Illinois Basketball: 5 observations from the Illini loss to Florida Atlantic

2. The bench didn’t help the starters

It seems like this is a theme with these articles, but the Illinois bench once again failed to help the starters on Saturday against Florida Atlantic. Watching some of these players try to put the ball in the hoop is painful.

The leading scorer for the Illini bench was Andres Feliz. He actually had an okay game going 4-of-10 from the field for nine points. He also had four assists, three steals and two rebounds as well. But, Feliz was 0-of-3 from deep.

Da’Monte Williams was the only other bench player to score for the Illini. He ended the night going 0-of-4 from the field and 1-of-2 from the free throw line for one point. He also had four assists. His ability, or lack thereof, to shoot the ball is alarming. He had a wide-open three-pointer at the end of the game to win and failed to convert. He is an offensive liability at this point.

Alan Griffin came off the bench as well but failed to score. He was 0-of-3 from the field and 0-of-2 from three-point land for zero points. He did manage to pull down six rebounds, but Illinois needs points as well and he couldn’t provide that.

The last bench player was Samba Kane. He didn’t play much only going 0-of-1 for zero points and one block. He needs to play more because of what he brings to the game. I will get into that later, though.

Most of the Illinois starters did well, but they need their bench to do something too. Having the bench score less than 11 points is unacceptable. I really miss Tevian Jones right now. He would help this bench tremendously.