Illinois Basketball: 3 ways the Illini can take down Iowa
3. Perimeter defense is key
Illinois is one of the better teams in the nation when it comes to defense. We are currently giving up 64.9 points per game, which ranks No. 48 in the country. That is a good number. But this wasn’t the case in the last Iowa game.
If Illinois would have given up 64.9 points against the Hawkeyes back in February, we would have won the game because we scored 65 points. That wasn’t the case, though. We ended surrendering 72 points in a loss to Iowa.
Luke Garza is Iowa’s best player. He is going to get his points and rebounds down in the paint. But one thing Illinois struggled with was perimeter defense. The Orange and Blue were so bad at stopping Iowa from making three-pointers.
Garza would step out and make shots from distance. That is a little harder to cover considering he is a big man who is fairly quick, so Kofi Cockburn isn’t going to step out and guard him tight. The thing we can’t let happen is the other Iowa players to hit shots from deep.
Connor McCaffrey had a big game against Illinois back in February. He was 3-of-5 from three-point range. CJ Fredrick was 2-of-4 from deep and Joe Wieskamp was 1-of-3 from distance. These three guards killed the Illini because not only couldn’t they stop Garza down low, but every player was hitting from deep.
Next. 3 observations from the Illini loss to Ohio State. dark
Illinois’ perimeter defense is going to need to be better. I think it will be better too considering the Illini starting lineup consisted of Giorgi Bezhanishvili back in February. We now have Andres Feliz in the starting lineup. This should make it harder for the Iowa guards to work. Let’s play tighter defense on the outside, and this should help us win the game.