Despite the Illinois basketball team falling to Xavier in the final game of the Maui Invitational, I still think the lineup change was for the best.
Before Wednesday, Illinois was going with the lineup of Trent Frazier, Ayo Dosunmu, Aaron Jordan, Kipper Nichols and Giorgi Bezhanishvili. This was the lineup I wanted Illinois to start the season with, so I had no complaints. I quickly realized how bad Nichols was struggling, though. He has not had a good season so far.
In the two games prior to the loss to Xavier, Nichols had a hard time on the basketball floor at both ends. He had more fouls (8) than he did points, rebounds and assists combined (7). That is unacceptable, and a change needed to be made.
For the Xavier game, Brad Underwood made a change. He had Nichols coming off the bench and replaced him with freshman Alan Griffin. While a lineup change needed to be made, I wouldn’t have put in Griffin to replace Nichols. I think that hurts some of our size. The player I would have put in instead would be Tevian Jones. He has the ability to score the ball, and he stands at 6-foot-7. He would have been a perfect replacement.
Griffin really struggled in the starting role as well. He finished the night with one point, one rebound and one assist. But, he also had five turnovers. His production wasn’t there but I can’t blame him because he is only a freshman. Since we are trying to figure out the best combination still, I would like to see Jones start the next game to see what he can do.
Jones has actually been pretty productive in the short time we have seen him on the court. For the season, he is 6-for-13 from the field and 2-for-2 from the free throw line. He also had eight rebounds as well.
Nichols clearly is struggling and needs to come off the bench. Griffin was doing really well off the bench, so it is probably best for him to come off the bench. So, let’s try Jones. Let’s see what this top 100 recruit can do on the court. He needs to receive more minutes, and I would like to see him start.