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Illinois Basketball: 5 takeaways from the Illini loss to Nebraska

By Rees Woodcock

LINCOLN, NE - JANUARY 15: Illinois head coach Brad Underwood reacts to action on the court in the game against Nebraska during the second half of a college basketball game Monday, January 15th at the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska. Nebraska defeated Illinois 64 to 63. (Photo by John Peterson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
LINCOLN, NE - JANUARY 15: Illinois head coach Brad Underwood reacts to action on the court in the game against Nebraska during the second half of a college basketball game Monday, January 15th at the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska. Nebraska defeated Illinois 64 to 63. (Photo by John Peterson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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CHAMPAIGN, IL – JANUARY 11: Kipper Nichols
CHAMPAIGN, IL – JANUARY 11: Kipper Nichols /

5. The bench needs to come through

Like previously mentioned, Brad Underwood did a great job shifting minutes from the bench to the starters on Monday night. This helped keep the game close and Illinois should have won.

But, when the bench does receive minutes, I want to see some production out of them. Illinois didn’t get that against Nebraska, though. The bench was not good again and this cost the Illini a victory.

The best bench player Illinois has right now is easily Greg Eboigbodin. He played 15 minutes on Monday night and finished with two points and six rebounds. He isn’t a big scoring threat but he can pull down a lot of rebounds every game. The rest of the bench was just awful, though.

Eboigbodin was 1-of-1 from the field but the rest of the bench – Kipper Nichols, Aaron Jordan and Mark Smith – were a combined 3-of-17 from the field. If you are counting at home, that is 17-percent shooting for three out of the four bench players who played on Monday night.

Jordan started the season off hot but has cooled down as of late. He needs to step up as one of the veterans on this team. Smith wasn’t touted as a great shooter coming in, but there were some shots last night he put up that were absolutely awful. He needs to be more of a driver than a shooter. Nichols hasn’t been good this season. I am curious why he receives so many minutes.

Next: 5 impact freshmen year one for the Illini

Illinois had a chance to win the game last night but the bench let them down. They only made four total shots. That is so bad and it needs to change moving forward.

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