Much ink will be spilled on Illinois' shooting performance last night against Northwestern, and for good reason--the Illini broke the school record for field goal percentage in an 88-63 blowout win that was actually not as close as the score indicates. While we're with Ken Pomeroy on the usefulness of simple field goal percentage, this was indeed an incredible display of accuracy. The Illini shot 73 percent on twos (including lots of dunks) and 64 percent on threes for an effective field goal percentage of 80.7 percent. That was a season high for Illinois, but not by as much as you'd think--Bruce Weber's team posted an 80.2 effective field goal percentage just two games ago at Iowa. Seems that this lights-out shooting is becoming commonplace for Demetri McCamey and company.

The problem is that the Illinois offense still hasn't been reaching its full potential because of turnovers. Against Northwestern, the Illini turned it over on 30 percent of their possessions. "But wait," you say, "wasn't most of that in garbage time when Illinois had four freshmen on the floor?" Some of it was, and there was certainly some ugly play over the final 16 possessions or so, but the Illini actually posted a 30 percent turnover rate in each half. All the miscues kept Illinois from surging higher than the 1.20 points per possession they scored, and it has to be a concern for Bruce Weber going forward.

The more impressive feat might have been Illinois' defensive effort last night, which will probably not get much run. Northwestern scored a season-low 0.86 points per possession, a number that was actually boosted by the aforementioned garbage time. After 56 possessions, Northwestern was scoring at a 0.75 PPP clip, which is incredibly low for a team that has shown the offensive punch of Northwestern. John Shurna's injury certainly impacts their scoring ability, but this was still a dominant defensive performance. Illinois controlled the defensive glass (a season-low 15.8 offensive rebounding percentage for the Wildcats), didn't put Northwestern on the line (a season-low free throw rate), and held the normally accurate shooters to 41.0 effective field goal percentage (just barely above their season-low). We often point out the power of turnovers, but this game showed that even a big turnover margin can't save you if you get dominated in every other way.

Illinois showed great ball movement and shared the sugar beautifully, at least when they weren't turning it over--no single player took more than eight shots, and six Illini finished in double figures. Mike Davis had the most impressive night: 12 points (5 shots), 7 rebounds, 7 assists, and no turnovers. Demetri McCamey had a similar line but was part of the turnover problem (4 miscues).

Northwestern just looked demoralized for much of the second half, but at least the blowout afforded some extra rest for John Shurna's injury. Michael Thompson and Jershon Cobb did what they could, combining for 33 points on 36 shots.

The conference gets back into action on Saturday, with Michigan State at Penn State (12pm CT, BTN). Then, on Sunday, four games are headlined by a chance for a national statement as Michigan hosts Kansas (3:30pm CT, CBS).

- Posted by Mike Portscheller