Illinois Basketball: 3 ways the Illini can beat Penn State
3. Reduce the length of droughts
The Illinois basketball team doesn’t have nearly the best offense in the country. I think we can all agree this team rides the struggle bus at times.
Illinois is averaging 71.1 points per game on the offensive end of the court, which ranks No. 149 in the nation. That is about average among every team in college basketball. But it is the long drought that kills this team during games.
Let’s just go back to our most recent game. Illinois was competing with a tough Rutgers team on the road. We were only down 43-42 with just over 15 minutes remaining in the game. It was still anyone’s to win. But that is when the dreaded drought hit.
From the 15:19 mark in the second half all the way to the 8:17 mark in the second half, the Illini failed to score a single point. That is a seven-minute drought for those keeping track at home. During this time, Rutgers scored 11 points and all but ended the game.
What happened during that stretch of time where we couldn’t score? No one played well. Tevian Jones was 0-of-2 with one rebound and a foul. Trent Frazier was 0-of-2. Kofi Cockburn was 0-of-1 with a steal and two turnovers. Alan Griffin, Giorgi Bezhanishvili and Andres Feliz were all 0-of-1 too.
How can we correct this? Half of the shots we took during this stretch were three-pointers. We aren’t a three-point shooting team. When we go away from our strength of getting the ball in the paint, then that is when things tend to go off the rails.
Next. 3 observations from the Illini loss to Rutgers. dark
As long as we continue to drive to the basket or get the ball down to Kofi, then I think we should be fine. Feliz is a bulldog and can get to the hoop. Griffin has the ability to score around the rim too. Let’s shoot the ball closer to the hoop. This should help us avoid the dreaded drought.