Illinois spent Friday night living two different games at once, and the split was hard to miss.
The first half was a mess. Baylor’s backcourt of Brett Decker Jr., Kayden Mingo and Isaac Williams IV carved up Illinois to the tune of 46 combined points, which was more than the Illini’s entire team managed in the opening 20 minutes.
The Bears were pouring in threes and also finding easy looks inside the arc, and Illinois never really took anything away from them. The shots were there, the space was there, and Baylor kept cashing in.
That was the bigger problem than the final score: Illinois gave away way too much on the perimeter. The Bears’ guards were hot, sure, but they also spent a lot of time working with room to breathe. For a defense still trying to sort out its top-end perimeter personnel, that’s the part that stands out.
The rebounding battle was just as ugly. Baylor grabbed 22 offensive boards, while Illinois only managed 17 defensive rebounds.
Even in an exhibition, that kind of split is hard to ignore. Illinois was missing size, yes, and Baylor had plenty of athleticism of its own, but the Illini still got overwhelmed on the glass in a way that can’t become a habit.
And then there was the injury situation, which made the whole night even more chaotic. Illinois had already lost David Mirkovic before the game started, and then Andrej Stojakovic, Tomislav Ivisic and Zvonimir Ivisic all exited with injuries.
Their status is still unclear. Late in the game, Jake Davis was the only healthy veteran of note still standing for the Illini.
That left a heavy load on the freshmen and on transfer Stefan Vaaks, who finished with 18 points. For a while, they answered.
Quentin Coleman brought energy. Jason Jakstys played with edge.
Lucas Morillo knocked down a pair of long-range jumpers. Zavier Zens gave solid minutes.
Freshman Lincoln Williams was especially noticeable on defense, picking up full court and making life miserable on the ball. With his size, length and athleticism, he has the tools to be one of the Big Ten’s best on-ball defenders sooner rather than later, if the rest of his game keeps pace.
Williams also flashed going the other way.
Illinois’ shooting from deep was not the issue. The Illini hit more threes than Baylor, finishing with 14 makes from beyond the arc to the Bears’ 11, even though they took 14 more attempts.
The trouble came inside the line, where Illinois went 15-for-34, or 44.1 percent. Stojakovic’s struggles driving the ball were part of it, but he wasn’t alone.
There were other misses around the rim and on makeable looks, and for a roster with this much size and skill, that number just isn’t good enough.
Still, the second half mattered. Down 19 at the break, Illinois could have let the thing drift away.
Instead, the Illini fought back and flipped the script defensively. Baylor scored 63 in the first half and only 32 after the break.
That kind of swing looks a lot like last season’s team, which could look locked in on one end and leaky on the other. Brad Underwood has talked plenty about what this group could become defensively, and the second half against Baylor gave a real glimpse of that ceiling.
There’s one more number that tells the story of the night: Illinois got 21 offensive rebounds of its own. So the Illini were being thrown around on one end and doing the throwing on the other.
It doesn’t make much sense, but it happened. The problem is that even if Illinois dominates its own glass again this season, it still has to be at least passable on the other end.
The Bears exposed that Friday, just as Cincinnati did last week when it pulled down 12 offensive rebounds against the Illini.
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