fran McCaffery said. “That’s the only way you stay in the game giving up that many rebounds.”

It won’t be until early January until the Hawkeyes can start digging out of the hole to start the conference schedule. There were positives in the two defeats, McCaffery said, but that’s not enough.

“The bottom line is we have to be better with our execution,” he said.