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Illinois Basketball: Three Focuses for the Illini Against Purdue

By Rees Woodcock

Nov 11, 2016; Champaign, IL, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini guard Malcolm Hill (21) and center Mike Thorne Jr. (33) and guard Tracy Abrams (13) and guard Aaron Jordan (23) and guard Jalen Coleman-Lands (5) await the end of a timeout during the first half against the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks at State Farm Center. Mandatory Credit: Mike Granse-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 11, 2016; Champaign, IL, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini guard Malcolm Hill (21) and center Mike Thorne Jr. (33) and guard Tracy Abrams (13) and guard Aaron Jordan (23) and guard Jalen Coleman-Lands (5) await the end of a timeout during the first half against the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks at State Farm Center. Mandatory Credit: Mike Granse-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Illinois basketball team takes on the No. 17 Purdue Boilermakers tonight on the Big Ten Network.

This is a game not many fans are expecting the Illini to win, but a victory would go a long way in making a postseason push.

Illinois comes into this game tonight 12-6 overall and 2-3 in Big Ten play.  They just had a heartbreaking loss to Maryland in which they were playing well but then hit a wall and stopped scoring.

This leads me into my three focuses for the Illini against Purdue.

The first focus is to eliminate the scoring drought.  I know, this sounds easy enough, right?  Just put the ball in the hoop and scoring droughts won’t happen.

Illinois Fighting Illini
Illinois Fighting Illini /

Illinois Fighting Illini

But, against Maryland, the Illini were constantly trying to shoot the three-point shot.  The shots weren’t going down and this caused the drought.

What many fans were probably screaming at the television was for Illinois to get the ball inside to our big men.  I know I was screaming that at the television I was watching the game on at Applebee’s.

A scoring drought can’t happen against Purdue and if it does start to happen then Illinois needs to rely on their big men to break it.

Maverick Morgan has nice touch within 10-feet of the hoop.  He needs to be utilized more in the offense.  I also think Leron Black needs to get away from the three-point line and get into the paint as well.

Focus No. 2 is that the point guard play needs to improve.  I can make an argument that Te’Jon Lucas has played the best at the point guard position over the last few games.

But, even Lucas hasn’t lit the world on fire.  He is a solid backup point guard right now, but Tracy Abrams needs to start leading a little more.

We can’t have Abrams scoring zero points with only two assists and two rebounds.  If this happens against the Boilermakers then it is game over for the Illini.

The final focus is for Illinois to stay out of foul trouble.  I can just see it now, Black and Morgan being careless and getting into foul trouble early on against Caleb Swanigan.

This would be the nail in the coffin for the Illini, so it can’t happen.

Both Black and Morgan are going to be crucial in this game and if they aren’t on the floor Purdue will absolutely tear the Illini up in the paint.

Next: 3 Observations From the Maryland Loss 2.0

This game is gravy for the Illini tonight.  I don’t have them winning on the road map to the postseason, but if they can pull it out, I think we might end up dancing come March.

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