Takeaways from No. 11 Wisconsin's loss at No. 18 Illinois
No. 11 Wisconsin failed to contain All-Big Ten center Kofi Cockburn, and with that, fell out of a first place tie in the Big Ten standings after an 80--67 loss at No. 18 Illinois on Wednesday inside the State Farm Center.
Adding to its troubles, UW (17-4 overall, 8-3 Big Ten) also shot colder than the game time temperature in Champaign from three-point range. The Badgers' standout sophomore and national player of the year candidate, Johnny Davis shined with a double-double but finished shooting under 30% in defeat.
BadgerBlitz.com provides these takeaways from the loss that drops UW into a tie for third place in conference play with No. 4 Purdue.
UNSTOPPABLE Kofi Cockburn
Cockburn dominated with 37 points and 12 rebounds, and the seven-footer connected on 16-of-19 shot attempts in the high-octane conference tilt. From the opening possession, Illinois (16-5, 9-2) worked to get the ball inside to the big man against sophomore Steven Crowl.
The Badgers simply had no consistent, neutralizing response for him.
In the final 6:51 of the first half, Cockburn contributed 10 of Illinois' 14 points. He headed into the locker room with 20 points and 7 rebounds on 10-of-12 shooting.
Then in the final 9:56 of the game, the junior center asserted himself further. He scored 15 of the Illini's 17 points in that span. Thirteen of those came after Wisconsin brought the game to within a two-possession contest at 63-57 with 9:15 remaining.
Neither Crowl nor center Chris Vogt found success or had answers against Cockburn on Wednesday evening, and the duo of Badgers big men each saw four fouls called against them. Vogt played just under 13 minutes against Illinois -- which is actually around his season average -- scoring two points and grabbing three rebounds. Crowl finished with six points on 3-of-8 shooting, but he failed to pull down a board against Cockburn and Illinois.
The one area where Cockburn floundered came at the free throw line, where despite drawing 10 fouls, he made just five of nine attempts.
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A polar plunge from three-point range for Wisconsin
Cockburn's big night emerged as storyline No. 1 during the midweek matchup. However, Wisconsin's frigid performance from three-point range claims a close second.
UW finished the night shooting a season-low 3-of-24 from beyond the arc against Illinois. Guards Brad Davison and Johnny Davis, the two players who have attempted the most three-pointers this season, hit one combined triple in 11 tries. The former finished with a goose egg in six shots from deep.
The Badgers' starters overall only hit on 2 of 22 in this category.
Wisconsin entered intermission shooting 0-of-9 from three-point range, but were only down four at halftime. However, the skid continued until nearly halfway through the second half when freshman guard Lorne Bowman II -- who finished with seven points off the bench on 3-of-4 shooting from the field -- connected on a trey with 10:18 remaining in regulation.
Illinois finished the game shooting only 7-of-22 (31.8%) from three-point range -- but it drained 4-of-8 tries in the first half on way to a 42-38 lead.
Johnny Davis finishes with yet another double-double despite poor shooting performance
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Davis recorded yet another double-double to his name -- the second straight and fourth overall of the 2021-22 season -- with a team-high 22 points and game-high 15 rebounds in defeat. That included grabbing six offensive boards, and his athleticism and aggressiveness led the way in Wisconsin getting to the free throw line.
The La Crosse, Wis., native connected on 11-of-14 attempts from the charity stripe. Only one other player on the team -- Davison -- attempted one free throw for the entire game (he made it, for what it's worth).
However, the shots did not drop for Davis against Illinois. He hit on only 26.3% of his opportunities against the Illini, connecting on 5-of-19 from the field overall.
Taking away his shooting numbers, the rest of the team made only 21 of 49 (42.9%) inside the State Farm Center.
Other key stats show a couple of positives, a few negatives
Wisconsin out-rebounded Illinois 38-36 in the loss, even having an advantage on the offensive boards by a 12-8 margin. UW also won in second chance points (16-14) while committing only six turnovers on the road, an efficient performance in that latter regard.
However, only two players -- Davis and junior forward Tyler Wahl (14 points, six rebounds) -- scored in double figures on Saturday. Illinois also won in the assist category (21 to UW's eight), and it led for nearly 29 minutes of this conference clash.
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