Illinois Basketball: Take Aways From the Illini’s Win Against UIS

After a painfully slow start in its exhibition opener on Sunday against the University of Illinois at Springfield (UIS), Illinois basketball found their stride late in the first half and never looked back.

Everyone expected that Illinois would win its exhibition game against a Division II school – that isn’t the story.  Rather, the story of this game is that all four of the Illini’s top performers were newcomers.

In what makes this a somewhat odd story, these newcomers weren’t all freshmen.  Rather they were a mix of freshmen and fifth year senior transfers.

True freshmen Jalen Coleman-Lands (JCL) and Aaron Jordan,combined with fifth year graduate transfers Mike Thorne Jr. and Khalid Lewis, to help the Illini dominate UIS.  These four equitably distributed the scoring amongst themselves, dumping in 65 of the Illini’s 104 points.

JCL was outstanding, and demonstrated what an immediate impact this four-star recruit will make this year.  He scored 20 points on 60% shooting.  Fifteen of those points came from behind the arc, where he was five for nine, hitting three of those in the first half to fuel an Illini run.  All of this came in 24 minutes of playing time.

Yes, in some ways this kind of performance is expected of JCL.  He is Groce’s best recruit to date and was a borderline five-star recruit.  It was nice to see him live up to the hype.  His performance was made all the more impressive by the fact that JCL is coming off a stress fracture in his foot that he suffered in July.  He hasn’t played in any of the Illini’s scrimmages which included a four game swing through Europe in August, intra-squad play, and a private scrimmage last week at Xavier.  Talk about hitting the ground running.

Jordan also performed exceptionally well. He scored 16 points on five for eight shooting in 20 minutes of play.  The 6’5 small forward played strong at the rim too, a real strength of his that will continue to develop.  He had seven rebounds, six being on the defensive end of the court.  With the “rebounding machine” Leron Black likely still out for the next three or four weeks, it was great to see this freshman step up on that front.

Big Mike Thorne Jr. has been a revelation in scrimmage play, and Sunday was no exception.  He started slow and got into early foul trouble.  However, he was able to get things under control.  While he only played 15 minutes, he still scored 16 points on five of eight shooting.  He also swept up a game high nine rebounds.  Key to success for the Illini this year will be getting 25 to 30 minutes from Thorne routinely, which will net him multiple double doubles.  And once Black returns, he and Thorne should dominate on the boards in many games.

Lewis, the fifth year graduate transfer from La Salle was very good at the point guard position.  He hit five for six field goals, scoring 13 points including three treys.  He also had four assists.

I see an early battle brewing for the starting point guard position between Lewis and Jaylon Tate.

Tate started at the point and had six baskets, including one three pointer, and four assists.  This should be an interesting first few games to see how these two compete with each other for the starting spot.  First round goes to Lewis.

Despite the blow out, the Illini still have a few things to work on.

First, they got off to a horrible start, allowing UIS to tie the game and stay within striking distance for the bulk of the first half.  The Illini will face much better talent this season, starting Friday night against North Florida, and this kind of slow start can spell doom against a better team.  I am not too worried about that being a general problem this year, but I am very worried about something else.

Last year the Illini were the best free throw shooting team in the country.  The only problem was they couldn’t get to the line enough to make that matter.  This year, they may get to the line more, but that might not be such a good thing.

The Illini only shot 61% from the line on Sunday.  That is a pattern that simply cannot hold if the Illini want to dance in March.

Finally, the Illini need to keep improving on defense.  I have confidence that Coach Groce will get them in shape, but UIS – with all due respect – should not have scored more than 50 points.

Let’s conclude by stating the obvious.  This was an exhibition game, and as such it almost literally doesn’t matter.  However, it does matter starting this Friday.

If Illinois can play like they did for the last two thirds of the game against UIS, they’ll be in great shape to kick off regular season play with a win against a very good North Florida team.  Let’s see what Groce does to mix things up early in the game on Friday if the Illini start cold again, and let’s hope they spend some time at the charity stripe this week.