Illinois has little trouble with Yale

The Ilini's D.J. Richardson pressures Yale's Porter Braswell during the first half. (Robert K. O'Daniell/AP)

By Chris Hine

CHAMPAIGN -- As Illinois broke its pregame huddle, it chanted a different motivational cheer.

Instead of "1, 2, 3 Illini!" or "1, 2, 3 win!" Illinois hit the floor Tuesday night saying "1, 2, 3 shutouts!"

Perhaps the Illini should make that their permanent cheer.

There were plenty of "shutouts" for Illinois on defense as it defeated Yale 73-47 at Assembly Hall.

"As a team we played pretty well for the Thanksgiving break crowd," senior Mike Tisdale said.

One reason for that was Tisdale.

In the offseason, Tisdale put on about 30 pounds of muscle, but so far this season, he wasn't exactly playing like it.

He still was prone to being out of position on defense and, at times, was a negligible factor on the boards. But against Yale, Tisdale was as active as he ever has been on the glass as he finished with 10 points and matched his career high with 13 rebounds.

It has been an ongoing process for Tisdale to adjust to playing with his added bulk, but he took a step in the right direction.

"People were saying we need to be more physical and they would be right," Tisdale said. "We came out and did it."

Maybe this was a product of playing Yale rather than Texas, whose front line overpowered Illinois in the Illini's overtime loss Thursday. Tisdale fouled out after getting six rebounds.

But on Tuesday, the only thing that kept him from getting a career-high in rebounds was that Weber took him out of the game for the last several minutes. There will be other nights to get it, and the Illini hope he does it a couple of times over.

Illinois defense played against Yale like it did in its first few games of the season. The Illini set a season-high mark on their prized Matto chart, which awards points based on hustle plays.

Maybe that, too, is a product of playing Yale, Southern Illinois and Toledo instead of Texas and Maryland, but Yale struggled to find any rhythm on offense, especially in the first half. And there were times last year when Illinois' defense struggled against some of its weaker competition.

After the game, Illinois coach Bruce Weber doled out a compliment to senior Demetri McCamey for his defense -- one of the few times he has done that in McCamey's career.

"I thought Demetri's defense in the first half was as good a 16, 17 minutes as he has had since he has been here," Weber said.

In the first half, Illinois' speed and trapping defense made it difficult for Yale to run its offense. Yale, who previously defeated Boston College, committed 22 turnovers and finished just 14-for-49 from the field.

Richardson finished with 16 points while McCamey had 11 points and seven assists.

Illinois now faces Western Michigan on the road Saturday.

"Now we have to see if we can bottle that and take it Kalamazoo and win a road game," Weber said.

Source: http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2010/11/illinois-game-day-cant-take-yale-lightly.html

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