Things were looking up for the Wisconsin men's basketball team. After losing three of their last four games, a layup by junior forward Alando Tucker gave the Badgers (5-3 Big Ten, 15-6 overall) an 11-point lead over No. 6 Illinois (6-2, 20-2) with just under 10 minutes remaining in the first half. Then the wheels fell off. The Illini reeled off a 19 point run, crippling the Badger attack, en route to a 66-51 victory at the Kohl Center.
'They were quicker,' head coach Bo Ryan said of Illinois during their run. 'They maybe make you extend a little more and you don't hit some shots, and then doubt creeps in.'
Illinois was led by a balanced attack. Senior guard Dee Brown and junior guard Rich McBride each had 16 points to lead the Illini, while Brown also had seven assists. But the key for the Illini was the play of sophomore forward Brian Randle who scored 12 points and pulled down 13 rebounds, seven of which were offensive, for the first double-double of his collegiate career.
In fact, offensive rebounds were an issue all day for the Badgers, who have now dropped four out of their last five. Wisconsin allowed Illinois to collect 15 offensive boards, while the Badgers only snagged six. Many of the boards that Wisconsin gave up were long rebounds, reminiscent of their loss to Michigan Saturday.
'The offensive rebound gives us so many more possessions, gives us more chances,' Illinois head coach Bruce Weber said. 'We're not an offensive juggernaut by any means and when you get more opportunities, it eases the pressure on the offense.'
The loss dropped the Badgers to 5-3 in the conference, and gave Illinois sole possession of first place. Illinois' victory was also the fourth straight for Illinois against Ryan's Badgers and made Weber the only coach to beat Ryan twice at the Kohl Center in Ryan's five-year tenure as Badger head coach.
'Last year was a really big one,' Weber said. 'For us as a team this year, this win was key.'
Tucker lead the way for the Badgers with 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting, while junior guard Kammron Taylor pitched in with 14, but only two in the second half. Sophomore forward Brian Butch was one rebound shy of a double-double, scoring 10 points and hauling in nine rebounds.
'We weren't doing a real good job of getting bodies on bodies,' Butch said.
Trailing by 10 points with just over three minutes gone by in the second half, Wisconsin rallied back to cut the lead to two after Tucker's jumper in the paint swished through the net. Just as quickly as the Badgers built up a comeback, the Illini took it right back. After senior forward Ray Nixon missed a three-pointer'one of his six misses on the night from behind the arc that would have cut the lead to one'Illinois went on a 12-4 run to put themselves back up by 12.
'You can't dwell on it,' Tucker said. 'We made our run and they made theirs.'
Junior center Jason Chappell finished with maybe his worst game of the season, shooting 0-4 and scoring one total point, while hauling in one rebound and committing five turnovers.
'If you're Jason Chappell, it's 'What do I have to do''? Ryan said. 'That had to be very frustrating for him because everybody wants to contribute.'
The last time the Badgers lost four-of-five games was in the first five games of Ryan's tenure at Wisconsin in the 2001-'02 season.
The Badgers will look to get back on track when they head to West Lafayette, Ind. to take on Purdue Saturday at 7 p.m.
