Illinois' trio of guards cuts through Gonzaga defense

INDIANAPOLIS -- Illinois coach Bruce Weber has simplified basketball into a game of rock-paper-scissors, and his players are awesome at it. Even if they don't have the rock or the paper.

All Illinois has are scissors. Scissors are enough.

Luther Head, Dee Brown and Deron Williams (not pictured) combine for 57 points, 20 assists and only two turnovers.(AP)

No. 5 Illinois brought its great guards to Conseco Fieldhouse on Saturday to play No. 24 Gonzaga in the Wooden Tradition. Gonzaga, with its great forwards and centers, got cut to ribbons.

Illinois was better than Gonzaga by a lot more than the 89-72 final score because guards beat forwards and centers in college basketball. Illinois might be better than anyone this season because no one has better guards.

No one.

Not even Wake Forest. The Deacons bring their No. 1 ranking to Champaign, Ill., on Wednesday for the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, but if that game comes down to a backcourt beauty contest, the Deacons might as well save the airfare and stay home.

The math is simple. Illinois' Deron Williams and Dee Brown are equal to Wake Forest's Chris Paul and Justin Gray, but Illinois' Luther Head is greater than Wake Forest's Taron Downey.

After those absolutes, the math gets more complicated. See, basketball rules allow a team to play five players at the same time -- and to use players who are taller than 6-foot-3. Gonzaga tried to capitalize on that bit of small print by filling the floor with huge players: 6-10, 250-pound Ronny Turiaf, 6-9, 270-pound J.P. Batista, 6-9 Sean Mallon and 6-8 Adam Morrison.

Those monsters beat up on Illinois' interior, outrebounding the Illini 39-27. Illinois got a combined 17 points and five rebounds from center James Augustine and power forward Roger Powell Jr. -- less than Morrison (26 points, 11 rebounds) by himself.

And still Illinois won. Big. The Illini were leading 79-41 with 12 minutes left when human nature kicked in and their intensity kicked off.

"At times," said Gonzaga coach Mark Few, "it looked like we had no business being out there on the floor with them."

That will happen to a number of Illinois opponents this season, but not to Wake Forest. In addition to Wake Forest's excellent trio of guards -- though not as excellent as Illinois' excellent trio of guards -- the Deacons have a deep, strong frontcourt. Deeper and stronger than Illinois' frontcourt.