Sunday's Big Ten Championship game between Illinois and Wisconsin featured four players selected as first team all-conference performers. However, the difference in the Illini's 11 point victory did not come from their heralded trio of guards, but rather from senior forward Roger Powell Jr. and junior forward James Augustine, who contributed on both ends of the court and stifled the Badgers all afternoon.
The Illini duo regularly double-teamed the ball in the post and held senior Mike Wilkinson, an all-conference performer, and fellow UW forwards Alando Tucker and Zack Morley, to just 7-of-39 from the field and a combined 22 points on the afternoon.
Augustine, the tournament's most outstanding player, finished the day with 12 points, nine rebounds and three blocks. He teamed with Powell, who had 15 points and 12 rebounds, as they lead an emotional Illini team still coping with loss of head coach Bruce Weber's mother, who died of heart complications Friday night.
\They did a good job of making us work down there,"" Wilkinson said, who scored eight points on 1-of-7 shooting. ""Every time you caught it, they got you further away from the block. Once you caught it they did a good job of running their bigs at you and making you kick it out.""
That was another problem for the Badgers on Sunday, as they failed to knock down open shots when Illinois choose to double-team the post. They shot 7-of-19 from beyond the arc and a season-low 25.9 percent from the field.
""We didn't attack,"" sophomore Alando Tucker said. Tucker only managed nine points against Illinois after combining for 32 in the previous two tournament games. ""We started settling in the first [half] for outside shots, instead of aggressively attacking the basket and getting fouls, drawing fouls on guys.""
Tucker and senior Zack Morley had impressive weekends and were selected to represent Wisconsin on the all-tournament team. However, the play of Wilkinson during the three-game stretch has left Badger fans concerned heading into the NCAA Tournament.
""I had a bunch of good looks, I just didn't knock them down."" Wilkinson said. He shot 10-of-24 during the tournament and averaged 9.6 points per game, more than five points fewer than his season average. ""If your legs are a little bit tired you can still get the ball inside, get closer to the basket, you still got to finish those in there.""
The third loss to Illinois hurts more for the Badgers as they forced the explosive backcourt of Deron Williams and Luther Head and league MVP Dee Brown, to a combined 20 points on just 8-of-30 shooting overall, while Illinois shot only 35.8 percent overall as a team.
An hour after the game ended, UW learned it was the No. 6 seed in the NCAA tournament's Syracuse Regional and will play No. 11 seed Northern Iowa (11-7 Missouri Valley Conference, 21-10 overall) in a first-round game Friday night in Oklahoma City with tip-off set for 6:20 p.m.
""I don't get to see them very much, but they almost beat Georgia Tech,"" Badger head coach Bo Ryan said.
Ryan faced UNI coach Greg McDermott when his UW-Platteville team played against Northern Iowa in 1986. ""Solid team, this team is fundamentally sound, plays hard, great, great match-up for us.""
