Illinois Basketball: Minutes breakdown for Illini forwards

The Illinois basketball team didn’t have great depth for their No. 4 and No. 5 spots in the starting rotation.

When head coach Brad Underwood took over the program, the Illini had Leron Black, Kipper Nichols and Michael Finke to man two spots on the team. That doesn’t leave room for much error, like an injury. If Illinois was to head into the 2017 season with just those three the team would have been fine talent wise, but if anything happened to take either of those three of the court, the Illini would then struggle.

So, one of Underwood’s goals was to secure a commitment from a big man. He ended up accomplishing that goal and actually snagged two solid players named Greg Eboigbodin and Matic Vesel.

Eboigbodin and Vesel are going to do wonders for this team, not because they are all-world players, but because they bring depth and stability to the lineup. Illinois now has five players to man two spots instead of the previous three players.

In addition to depth, Eboigbodin and Vesel also bring a blank canvas as well. These two players can be molded into talented, contributing, players who will help the program get wins on the basketball court. Figuring out how many minutes each player will receive is the tough part, though.

Here is a breakdown of minutes for the Illini forwards.