Tate | Waking up on wrong side of bed

Mornings like Saturday will happen again ...

youve felt it ...

wrong side of the bed.

The traveling Southern Cal Trojans, carrying more concerns back home than anything basketball related, were awakened at 5:30 a.m.

(Los Angeles time) for what we anticipated would be their seventh loss of the season here.

Upset alert! If anyone overslept ahead of the 11 a.m.

(C-U time) tipoff, it was Illinois.

Coach Brad Underwood, short-handed again without ace guard Kasparas Jakucionis, had an off day with his substitutions Tomislav Ivisic needs more than 17 minutes while the three-pointers werent falling.

The Illinis national leaders in rebounding were outboarded (37-34), and four Trojan starters rooted even deeper than Northwestern to score 64 points with the help of one lonely trey.

Throw in three seldom-seen bombs by an inspired Chicagoan, 6-foot-8 Rashaun Agee (13 points, eight rebounds), and the result was USC 82, Illinois 72.

So, to repeat the season prediction, there will be good days and bad days when half your shots originate beyond the arc (in this case, 32 of the Illinis 62 attempts).

On sleepy Saturday, they converted seven for a 21.9 percentage.

It is often true that the second game after a star players injury is more dangerous than the first.

Thats the way it happened with the Illinis rout of Penn State and the loss to USC.

Just when Underwood thought his rotation was taking shape, new roles were required.

Jakucionis has been the Illinis take-charge guy, both in scoring and assists.

When in doubt, turn to KJ.

We prepped for KJ, so that turned out to be wasted time, Trojans coach Eric Musselman said.

Hes a lottery pick.

Maybe he wasnt missed against Penn State but ultimately youre going to miss him.

It is unclear how serious KJs forearm injury is.

Is it swollen? Has it caused numbness in his left hand? He worked out before the game.

Will he play at Indiana on Tuesday night? With or without KJ, the basics are the same.

There are bound to be some disappointing outings when a team (1) places heavy emphasis on long-range shooting and (2) frequently mishandles the ball, most noticeably at the beginning and end of games.

Illinois has committed double-digit turnovers in 10 consecutive games and had a season-high of 18 against Oakland.

Thats 18 possessions without a shot.

They also had 17 in the 80-77 defeat of Missouri, 15 against USC, 14 in Wednesday nights 91-52 rout of Penn State and 13 on four occasions Inconsistency is inevitable when shaky ball-handling is coupled with an NBA-like emphasis on arc-shooting.

Best example Saturday: Kylan Boswell had six assists and five steals but committed six turnovers and was 0 for 5 on threes.

Strategy was a huge part of Saturdays outcome.

Musselman emphasized two main points: (1) Attack the rim and take no threes in transition and (2) send all five players to the defensive glass, the coach noting: If anyone leaked out, they could come and sit beside me.

Xavier transfer Desmond Claude (the top 10 USC scorers started college elsewhere) got hot early and never let up.

Underwood tried various defensive assignments.

None worked.

Claude used clever dribble penetration to score 31, the same number DJ Davis produced with mostly treys in Illinois 81-77 win at Washington.

The Trojans outscored Illinois 46-30 in the paint, which explains their 52 percent accuracy.

Ivisic averages 12.8 points and 8.6 rebounds but had just seven and three on Saturday in 17-plus minutes.

Ill kick myself for the way I used him, Underwood said.

He is an integral part of what we do.

He makes us go.

We wont get to our ceiling without him.

Tomislav is outplaying his twin, Zvonimir.

As an Arkansas sub with minutes diminishing, the latter Ivisic was scoreless for the fourth time in six games in Saturdays 71-63 loss to Florida.

Tomislav faces a heavy load Tuesday in facing off against Oumar Ballo, the massive Mali center who played alongside Boswell at Arizona last year.

Ballo, who raised concerns when Mike Woodson benched him for the entire Winthrop game Dec.

29, racked 23 points in IUs 82-69 defeat of USC on Wednesday but was limited to 10 points in Iowas 85-60 romp at home on Saturday..

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