Illinois Basketball: 5 takeaways from the Illini win over Indiana

CHAMPAIGN, IL - JANUARY 24: Illinois Fighting Illini Forward Leron Black (12) shoots a free throw during the Big Ten Conference college basketball game between the Indiana Hoosiers and the Illinois Fighting Illini on January 24, 2018, at the State Farm Center in Champaign, Illinois. (Photo by Michael Allio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

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CHAMPAIGN, IL – JANUARY 24: Te’Jon Lucas /

5. Brad Underwood went with experience

It is interesting to see the rotations Brad Underwood puts on the floor every night. He then makes substitutions throughout the game based on what he thinks is working. Last night, it was clearly an experience dominates type of game.

Despite the leading minute’s getter being Trent Frazier – a freshman – the Illini really didn’t play their other younger guys too much. Mark Smith only played four minutes but had two fouls in that time. He didn’t have a good game and needs to get the speed of the game down a little better.

Da’Monte Williams only saw seven minutes of action. He didn’t record any stats but was 0-of-2 from the field. I didn’t think he was playing bad but Underwood clearly saw that he shouldn’t be playing too many minutes on Wednesday night.

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Leron Black, Te’Jon Lucas and Kipper Nichols saw the most minutes out of the experienced players. Underwood really leaned on these guys to help carry the team with Frazier. It worked out too. I was happy to see the experienced guys play well in the minutes they received. The Illini had 27 points off the bench from the experienced players as well. They were huge for the program against Indiana.

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