Illinois Basketball: 4 observations from the win against DePaul

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INDIANAPOLIS, IN – MARCH 17: Head coach Brad Underwood of the Oklahoma State Cowboys argues a call against the Michigan Wolverines during the first round of the 2017 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on March 17, 2017 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

The Illinois basketball team moved to 3-0 on Friday night after beating the DePaul Blue Demons 82-73.

There were a lot of things that impressed me about this win and there were only a few issues I had with the team. This was the best win so far in this very young Illini season.

With the current Illinois coaching staff, I feel more confident that the Illini will come away with wins in these tight games. With the previous two staffs, that was not the case.

In fact, I always felt like we needed to hold on and hopefully the opposing team wouldn’t make a shot that would win them the game. It seemed like, more often than not, Illinois would drop games like these and then the fans would have to come up with some unrealistic rationalization of why we just dropped that game.

Those days are over, though. Are we going to lose a few games along the way that we probably shouldn’t? Sure, but every team does and we are extremely young so it is expected. But, I am impressed with this team’s transformation so far. The veterans are stepping up and the young players are wowing people.

Here are 4 observations from the win against DePaul.

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