Illinois

The good — and the bad — from Illinois’ loss to Purdue

Published

9 months ago

March 6, 2024

The good — and the bad — from Illinois’ loss to Purdue

The Illini’s hopes for a Big Ten regular season title were dashed on Wednesday night, as the Boilermakers prevailed in Champaign 77-71 on Senior Night. Terrence Shannon Jr. picked a bad night to have his worst game since his return from suspension, and the rest of the Illini went ice cold from three in the second half.

Nonetheless, it shouldn’t put a damper on what’s been a great season for the Illini with a lot left to play for and prove, including the regular season finale at Iowa and a top-three seed for the Big Ten tournament.

The Good

The first half was about the best combination of complete basketball that the Illini have played in a while. Guerrier was a bright spot in the first half contributing 3 threes. While Edey got his points in the first half with 18, no other player for the Boilermakers had more than four.

Alex Martin/Journal and Courier / USA TODAY NETWORK

The rebounding margin stayed roughly even to keep the Illini in the game at 31-29 in slight favor of Purdue, but the Illini landed +7 from the free throw line ahead of the Boilermakers. The variety of looks that the Illini threw at Edey defensively with different help side defenders coming to collapse on the ball had an impact on certain possessions and kept him off balance for stretches.

The Illini still had great balance offensively despite a poor performance from Shannon, with four double-digit scorers, including team-high 20 from Domask.

The Bad

Shannon Jr. picked up a cheap second foul just ahead the midway point of the first half and wasn’t to able to get anything going even in the second half after sitting most of the first half, finishing just 3-of-13 from the field, including 0-of-4 from three. In your biggest game on Senior Night, your best player (who’s the biggest mismatch for the opponent) needs to show up and that didn’t happen for Illinois.

While the Boilermakers struggled from deep in the first half, they unleashed a barrage of 8 threes on the Illini in the second half that proved to be too much for the Illini to overcome when combined with Edey’s dominant 28 points. While the Boilermakers got hot from deep, the Illini picked the worst time to go ice cold from three and couldn’t keep pace with Purdue’s scoring clip.

Illinois left Edey in more one on one situations in the second half, which wore them down with fouls racking up, including four in quick succession for Amani Hansberry. Second chance points for Purdue continued to hurt Illinois as it frequently led to open threes for Purdue’s shooters.

The Outlook

Illinois has the opportunity to get right with an away game against the Hawkeyes before the Big Ten Tournament. It should be another offensive battle between two up and down teams that like to push the pace and score from the perimeter.

Iowa will come hungry as it continues to make a late push to get off the bubble and into the NCAA Tournament field, so the Illini will have to mentally reset and match the Hawkeyes’ energy on the road to come out with a win.

Illinois needs to get back to what it does well attacking the rim effectively and consequently setting up a more effective perimeter attack than they showed against the Boilermakers. Additionally, the Illini need to do a better job closing down defensive possessions with a rebound to limit second chance points and set up their potent transition attack on the other end. Hopefully, Tuesday’s showing was an aberration in what’s been otherwise a great stretch of basketball for the Illini over the last month and they can get back in the win column against the surging Hawkeyes and go into the postseason with some confidence and momentum.

Source link

Related Topics:Featured front page illinois fighting illini basketball

Click to comment

Illinois

Brad Underwood finally mastered Illinois’ winning formula

Published

1 hour ago

November 29, 2024

Press Room

Brad Underwood finally mastered Illinois’ winning formula

Happy Friday, Illinois Land!

Instead of doing the usual column with post-Thanksgiving word puns involving side dishes and jokes about turkeys, I will use my time to point out a few things that I now know about college basketball in 2025, and the place that Illinois occupies inside of that stratosphere.

I will also discuss where Illinois fits into the landscape of the Big Ten. I think you’ll like how I see that unfolding. My pending Big Ten Analysis will highlight the lack of good depth in the conference.

It is not exactly a banner year for the Big Ten in men’s college basketball. To say the least.

Despite the fact that the Big Ten has dropped in the national landscape, and despite the fact that Illinois lost to a True Elite in 2025 against Alabama in Birmingham by double digits, it’s great beyond words to have a head basketball coach leading your program playing basketball the way it needs to be played at this present date.

Brad Underwood has turned Illinois into a National Program. Do not confuse this with being a national powerhouse.

Photo by Jay Biggerstaff/Getty Images

As I see it, here are the five levels of Illinois basketball. National Championship Contender can replace Blue Blood for Illinois. There was no way for me to get in a shot at Indiana and its fans unless I constituted it this way.

For reference: Indiana is now No. 61 in KenPom (76 in OER, and 51 in DER). I was told that they are the conference favorite. I was also told Illinois cannot play defense. More on this in a bit.

Conference Bottomfeeder (Year 1-2): 26-39 in his first two seasons, 11-27 in the Big Ten. I would call this 1990s Era coaching. Up the line, full court pressure, etc.
Respected NCAA Tournament Team (Year 3+): This will be five-straight non-bubble NCAATs for Underwood, six if you count the COVID-19 cancellation of 2020.
Big Ten Power (Year 3+): In turn, this makes you a Final Four contender on semi-annual basis, at a minimum. I don’t mean make a Final Four, but be a Top Four seed. No one believes that NC State had a better season than Illinois last year.
National (and International) Program (Year 4+): Playing games on CBS on Thanksgiving by request, re-hiring arguably the country’s top assistant coach (Orlando Antigua), signing two potential lottery picks from two countries outside the United States. I could go on, but I won’t. You get it.

Blue Blood (Never): This outdated term continues to keep Indiana fans from jumping off the nearest bridge for the last three-plus decades. Illinois will never be here. UCONN can’t get into the club with six National Championships since 1999.

Having said that, I’m going to say this.

John Calipari is in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He has taken three different programs to the Final Four: Massachusetts, Memphis and Kentucky. He is an all-time great coach with a dazzling record (814-260, for a .758 winning percentage).

Calipari won an NCAA Tournament and cut down the nets in 2012, his third year in Lexington leading the Cats. He was outstanding at Kentucky (410-123), winning games at a .769 clip during his 15-year tenure.

He inexplicably missed the NCAA Tournament twice, going just 9-16 in 2021. His last three years, Kentucky lost 30 games and twice in the NCAAT to vastly inferior teams against No. 15 St. Peter’s and last year against No. 14 Oakland.

Please read the words I type. Do not create a false narrative around comparing Calipari and Underwood, in totality.

Underwood certainly has not had the career of Calipari — it’s not close — nor will he likely end up in the Hall of Fame anywhere outside of Champaign. Not impossible, but not likely.

Looking to the future, it’s clear which coach of the pair from the Thanksgiving matchup in Kansas City has the brighter future. This isn’t close, either.

While Underwood’s Illini blitzed Arkansas with a barrage of threes, high ball screens and floor spacing for play makers, Calipari and Kentu…Arkansas…had a plan “to attack the rim all game,” according to Calipari post-game.

Arkansas ATTEMPTED 17 threes. Illinois MADE 15. Illinois was +30 in in this category.

Frees (points at the free throw line) and threes (points behind the arc) is something I look at during every halftime, and after every game.

Illinois was +29 in this category. BU’s squad scored 90 points on the elite Arkansas defense, which was ranked No. 8 in KenPom DER prior to the contest.

The Illini had 60 of their 90 points (67.7%) of their points on Frees and Threes. Check on this stat every game that Underwood and Illinois play the entirety of the season. It will likely tell the story.

Factor in 2P% defense and you can get the winner of every game Illinois plays this year. The defensive strategy of Illinois is to defend the bucket and the arc. Despite giving a bucket full to Alabama in the lone loss (100-87), Illinois is currently No. 21 in DER.

Let’s take a look at pace of play, and how it affects efficiency, from a large scale perspective. What Illinois is doing is hard to copy.

For that matter, the Illinois offense is now No. 18 in OER (Offensive Efficiency Rating). Of the top 21 in DER on KenPom, Illinois has the FASTEST tempo, at No. 36.

In summary, Illinois plays in the Top 10% in pace of play and ranks even better in efficiency at both ends. It’s not only extremely difficult to do, but largely unnecessary.

When you play fast and efficient on offense, defense lessens in importance in direct correlation with how more efficient your offense can be. In short, play fast and good on offense and you outscore your opponent and win based on simple math.

Here are the avearages for defensive and offensive efficiency. The lower the number, the faster the pace.

Top 5 DERs in terms of pace average: 260.6

Top 5 OERs in terms of pace average: 66.8

Illinois pace of play: 36 (Top 21 in both DER and OER)

I know it’s a lot of numbers. I get it. Underwood has embraced the numbers game and turned Illinois from a Big Ten Bottomfeeder to a National Program.

You may not like it, but you’re gonna learn to love it.

Please take The Scientific Poll.

Poll

What is the win ceiling for Illinois men’s basketball in 2024-25?

This is threes and frees. This is creating space. This is the winning formula.

This is Illinois Basketball.

Source link

Illinois

Kasparas Jakucionis scores a season-best 23 points as Illinois tops No. 19 Arkansas

Published

9 hours ago

November 29, 2024

Press Room

Kasparas Jakucionis scores a season-best 23 points as Illinois tops No. 19 Arkansas

CBS Sports HQ

Live

KANSAS CITY (AP) — Freshman Kasparas Jakucionis scored a season-high 23 points, Tomislav Ivisic had 21 points and 10 rebounds and Illinois beat No. 19 Arkansas 90-77 on Thursday in the Thanksgiving Hoops Showcase.

Jakucionis hit two free throws to give Illinois a double-digit lead with 3:49 remaining in the game. Arkansas had a turnover and a missed jumper on its next two possessions and Jakucionis hit an open 3-pointer to make it 85-71 at 2:42.

Kylan Boswell added 18 points for Illinois (6-1). Head coach Brad Underwood broke a tie with J. Craig Ruby (1922-36) for fifth place in program history with 149 wins.

Adou Thiero went 12 of 21 from the line and scored 26 points for Arkansas (5-2). Zvonimir Ivisic had 13 points, six rebounds and two blocks.

Takeaways

Tomislav Ivisic won the battle against his twin brother, Zvonimir. Along with his double-double, Tomislav Ivisic made 6 of 9 3-pointers and blocked three shots. The 7-foot-1 center, playing his first college season, had 13 points and seven rebounds in the first half.

Key moment

Illinois stated the game on a 21-6 run and maintained at least a nine-point lead the rest of the way. Ben Humrichous made the Illini’s fifth 3-pointer with 12:36 left in the first half while Arkansas was 3 of 9 from the field.

Key stat

Illinois made 55% of its shots in the first half, including 9 of 16 from 3-point range, while Arkansas was 0 for 7 from long distance and shot 44% overall. The Illini finished 15 of 31 from distance. Arkansas shot 5 of 17 beyond the arc.