Despite some concerns about its effort in exhibition play, Illinois opened the season with a defensive performance that pleased coach Bruce Weber - even if it wasn't for a full 40 minutes.
The 13th-ranked Illini will have another opportunity to improve Wednesday night when they host Toledo, which underwent a coaching change following its worst season in school history.
After beating a pair of Division II schools by a combined 19 points in exhibitions, Illinois was looking to tune up in three home games before heading to Madison Square Garden for the second part of the 2K Sports Classic.
The Illini opened the season with a 79-65 win over UC Irvine on Monday, as Brandon Paul scored 18 points while Mike Tisdale had 12 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots.
After holding the Anteaters to 23.1 percent shooting in the first half while taking a 42-18 lead, Illinois allowed them to get within 14 before closing it out.
"We were intimidating defensively in the first half," Weber said. "We were all over the place."
Weber's team is coming off an uncharacteristically poor season defensively, ranking 10th in the Big Ten while giving up 66.8 points per game in 2009-10. Over the previous five seasons, the Illini were the conference's top defensive team, yielding an average of 59.1 points.
Defense wasn't the only area Weber wanted to see improvement in when the season began. Illinois' success this season hinges in large part on the play of Demetri McCamey, who despite leading the team in scoring with 15.1 points per game and ranking second in the nation with an average of 7.1 assists last season, often drew the ire of Weber due to a lack of intensity and careless play.
McCamey scored 13 points and had eight assists Monday. He had two points in the first half before finishing 5 of 11 from the field.
"I shot terrible, but at the same time, we got a win," he said. "I said in the preseason that that was one of my goals, to make my teammates better."
Illinois has two more home games to work out any issues. After Toledo it faces Southern Illinois on Saturday then travels to New York to take on Texas and either No. 5 Pittsburgh or Maryland.
The Illini don't figure to face much of a challenge from their next opponent.
Toledo will open the season under new coach Tod Kowalczyk, who spent the previous eight seasons at Wisconsin-Green Bay, where he won 22 games in each of the last two campaigns.
Kowalczyk takes over a program that went 4-28 in 2009-10 after going 7-25 the previous season.
The Rockets were second-to-last in scoring among Division I teams, averaging 54.2 points. They bring back only two starters and lost leading scorer Jake Barnett, who transferred to Saint Louis.
Toledo has lost 31 straight road games since an overtime victory over Central Michigan on March 9, 2008.
This is the first meeting between these teams since Toledo's 71-51 win in 1981. The Rockets have a 2-1 advantage in the series with the other games coming in 1949 and 1950.
