New stage set for Illinois, IU battle at home

IU Coach Tom Crean rushed into the South Assembly Hall lobby and had a postgame pep rally. The 52-49 win against No. 21 Illinois on Jan. 27, 2011, was IU’s first victory against a ranked team in the Crean era.

It’s safe to say Crean won’t be having any pep rallies this year — win or lose.
This time, the No. 23 Hoosiers (18-6, 6-6) come into tonight’s showdown against Illinois (16-7, 5-5) at Assembly Hall as the favorites.

With IU riding the momentum of a 78-61 win at Purdue on Saturday, Crean said he expects Illinois to come in with the same mindset his squad displayed.

“We played desperate the other night, and we have every reason to believe that Illinois will play the same way,” Crean said.

The Fighting Illini come in as losers of four of their last five games — most recently a 74-70 loss at home to Northwestern. At this time a month ago, the Illini were atop the Big Ten at 4-1 after beating then-No. 5 Ohio State 79-74 in Champaign, Ill.

Illinois guard Brandon Paul put up a career-high 43 points in the upset win. IU junior guard Jordan Hulls said the Hoosiers cannot afford to let Paul heat up like he did against Ohio State.

“Once he gets his confidence up, he can hit really tough shots,” Hulls said. “You don’t want a guy to get going that’s as good as he is.”

IU sophomore guard Victor Oladipo said he thinks he’ll be the one faced with the task of shutting down Paul.

Oladipo, who is coming off a career-high 23 points against Purdue, said Paul operates similarly to past counterparts Nebraska’s Bo Spencer and Penn State’s Tim Frazier.

“He needs the ball in his hands to be successful,” Oladipo said about Paul. “He’s going to have the ball in hands just like they all did. It’s just another challenge for me.”

When Paul doesn’t have the ball in his hands, he’ll likely be looking to get it to center Meyers Leonard. The seven-footer went from averaging 2.1 points and 1.2 rebounds per game as a freshman to 13.3 points and eight rebounds as a sophomore.

“He’s huge. He’s a big guy,” Hulls said. “He can hit a little jump hook. He can step out and hit some mid-range.”

Oladipo said Leonard reminds him of one of his teammates.

“Cody Zeller,” Oladipo said. “He’s a different type of breed. There’s not a lot of seven-footers that are agile and can run and jump like Cody and Meyers.”

When Zeller was still in high school, Leonard didn’t register a point, and Paul came off the bench when these teams played in Bloomington last year. Crean said while both Leonard and Paul have spiked roles this season, IU will be in trouble if it focuses strictly on the duo.

“There’s a tremendous amount of focus that has to go into a player like (Paul),” Crean said. “But when you look at Illinois, if you determine that you’re going to focus on one or two guys, you’re probably going to lose the game because they have numerous other people that can make plays.”