Throughout the season, the biggest talking point for the Illinois women’s basketball has been its lack of communication. During Tuesday’s practice, head coach Matt Bollant and his staff still weren’t pleased with the team’s chemistry and attitude — enough so that Bollant cut practice short because he thought his team showed a lack of effort.

“I feel like (Tuesday) at practice we let Iowa State affect our practice today,” Bollant said, referencing his team’s 68-50 loss to the Cyclones on Saturday. “It’s really about controlling your attitude and your effort. We do those things, we’ll get better. And we didn’t do a very good job of that today and hopefully that’ll be different tomorrow.”

The Illini (3-2) will need to improve their communication when they face Wake Forest (2-4) on Thursday in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Although the men’s competition has occurred annually since 1999, the women’s challenge debuted in 2007. The Big Ten has yet to win, but managed to tie the Atlantic Coast Conference last season. Illinois is 2-3 all-time at the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, including a 65-50 win at Wake Forest in 2009. Bollant said he hopes the Illini can help the Big Ten end its losing skid.

“It’s kinda fun to see where the Big Ten is at,” Bollant said. “Obviously the ACC is a really good conference, and we’ll have a tough matchup with Wake, so it will be interesting to see how the Big Ten comes out, and hopefully we’ll fair well and do our part.”

Bollant said the Big Ten has a way to go before competing at the ACC’s level.

“I think the ACC’s been better,” Bollant said. “I do think the Big Ten has taken steps, and we’re heading in the right direction and we’re gonna be one of the best conferences in the country. I don’t know if we’re there yet, but we’ll find out more with these games.”

Both teams head into Thursday’s matchup on cold streaks. The Demon Deacons have lost four straight after winning their first two contests this year. The Illini have split four games, including being upset by Bradley on Nov. 15. Bollant said the team is struggling because of its poor defense.

“Honestly, I thought the one thing we’d be better at (is) guarding the dribble because we’re athletic,” Bollant said. “The two games in the Bahamas was disappointing, the way we guarded the dribble. And that’s really where it starts on defense, is your ability to guard the dribble. That’s an area we got to get better at and take a lot more pride in. That’s been disappointing.”

Despite Illinois’ two losses, many players are having career-best seasons early in the year. Senior forward Karisma Penn is averaging a career-best 18.4 points and 10.6 rebounds per game, as well as a 55.2 field goal percentage. Penn is fifth in the Big Ten in scoring and first in rebounding. She also leads the conference in blocked shots per game with 3.2.

Sophomore guard Ivory Crawford has arguably been the team’s most improved player. Her points per game have increased from 6.6 to 15.6 this season. Sophomore point guard Alexis Smith has also been a bright spot for the team, as she is currently second in the Big Ten in assists per game with 6.8.

But despite strong offensive numbers, Illinois has the worst defense in the Big Ten, as the team has allowed 68.4 points per game this year. Junior guard Amber Moore said she expects the defense to improve once the Illini become more accustomed to the new system.

“We’ve had a few bumps in the road,” Moore said. “We’re working through it. It’s a long season, and it’s a new system and we have a lot to work on. We’re trying to do that in practice. We’re trying to listen to our coaches and they have the tools for us to win so we just have to listen to it and stick to the program.”

Associate head coach Mike Divilbiss stressed, during practice, to his players that the coaching staff can live with physical mistakes, but the poor attitude and effort is unacceptable. Bollant agreed with his assistant’s message.

“We gotta control our attitude and effort,” Bollant said. “We wanna get better, we gotta control that everyday. When we don’t, we don’t get better and we’ll be stagnant.” q

Bollant said that junior forward Kersten Magrum, who hasn’t played since she injured her shoulder against Bradley, is at 85 percent strength. She began shooting again but was limited in practice on Tuesday, only participating in a post defense walkthrough. Bollant said her status is “up in the air for Thursday” and that she would only play if she was at 100 percent.

Michael can be reached at [email protected].