Illinois Basketball: Areas to work on for the Illini this week

This has been one of the most interesting Illinois basketball teams in recent memory.

I don’t mean interesting in a good or bad way. I just mean that this team in interesting because of the dynamic on the basketball court, the type of players on the team and the evolving roles of each new player that has come to Champaign.

Yes, it stinks being 3-7 overall and 0-2 in the Big Ten. The odds of Illinois making the NCAA tournament are not very good at the moment. I believe the Illini need to win 16 more games to make the postseason. That means they would need to go 16-5 down the stretch and that is highly unlikely. But, I have seen weirder things happen.

After a chaotic first 10 games of the season, Illinois finally has a chance to settle down and take a look at what needs to improve moving forward. They get a chance to actually practice instead of playing a game every few days. What do the Illini need to work on this week?

There are a few things that come to mind, but the first thing I want Illinois to work on is getting Samba Kane more involved with the first team. When this kid sees the floor, he doesn’t disappoint. That last game against UNLV was special. He reminded me a lot of a more coordinated Nnanna Egwu. Illinois hasn’t been able to rely on Giorgi Bezhanishvili to stay out of foul trouble, so having someone like Kane to share the minutes would be huge for this team.

I want Illinois to work on some of the chemistry issues they have this week too. The Illini finally have time to practice together after seeing what they have on the court. This week will be huge for chemistry moving forward. Getting to know your teammate’s tendencies is important. This week should be about building that cohesiveness on the basketball court.

One of the other big things to work on, and the final thing I will mention here, is playing defense without fouling. There is an art to playing defense well without getting into foul trouble. The Illini defensive intensity is there, but they get too aggressive at times and this causes fouls. Fouling has been one of the big reasons Illinois has dropped a few games this season. Learning how to guard your man without hacking him is going to be important moving forward.

The Illini have some time off and it is needed. They can take a look at the issues on hand and continue building each of these players into big-time Big Ten talents. I think this week of practice will help greatly with the rest of the season.