COLUMBUS, Ohio — Something's lacking at Illinois, and beleaguered coach Bruce Weber is pretty sure he knows what it is.
"The thing that is so frustrating for me is our defense," Weber said after his Illini fell behind early and were never really in an 83-67 loss at No. 8 Ohio State on Tuesday night. "It's something that carried us early and gave us a chance to win games. And now ... it's not there."
It was pretty obvious that the Buckeyes (23-5, 11-4 Big Ten) didn't have much trouble with the Illinois defense. They hit 32 of 49 shots from the field for 65 percent, and added 7 of 13 3-pointers.
While many have questioned Weber and his future beyond this, his 10th year with the program, the players believe it's their fault that the Illini (16-12, 5-10) have fallen on hard times. They've lost six in a row and nine of 10 to plummet from being a strong contender for an NCAA tournament bid to an afterthought.
"It all starts with defense," said center Meyers Leonard, who led the Illini with 21 points. "With myself and my teammates, we've got to play better defense. Nothing on the coaches. They got us prepared. (The Buckeyes) got some easy baskets early and then they caught fire. But it's on us. We've got to play defense, including myself."
Ohio State was coming off a 58-48 loss at Value City Arena to Michigan State on Feb. 11 that ended a 39-game home winning streak. The Buckeyes made only 14 of 53 shots against the Spartans, an arena-record low of 26.4 percent for the home team. They connected on 2 of 15 3-pointers.
In their most recent game, a 56-51 loss to No. 17 Michigan on Saturday, they shot 38.8 percent.
But against the Illini, they hit 11 of their first 12 shots from the field and 16 of 19 to build a double-digit lead that they maintained for all but the first 5 minutes of the game.
"It was obviously good to see the ball go in early," Ohio State coach Thad Matta said of the Buckeyes hitting 11 of their first 12 shots and 16 of the first 19. "We had good shots, we got the ball moving and we were able to get out and get some easy buckets because of our defense. That was delightful to see, trust me."
Weber said his players were a good defensive team earlier this season. But defense also involves toughness, and that's something that Weber said the Illini do not have consistently. Just last week he bemoaned the fact that he had become too worried about winning and not about "developing a culture and a toughness."
"Chester (Frazier) texted me the other day from Germany and said, 'Coach, don't forget, three years ago we were as tough as anybody,'" Weber said on Tuesday night, referring to a former player. "We had it, there's no doubt about it. It's a pride. And we had it early this year. We guarded and we were tough. Maybe we just worried too much about offense and now we've kind of lost that mindset of defending and having that pride."
Ohio State also showed some defense and some toughness.
Brandon Paul had 43 points in Illinois' 79-74 stunner over then-No. 5 Ohio State on Jan. 10. Paul almost destroyed the Buckeyes by himself, making 11 of 15 shots from the field — including 8 of 10 3-pointers — and 13 of 15 free throws.
But on this night, he managed just nine points on 2 of 9 shooting.
"They locked onto him right away," Weber said.
No wonder the Illini never got closer than 16 points over the last 25 minutes.
Illinois has games remaining at home against Iowa and No. 11 Michigan, then a road game at No. 16 Wisconsin. Then comes the Big Ten tournament.
There's still time to turn things around, to salvage the season. But time is running out.
"That was my complete message to the kids," Weber said of his remarks in the locker room. "There's still games to win, a lot of things can happen. But unless the defense has pride and the pride in the defense changes, nothing's going to change."
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