Well, that was fun. Despite trailing by as many as 15 points in the first half and a last-second scare, Illinois was able to beat Iowa, 74-72, to sweep the season series and claim a share of the Big Ten title.

The Illini found themselves up by two points with under 20 seconds to go when Hawkeye star forward Keegan Murray was fouled on a 3-point attempt, sending him to the line. The sophomore missed two of the three free throws, leaving Illinois up by one. Fifth-year senior guard Da’Monte Williams was then fouled and made one of two attempts at the line, making it a two-point game with ten seconds left. 

Kris Murray, twin brother of Keegan, had a semi-contested look from three in the corner to win it, but he couldn’t connect. The rebound was tipped into fifth-year senior guard Trent Frazier’s hands, and the fans stormed the court. 

Junior center Kofi Cockburn led the way for the Illini, scoring 21 points, but the efforts of sophomore forward Coleman Hawkins and sophomore guard Andre Curbelo could not be overlooked. Both had some bad turnovers, but they each played great in the second half to help Illinois win the final regular-season game of the year.

Senior Night send-off

It was Senior Night at the State Farm Center for Frazier, Williams, graduate student guard Alfonso Plummer, graduate student forward Jacob Grandison and Cockburn. Cockburn and Grandison were celebrated despite having the option to come back for another year.

The festivities started 20 minutes before the game, with each of the five players getting honored at center court. The starting lineup of Frazier, Plummer, Williams, Grandison and Cockburn was the most popular starting lineup used by head coach Brad Underwood this season.

Grandison was out with a shoulder injury, but each of the other four made a big impact in winning Sunday’s game. Cockburn led the team in scoring, Plummer was second, Williams hit two huge threes and Frazier had five assists while keeping Iowa guard Jordan Bohannon scoreless. 

I’m not sure the seniors could have asked for a better final home game.

ColeMAN Hawkins

With Grandison out, Coleman got the nod to start against the Hawkeyes. And it was easily his best game of the year.

Hawkins was tasked with covering Keegan Murray, and though he had 22 points on seven shots, only three of them were scored on Coleman. This isn’t the first time he’s done a great job covering a team’s talented star forward.

Hawkins also had nine points and 11 rebounds and hit a huge three to prevent Iowa from gaining a bigger lead. Coleman was playing hard, confident and looked the best he has against real competition all season. 

Time for some grades.

Coleman Hawkins: A

I’ll start with what prevented him from an A+, and that’s the two turnovers he had early. One was thrown out of bounds 25 feet from the basket, and the other was a failed pass inside. However, it was all great from there.

Illinois does not win without Coleman’s performance on Sunday, period. Getting tasked with covering one of the best scorers in not only the conference, but the country, is a task in itself. And Hawkins killed it.

Plus, he scored nine big points with 11 rebounds, two assists and two blocks, filling up the stat sheet. He could be an X factor in determining how far Illinois goes this season, and it was great to see him play the best he has all year in such an important game.

Kofi Cockburn: A

The big man dominated once again, scoring 21 points with 14 rebounds against a team that didn’t have anyone big enough to guard him effectively.

Kofi added two assists and three blocks, dominating all around offensively. He had a couple bad moments on the perimeter defensively and turned the ball over twice, but he was still great in the win.

It’s important that Kofi doesn’t take days off against teams that don’t have a great big guy, especially entering the tournament part of March. Cockburn didn’t take a day off Sunday, and he dominated in the win.

Andre Curbelo: B+

Curbelo is so hard to grade. On the downside, he had four turnovers, a sloppy first half and a couple of shot selections that I really didn’t like. But when he’s on, he’s so impactful.

The sophomore scored 14 points with six assists, facilitating really nicely in key stretches to either cut into Iowa’s lead or extend Illinois’.

It was also nice to see Curbelo play some good defense on Iowa’s guards down the stretch. Like his fellow sophomore, Curbelo will be a huge X factor for Illinois come tournament time.

Trent Frazier: C+

It wasn’t Frazier’s night offensively at all. He was 0-5 from three and just 1-9 from the field, not scoring at all in the second half.

But, Trent’s defense will almost always even out his offense, as he was able to keep Jordan Bohannon, who averages double-digit points, scoreless. 

Frazier also had five assists and two rebounds, so he wasn’t totally ineffective. It wasn’t the Senior Night he hoped for, but Trent’s defense was great and he still facilitated nicely to get his teammates open for big shots.

Alfonso Plummer: B-

Plummer wasn’t just a sniper from deep on Sunday, scoring his 15 points in multiple ways. He had two threes, was 5-11 total from the field and also hit three big free throws in a row early in the second half. However, he gave up a lot of points defensively, specifically to Tony Perkins during one of Iowa’s big first-half runs.

Still, it was nice to see Plummer score more from inside the arc than behind it. His ability to score as much as he does so consistently has been a big reason Illinois won a conference title this year. 

He only had one year at the State Farm Center, but Plummer transferring to Champaign worked out so well for both sides. He’s the best shooter on the team and the best the Illini have had in a long time.

Da’Monte Williams: C

Interesting night for Da’Monte. Typically, he lacks effectiveness on offense and is awesome on defense, but that wasn’t the story Sunday night.

Williams had seven points, three rebounds and an assist. He hit two huge threes, as it seems like he’s beginning to find his stroke like he did last year from behind the arc. He missed his first of two free-throw attempts late in the game to keep the door open for Iowa to win in regulation, but he made it a two-point game after making the second following a timeout.

Defensively, Williams was all around, covering both Murrays and Perkins, who is 6-foot-4 and the type of player that usually gives Illinois trouble. It was an up-and-down night for Da’Monte, but he helped get the win.

Luke Goode: B-

Not a ton to say about Goode, but he was very productive in his nine minutes. He played good defense, hit a huge first-half three and grabbed two rebounds.

He also played some nice defense on some of Iowa’s bigger guys, helping fill Grandison’s role with him absent. Nice night for Goode when he was in.

RJ Melendez: C+

After having emergency appendicitis surgery a couple weeks ago and missing three games, RJ played eight minutes and hit a big second-half three to cut into Iowa’s lead. 

His defense was OK, but he wasn’t effective enough on the boards to stay in the game. Excited to see how RJ improves between years one and two. 

Final note

Iowa and Illinois always seem to play a competitive game, which helped write the storyline for the Illini to pull through and win to earn a share of the conference title. Iowa was the hottest team in the Big Ten entering the game, winning eight of its last nine, so it was a nice win nonetheless. 

Entering the Big Ten tournament as the one-seed, Illinois will not have an easy game. The Big Ten is a good league, so the Illini will have up to three games against real competition to pull everything together and prepare for the NCAA tournament.

Shoutout to Brad Underwood and crew, and the players, for battling through so much adversity this season to still pull out a conference title — with a little help from Nebraska. What a night.

@JPietsch14

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