Illinois Basketball: 3 ways the Illini can beat the Purdue Boilermakers

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CHAMPAIGN, IL – JANUARY 11: Illinois guard Ayo Dosunmu (11) during a college basketball game between the Rutgers Scarlet Knights and Illinois Fighting Illini on January 11, 2020 at the State Farm Center in Champaign, Ill (Photo by James Black/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

This has been the best start for the Illinois basketball team during the Brad Underwood era.

The Illini are sitting at 13-5 overall and 5-2 in the Big Ten. We haven’t seen this type of success from the Orange and Blue in a long time.

This Illinois team is hot right now as they’re riding a five-game winning streak. They are clicking on both offense and defense, and this has enabled the Illini to hold onto the No. 2 spot in the Big Ten standings.

Like every team, Illinois struggles, during parts of the game, to execute on both sides of the ball, but they play good enough to win

This Illinois team is playing the best basketball that the fans have seen in a while as they are ranked No. 24 in the nation. That ranking should look better as of 11 AM central time on Monday. Illinois can’t let up Tuesday against Purdue, though.

Illinois has already beat the Boilermakers back on January, 5, 63-37. Purdue struggled shooting going 3-of-17 from three-point range and 15-of-60 from the field. Not a single player for the Boilermakers scored in double figures.

This type of performance probably won’t happen again, though. Purdue followed their ugly Illinois performance up with a victory over Michigan State a week later by almost 30 points.

Despite dismantling Purdue less than a month ago, Illinois will still have to play well against them on Tuesday. We are hot right now and can’t let the foot off the gas.

Here are three ways the Illini can beat Purdue.

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