No. 3 Illinois plays its final game of the first weekend of the NCAA tournament on Saturday with a second-round faceoff with No. 11 VCU. While Illinois knocked No. 14 Penn out of the arena on Thursday with a 35-point win, the Rams’ upset win over the No. 6 North Carolina Tar Heels was an overtime thriller. The down-to-the-wire game between VCU and North Carolina showed the strengths and weaknesses of this VCU team that Illinois needs to pay attention to with a trip to the Sweet Sixteen on the line. 

“They’re not going to quit,” said Illinois’ head coach Brad Underwood about VCU. “They’re very well coached. Phil’s (Martelli Jr.) doing a great job … As a team that I didn’t see play a lot in the regular season, you’re looking for those tendencies. Not just in yesterday’s game, but over the course of the season.” 

VCU plays with plenty of fight 

In its matchup with North Carolina on Thursday, VCU made NCAA tournament first-round history by overcoming a 19-point deficit, which it chipped away at through the game’s final 15 minutes, to pull off the upset. The Rams opened the game going toe-to-toe with the Tar Heels, but while the Tar Heels were hitting tough shots in the first half, the Rams couldn’t knock down the easy ones. North Carolina shot 45.7%, and VCU shot a poor 34.5%. 

“We got some really good shots in the first half, they just didn’t drop,” said VCU senior guard Jadrian Tracey. “He had some easy layups. He had some easy layups and stuff at the rim, some gimmes. If you take the five, six layups that we missed, shoot, that’s only a 5-point difference there.”

Coming out of halftime, though, VCU was a different team, which was evident all over the stat sheet and in the game’s result. Finding the offensive rhythm that they didn’t have in the first half was important for the Rams to continuously cut down the Tar Heels’ lead. VCU’s shooting percentages vastly improved from the first 20 minutes of play, jumping to 62.1% from the field, including 70% from three. An improved offense, along with forcing seven of North Carolina’s eight turnovers in the second half, willed VCU to a second-round appearance. 

“I think the impressive thing is they never quit,” Underwood said. “It would have been very easy, down 18 or 19, to just lay down and roll over, and they didn’t do that …  Anything can happen in a single game. It’s more about tendencies. Very, very impressed with their tenacity and their ability to just keep fighting and not lay down.”

As clearly seen in its first round upset, the Rams aren’t a team that’s going to give up, even when pulling off a win may seem out of reach. For the Illini, this is where they can’t revert to becoming complacent, especially defensively, if the game gets out of hand on the scoreboard. At the end of the season, maintaining leads hasn’t been a strong suit for Illinois. At UCLA, it gave up a 23-point first-half lead, and in the Big Ten tournament against Wisconsin, it gave up multiple 15-point leads. 

Now, on the biggest stage in college basketball, it’s time to learn from those mental mistakes. The Illini had no problem maintaining their second-half lead against the Quakers on Thursday, and that was due to staying on top of their defensive principles as much as hitting shots on the offensive end. The offensive side of the ball will always be there for one of the country’s most offensively efficient teams, but it’s the defensive lapses that put them in trouble. 

Terrence Hill Jr. draws defensive attention

For VCU, its most dangerous offensive weapon comes off the bench. Sophomore guard Terrence Hill Jr. is the Rams’ leading scorer, averaging 14.9 points per game, and takes the most field goal attempts out of anyone on the roster. Even with taking over 300 shots so far, Hill remains efficient, as he is shooting 46.7% from the field, along with 37.1% from beyond the arc. Against North Carolina, Hill played a quiet first half with only 11 points, but he went off in the second to finish with 34 points, including seven threes, to lead all scorers. 

“(Hill) plays with a lot of confidence,” said Illinois freshman guard Keaton Wagler. “He can shoot the ball, drive the ball, pass the ball — does a lot of good things. Really good player. So we know we have to be dialed in on him from the scouting report.”

Outside of scoring, Hill also leads the Rams in assists with 101 this year so far. With his quickness and athleticism, Hill works to blow by defenders off the dribble and can score in the paint or kick out to solid 3-point shooters. The sophomore is also a sharpshooter from deep, which was an instrumental factor in helping VCU take down North Carolina. Against Illinois, though, Hill knows that he has an All-Big Ten defensive player waiting for him in senior guard Kylan Boswell. 

“(Boswell) really gets after the ball a little bit,” Hill said. “ … I’m familiar with his game and how he plays. He’s just a hard-working player. He prides himself on the defensive end … but it’s no matchup I’m not ready for.”

In the Illini’s first-round win over the Quakers, Boswell was a star defensively, holding Quaker junior forward TJ Power to just six points on 2-for-8 shooting. The loss to Wisconsin was the driving force that led to Boswell’s defensive dominance over Power, and he’s ready to carry that into this next matchup. 

“Personally, I love the competitiveness, and I’m accepting of that challenge every night,” Boswell said. “So coming into this game, I’ve guarded multiple guards that can score like (Hill), who are shifty like him, who are quick, so I have a lot of experience under my belt. For me, it’s just being mentally prepared for every matchup.” 

However, Boswell can’t do it alone on the defensive end against Hill. Wagler and junior wing Andrej Stojaković also have to be ready to step up when Boswell takes a rest. The Illini’s team defense needs to be ready to know where Hill is when he checks into the game, because if he gets lost, he can get hot really fast. 

Exploit Rams on the glass 

In terms of size and physicality, Illinois’ front court has a clear advantage in this game as VCU doesn’t have a single 7-footer on its roster, and the tallest player in its rotation against North Carolina, junior forward Lazar Djoković, was 6-foot-11. However, that doesn’t mean that the Rams won’t put up a fight on the glass. VCU grabbed 39 rebounds in its first-round win over North Carolina, which is above its average for the season (36.7). Djoković is the Rams’ leading rebounder at 5.4 per game, and is familiar with the Illini’s Balkan frontline. 

“I knew a lot of them since I was 14, since I started playing really locked in on basketball,” Djoković said. “They’re just really big, and I feel like the important thing is we’re going to contain the first shot really well, but it’s just the second shot that we rebound the ball.” 

Illinois’ rebounding abilities are going to be a tough matchup for VCU, especially after its performance on the glass in the first-round win. The Illini out-rebounded the Quakers 48 to 25, and freshman forward David Mirković tallied in 17 of those. When Illinois wasn’t shooting well in the first half, Mirković’s seven offensive rebounds kept it afloat for second-chance points. Compared to VCU’s 5 second-chance points in the first round, Illinois had 29, and that was greatly due to Mirković’s efforts.

“He’s one of those guys that does everything,” Martelli said. “ … Jimmy (Martelli), my brother, has got the scout. One of the things he said is, ‘You better be ready for a 40-minute UFC fight with that, dude because he’s going to bring it.”

@evy_york2 

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