Illinois Basketball: Takeaways from the Illini loss to UNLV

2. The Illini are a deep team

This seems to be an obvious one that many people don’t need explained but it really was true specifically against UNLV. Illinois might have the deepest team I have seen in over a decade.

Brad Underwood has the luxury of going nine or ten deep on this Illinois roster. I couldn’t even fathom this just a year ago but now the Illini are trotting out their No. 10 player and he is a viable option on the floor.

The bench on Saturday night consisted of Kipper Nichols, Greg Eboigbodin, Aaron Jordan, Da’Monte Williams and Trent Frazier. This is a lineup I would put against the Illinois starters, and I wouldn’t be against them. I love the Illini bench right now.

Frazier is a great point guard with the ability to do everything on the basketball court. In the game against UNLV, he dropped 16 points and had four steals. There will be more on him in the next slide. Williams is another player that has a bright future. He is another all-around player who ended up with 8 points, 2 assists and 2 rebounds against the Runnin’ Rebels.

Jordan and Nichols are two other players who make this Illini team dangerous. Nichols is a walking double-double, and Jordan can shoot from anywhere on the court. Both of these players are knocking on the door of the starting rotation.

The final bench player that Underwood seems to be developing is Eboigbodin. He is going to be needed for the future and maybe even this season. He saw 10 minutes of valuable action against UNLV and scored two points and pulled down three rebounds. His development is key for the Illini.

Illinois’ bench is extremely deep. This is great news for the future and I have full faith that Underwood will continue developing the players into All-Big Ten caliber talent.