A slow start doomed the Hawkeyes for the second straight game, but Tavion Banks had an outstanding "flu game."
No. 19 Iowa entered Sunday's matchup against No. 16 Illinois hoping it could secure its first Quadrant 1 victory of the season, but the search will continue for another few days.
The Hawkeyes had chances to make a late-game rally, but fell short again. Iowa drops to 12-4 overall and 2-3 in league play, and its the first home loss of the Ben McCollum era.
Here are three observations from the defeat:
FEELS LIKE DÉJÀ VU
Not only was this game a carbon copy of Tuesday's loss to Minnesota, it felt like we were all watching a replay of the last Iowa-Illinois contest in Carver-Hawkeye Arena in March 2024.
In both cases, the Hawkeyes had something major to play for. 2023-24 was an up-and-down season for Fran McCaffery's penultimate Iowa team, but the Hawkeyes still had a chance to potentially sneak into the NCAA tournament by winning their regular season finale against the Illini and getting some help from the other bubble teams.
CHA was far from filled to capacity, but the fans that were in attendance were quickly silenced when Illinois opened the game on a 21-4 run. Iowa would battle back, but it was too little too late.
Nearly two years later, the Hawkeyes met the same fate. The Fighting Illini clearly showed they were the superior team in this one, and raced out to a 20-5 lead before Iowa got itself under control. Just like the 2024 contest, the Hawkeyes fought back to make it a two-possession game, but too many missed opportunities resulted in Illinois escaping Iowa City with a win, their 10th in their last 11 tries against Iowa.
The slow start could be attributed to an illness that is going around the entire Hawkeye team, but head coach Ben McCollum was quick to prevent that from becoming an excuse. The coach simply chalked up Iowa's slow start to execution, which he says starts at the top with him.
"Offense was sped up early, couldn't get to the next action consistently enough. It's something I need to correct. That's a pattern. I need to do a better job," McCollum said.
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES
Falling into a 21-5 hole was the primary factor in the Hawkeyes' defeat, but when you look back at the second half tape, Iowa had its fair share of chances to steal this one.
Illinois' lead hovered around 10 points for most of the second period, but the Hawkeyes just kept battling, and back-to-back dunks by Tavion Banks and Tate Sage brought the Carver-Hawkeye Arena crowd to its feet.
Leading 62-57, Andrej Stojakovic gave the ball away on the next Illini possession, and Iowa was off and running again. Sage threw a perfect alley-oop to Banks, but the senior missed the ensuing dunk. CHA would've exploded if the dunk would've been successful, but instead Illinois responded with a back-breaking triple on the other end to extend their lead back up to five. That was a common theme all afternoon, as the usually-average Fighting Illini shooters torched the nets at every crucial juncture.
The missed dunk definitely swung the pendulum back in Illinois' favor, but Iowa still had a chance in the final minute. The game appeared over after Alvaro Folguieras missed an open three, but a lengthy official review yielded a hook-and-hold foul on the Illini. This gave the Hawkeyes two foul shots and the ball.
Sage knocked down both free throws, but Bennett Stirtz missed a wide-open layup that would've cut the lead down to two, and Iowa never got close after that. The miss defined Stirtz's day, as he went just 5 of 17 from the floor and 2-8 from distance.
"FLU GAME" FOR BANKS
Michael Jordan's "flu game" in Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals remains one of the most iconic performances in sports history. Twenty-eight years later, Banks had a "flu game" of his own.
An illness kept Banks out of his usual place in the starting lineup (Folguieras filled in), but it didn't keep him from having the game of his Hawkeye life. Iowa played with little fight in the early going, but that changed when Banks came into the game, as he disrupted several passes and recorded two steals.
Banks' defense was great, but his offense was even better. On a night where Stirtz struggled to find a rhythm, Banks filled the void by scoring 16 points on 8 of 14 shooting. The missed dunk will be something that will haunt him for a few days, but he deserves a free pass considering how sick he was.
And just how sick was Banks? McCollum admitted that Banks has lost 10 pounds over the last few days and was forced to miss postgame media availability because he was throwing up in the locker room after the game.