Murray State
Illinois
Victor's 15 Points Not Enough As MSU Falls To Illinois In NCAA's First Round
3/19/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
(AP) Senior forward Cuthbert Victor's 15 points and seven rebounds were not enough as the No. 12 seeded Murray State Racers fell to No. 5 seeded Illinois 72-53 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament today at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.
Dee Brown scored 21 points to lead the Fighting Illini (25-6) as they won on the same floor where they claimed their first outright conference title in 52 years this month.
Roger Powell added 11 points and James Augustine 10 for Illinois, which took control of the Atlanta Regional matchup with a late run in the first half, pulled away and cruised into the second round for the second straight year.
The Illini on Sunday face fourth-seeded Cincinnati, which got a scare Friday from East Tennessee State.
The Racers (28-6) were led by Victor's 15 points and Chris Shumate's 13. But the Ohio Valley Conference champions couldn't handle Illinois' size or strength inside and dropped to 0-12 against Big Ten schools.
If there were ever a year Murray State could end its drought against one of college basketball's power conferences, this was it. But the Racers couldn't get closer than six points in the second half and shot just 34 percent (17-of-49) from the field while being outrebounded 44-27.
Murray State got just seven rebounds in the second half.
"We didn't play the way we've played all year," Shumate said. "We didn't make plays. We didn't score. We had a lot of shots go in and out."
Nationwide Arena was a new venue for the Fighting Illini, but not Ohio State's court, which was shipped from Value City Arena by the host Buckeyes for the first- and second-round games.
On March 7, Illinois was crowned Big Ten champs on the same court -- the school's first exclusive basketball title since 1954.
In a down year for the league, Illinois was the conference's highest seed as only three Big Ten schools made the 64-team field -- the fewest since expansion in 1985.
With his team leading by eight in the second half, Brown hit a 3-pointer to make it 48-37. Three minutes later, the speedy point guard hit another 3 to put the Fighting Illini up 15.
Murray State tried to chip away, but Illinois challenged every shot, and any thought of an upset disappeared with 6:27 left when Luther Head hit a 3-pointer and Augustine scored on a putback to make it 62-47.
The cushion allowed Illinois to run time off the clock with each possession and savor the final minutes of their fifth straight NCAA first-round win.
Neither team could find its range early on. They combined to miss 10 straight 3-pointers before ending their droughts by making 3s that just beat the 35-second shot clock.
POST-GAME COMMENTS
MSU head coach Mick Cronin, senior forward Antione Whelchel and senior guard Chris Shumate:PLAYERS: Antione Whelchel, Chris Shumate
COACH CRONIN: Well, we obviously feel we're better than we played today. You have to give Illinois all the credit for making us play the way they played. They dominated us on the glass. I believe we only had two rebounds in the second half. We ended up 44-27. We struggled to get into anything offensively and that's a credit to their defensive pressure. And that pretty much sums up the games right there. Their defense in rebounding. We were really good in the first half, held them to 36% in rebounding.
MODERATOR: Let's open it up to questioning for the student athletes. Raise your hand and we'll get a microphone to you.
REPORTER: Antione, Chris, either one. Talk about, you guys have been at this level before playing these kind of teams. Do you always feel like you lack a little bit of size, little bit of inside strength to really match up with these kind of teams.
WHELCHEL: Well, you have to lay with the cards you're dealt with. The last couple years, you know, besides James Singleton, we haven't really been forcing it with a lot of size. We've got Andy, but times he can't match up with big physical players like Illinois had you know, size don't matter, it's just how big your heart is. I've seen Michael Jordan go up and dunk over 7-1, 7-2, he has a big heart. We just have to play with the cards we're dealt with. We're not blessed with size. We might be blessed with other things. But like I said, we just got to go out there and compete with what we've got.
REPORTER: What happened towards the end of the first half? Things seems to be going at least competitive, in fact, you guys had the lead but kind of down the stretch, Illinois kind of asserted itself?
SHUMATE: The at the end of the first half, they started making a lot of plays, getting a lot of offensive rebounds an really that's us just not hustling like we had all season. We didn't play the way that we played all year. We didn't just play that Murray State team. They didn't just make plays, they hit shots. They've got great players, that's what great players do, they make plays and that's what Illinois did tonight.
REPORTER: Chris, could you please talk about how Dee Brown, the difficulties he caused today out on the court for you guys.
SHUMATE: You know, he's a really fast player. He's really tough to contain. We tried to do it as a team. He got some penetration and penetration breaks down the defense and that's his job and he did it well today.
REPORTER: Chris, in the second half, it seemed like the racers couldn't really get anything going, any sustained rally or anything like that. What seemed to be the factors in the second half, the coach referred to rebounding, but --
SHUMATE: Really we just didn't make plays. We didn't score. We usually score a lot of points and we didn't do that tonight. We had a lot of shots go in and out. And there were several times, you know, we were kind of on a run and we were a shot or two away from turning the game around but it just didn't go our way.
REPORTER: Did you guys -- their defense pressure get you all to the point where you had to kind of settle to take the three more than you would like to under normal circumstances?
WHELCHEL: We knew coming into the game that Illinois was an extremely talented defensive team. I think that it kind of took us away from what we were doing. As you can see, we only scored 53 points. I don't even think we scored 53 points all year. I don't think we had that low all year. But like Coach said, give all the credit to Illinois. You know, they're a great team, a great defensive team and I think it kind of took us away from what we was used to doing.
REPORTER: For either of you two guys, did it look like given the fact that you had played Coach Weber's team last year at Southern Illinois, did they have maybe a little bit better scouting report and tendencies on you guys than maybe you would have had in another situation?
SHUMATE: We played against Coach Weber when he was at SIU, I think he knows our personnel, they run an awful lot of screens and that's the way they did it at SIU. Their guys are running a little bit, they set hard, solid screens with their big guys. That's how Illinois likes to play.
REPORTER: How much was a factor of oil Illinois's overall quickness?
COACH CRONIN: I think they've got good quickness but I would say that their team defense was better than ours today. They outplayed us on the defensive end. You know, obviously, having a little more quickness and athleticism helps, but I'm not real big into excuses, as you know, Will. I was tremendously pleased with my team all season. My guys understand what wins and loses games. We didn't play very good on the defensive end today. We didn't rebound the ball and when you do that, you don't do those two things, you're not going to win a lot of ball games. You're definitely not going to beat the regular season Big Ten champs and that's just a fact of life.
REPORTER: Mick, talk about what their pressure did to your guys obviously taking you out of things, you didn't get the inside/outside game going like you normally do.
COACH CRONIN: Yeah, they got tough going a little bit, made adjustments, started trapping him. But we couldn't get the ball to the wing to get it into the low post. We tried to run pick and roll stuff. We didn't do the things we practiced all week is probably what frustrates me the most and I that's still a credit to Illinois, but my assistants did a great job preparing them. They came out and did everything we thought they were going to do on a defensive end. We just were unable to handle what they threw at us.
REPORTER: Coach, you talked about getting easy baskets and easy positions where you can get some easy scores. It didn't seem like you had any of that today. Was that more or less a tribute to Illinois' defense or could you elaborate more about what you wanted your guys to do against their defense.
COACH CRONIN: Well, we were trying to buy time and get to the second half, have a chance to win the game. There was a couple of shots they made. I was disappointed in a few of our -- a few times lack of blocking out. All that being said, if Chris Shumate shoots, Antione makes a great play on the transition, kick-out pass as he's done all year. Chris takes a great shot, ball goes in and out, we're down 5-7 with four minutes to play. The score's not indicative of the game, anybody that watched it. If we made that shot, we're 7 down with five to play. We were prepared to be in that position. I think our guys, that's probably what our guys are most disappointed about, we were unable to get it to where it was a 5 to 7-point game where we had a a chance to put a little pressure on them and let the pressure mount and see where it went down the stretch. But first half, I thought we played really well. We didn't make free throws, we're down 7, we're 5 for 10 from the foul line.
REPORTER: Mick, you've got a lot of restocking to do on this roster, losing a lot of people. What's it going to take personnel-wise, what's your general profile of what the team you think is going to take you guys to beat teams like this in the future?
COACH CRONIN: To beat teams like Illinois? Well, the reality is, my job's to win the OVC championship. For me to recruit teams -- I don't know if I'm ever going to recruit the players it takes to beat the Big Ten regular season champs at Murray State. Now, obviously that's our goal is to get the best players we can, as you know. I don't know if there's a formula -- everybody's formula looking for an upset is what you're looking for to win that game. I really believe guard play is a major factor. We only had eight assists on the game. And if you've got a great guard that can get some other people some shots, it makes the game so much easier on your four other guys. You know, hopefully we have that next year with our two guys sitting out. That's the thing we miss the most. We got by this year, Joe, because we could score inside and that hurt people. So, therefore, our perimeter guys were able to get shots. But scoring inside is all relative to who you're playing against and obviously that hurt us today, the inability to pound them inside and we've been able to be a major factor in the low post this year. It kind of took the pressure off our guard play a little bit. I think to beat the team -- a team like Illinois, you've got to have a guy that can make the other four people better. I would point -- if you look at Marquette's team this year without Dwayne Wade, all of a sudden those other guys aren't as good, they're all good players and they play extremely hard, but if you get a guy that makes everyone else better, then he can carry them through a game like this and we just don't quite have that guard right now. I think the two guys we've got sitting out, though, have a chance to be that.
Murray State Lockerroom player quotes
Senior Forward Cuthbert Victor
On the game
"We had a good season. We played hard today. They're a good team with tremendous players who play hard. They were just making shots and we had to make shots."
Junior Guard Adam Chiles
On the game
"We had a great season, it's just too bad we couldn't come away with the victory. We're losing a great group of guys, but the seniors played their hearts out. We played with (Illinois) in the first half and part of the second."
On the second half
"At the end it felt like an uphill battle. They were holding the ball, spreading the floor. There's nothing to hold our heads down about, we just didn't play up to our full potential today."
On the rebounding disparity
"A lot of the shots were long and we were running in toward the basket to get them. There's really no way to defend against long rebounds, you just have to fight for the ball."
Senior Guard Rick Jones
On his team's shooting
"You are going to have days like that. (Senior guard Chris) Shumate is a great shooter, he knows that and we know that, but sometimes the ball just doesn't bounce your way."
On Illinois
"They are definitely the quickest team we faced all year. I wish them the best of luck the rest of the way. I hope the team that beats us goes all the way to the championship."
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Postgame Notes
The first-round game Friday between Illinois and Murray State marked the second time the two teams have played with the Illini owning a 2-0 lead in the series. The previous meeting came in the quarterfinals of the 1980 National Invitation Tournament at Assembly Hall in Champaign, Ill., where the Illini defeated the Racers, 65-63.
Murray State Notes
Murray State has compiled an all-time record of 1-11 in 12 NCAA Tournament appearances.
The 2004 NCAA Tournament marked the first time the Racers were a No. 12 seed.
The Ohio Valley Conference has compiled an all-time record of 20-56 in NCAA Tournament games. Former OVC member Middle Tennessee was the last conference team to win an NCAA Tournament game, upsetting then fifth-ranked Florida State, 97-83, in 1989 in the Southeast Regional.
