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.

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.