Illinois Basketball: 5 takeaways from the Illini loss to the Iowa Hawkeyes

1. I was disappointed with how the Illini started

The Illinois basketball team had some momentum heading into the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. They just came off a sweep of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in which the Illini won both games by a combined 44 points.

Illinois also had won two of their last four games as well. One of those contests featured a Nebraska team looking to make the postseason. They also gave Purdue all they could handle at the State Farm Center. These positive vibes should have transferred over into a victory on Wednesday night but sadly, they didn’t.

I think Illinois should have won this game despite people saying it was a bad matchup, Iowa is a better team, etc. The Illini aren’t a bad team but they started this game against the Hawkeyes off in the worst way possible.

Trent Frazier made a shot at the 17:02 mark in the first half to bring the score to 5-4 in favor of the Illini. The next time Illinois would score was the 12:03 mark and by that time the three-pointer by Aaron Jordan only brought the score back to 17-8 with Iowa leading. Iowa was able to increase their lead to 12 points at one time.

Starting the game off like this is awfully disappointing. Iowa came out punching and Illinois didn’t expect it. The Illini eventually got off the ropes but they were playing from behind the entire night from that point. The start of the game set the tone for the rest of the contest. It was a very disappointing start which led to a sad ending.