We'd been on our feet for a while. And we were told when we were hired that we got a short break twice per shift. So all we did was take a quick little break from about the 11 minute mark to the 6 minute mark. And that's all it took for Marquette to put the game away.

I tweeted about it at the time. You could sense it in the air. The crowd really wanted to get back to where they were five minutes before, and they just needed one defensive stop or one offensive anything, and nothing was happening. It's what the great teams do on the road. Five guys in yellow jerseys reached out and held the mouths shut of 15,500 people.

After the game I went back and looked up that run. Here were the Illini offensive possessions during those five minutes:

Rodgers hit that layup for a 52-50 Illini lead with 11:21 left. But then the next eight Illini offensive possessions:

Missed jumper
Turnover
Missed jumper
Turnover
Missed layup
Turnover
Missed three
Missed three

And that was that.

— Robert Rosenthal (@ALionEye) November 15, 2023

Before we took our break: Illinois 52, Marquette 50
When we got back from our break: Marquette 58, Illinois 52

The rest of the game was even from there. It was Marquette 13-12 the rest of the way. But we took one little break and the game was over.

And it wasn't just on the offensive end. There was that one series where Marquette missed a three but Justin Harmon (at least I think it was Harmon) grabbed the rebound. He left the ball exposed a little too long and Marquette slapped it away. Sean Jones grabbed it, took a three, and missed (I was breathing a sigh of relief that this turnover didn't immediately lead to three points) but then Marquette's Ben Gold got a hand on that rebound and it went right to Tyler Kolek... who quickly drained the three I had been dreading.

(After that three, Kolek immediately got nose to nose with Terrence Shannon and screamed. It was perhaps twice the taunt of Coleman Hawkins after he dunked on TJD at IU last year and ten times Trent's shush. I don't think I'll ever understand how we're supposed to interpret taunting. Is it just... you know it when you see it? I'm OK if it's never going to be called again but if it is going to be called, wasn't that it?)

In the end, this was a team that has things humming beating a team that is trying to figure out how it all fits together. Two years ago, when we lost at Marquette (when Kofi was suspended), it was the opposite. We were supposed to be the team that had everything humming (and we didn't, crumbling late and allowing Marquette to escape with a win). We lost that one, we were then destroyed by Cincinnati in Kansas City, and a season that started out so promising was completely off the rails by Thanksgiving.

This season's start doesn't feel like that. This start just feels like we don't know how to put everything together for 40 minutes yet. That's disappointing, but it's fine.

Just, like... no more breaks.

+ I do want to note that I think Marquette is Final Four good. I've watched Kansas and Marquette up close this year and if they were playing on a neutral court tomorrow, give me Marquette. Three of those guys probably play in the NBA. And they really know what they're doing in Shaka's system.

I'm not sure they have anyone who can guard a true big, so maybe I shouldn't be saying that Marquette would beat Kansas. But to play that big guy, their opponents are probably scrambling on the defensive end to keep up, so they're going to create a lot of matchup problems. Ighodaro is so bouncy and so quick (his six offensive rebounds were massive in this game) that it's hard to defend him or keep him off the boards with any true big.

That's a good team right there. I'm jealous.

+ Let's check in on Threes & Frees.

Three Pointers: 11-33 (33.3%)
Free Throws: 11-13 (84.6%)

OK, so pretty good in the free throw department (Shannon was 6-6, Domask was 3-3, and then Harmon and Goode were both 1-2). Threes felt much better than 33%, but that's probably because the main guys were making them. Goode was 4-7, Domask was 3-7, and Shannon was 3-8. Those three combined to go 10-22. Everyone else combined to go 1-11 (1-5 for Hawkins, 0-2 from Guerrier, 0-3 from DGL, and 0-1 from Harmon).

That's all fairly... encouraging? Play a good team and get to 33% and 86%. Gonna need to see a "41% from three as a team against Valpo and Southern" though before I start feeling good about our shooting from deep.

+ Quincy Guerrier had 10 boards and 0 points. When's the last time you saw that? A.. single double with rebounds.

That's not a shot at Quincy. He only took three shots (two were corner threes that he missed). I'm just saying that it's rare for someone to get to double digits on rebounds without scoring a single point.

+ If I was picking a star of the game I'd go with Domask. If we get that Marcus Domask every game then we can win a lot of Big Ten games.

Speaking of the Big Ten, uh, {pokes Big Ten with stick} you awake?

Marquette 71, Illinois 64
Duke 74, Michigan State 65
Creighton 92, Iowa 84
Providence 72, Wisconsin 59

Maybe we will win a lot of Big Ten games. And then get a 7-seed.

+ One last thing. I've gone back and forth about saying anything but I've decided to say it. I need to address a Krush thing from last night.

Twice (two times) a Krush member waited until the players were walking past the scorers table to... yell at our players for poor performances. Once was a Krush member behind me to the right, once was a Krush member behind me to the left. The second time, I very clearly heard what was yelled at Coleman Hawkins from a Krush member in the front row when Coleman passed by in front of him: "Coleman! You're getting f**cking COOKED out there, dude."

Yeah, that ain't it. Full stop. I understand that it's a massive group and these insults came from only two individuals, but waiting for a quiet moment as our players are walking past the scorers table to tell them about their poor performance? That ain't it. Your seats are on top of the action for noise purposes, not so your close enough to let an Illini player know that you think he's playing a shitty game.

And that's all I have to say about that.