Illinois Basketball: Why floor spacing will be important for the Illini

Over the past few weeks, the Illinois basketball coaching staff has been trying to recruit players who are able to space the floor.

It is a known fact that the Illini struggled last year when it came to shooting three-pointers. the main reason for this is that they didn’t have a floor spacer at the small forward or power forward position.

So, Illinois has been trying to fix this problem by recruiting shooters. I’m here to tell you why recruiting players who can shoot is important.

As most Illini fans know, Alan Griffin transferred to Syracuse back in March. He was Illinois’ best shooter this past season knocking down 41-percent of his shots from three-point range. When he transferred out, it was a big blow to the floor spacing. On top of Griffin transferring, the Illini are shot on players who can actually shoot from three-point range.

One of those players I’m talking bout is Giorgi Bezhanishvili. Giorgi shot 30-percent from the three-point range. He was very ineffective as teams usually left him open at the three-point arc.

Da’Monte Williams is also one of those players. Williams shot 28-percent from three-point range as a junior. Most of the season, he refused to shoot but started to hit more deep shots toward the end of the campaign. Not to mention, Illinois ended last season ranked No. 311 in the nation in three-point percentage.

Illinois has tried to address the lack of three-point shooting by recruiting players like Jose Perez and Ray Salnave. The Illini also have Austin Hutcherson, Jacob Grandison, Andre Curbelo, Adam Miller and Coleman Hawkins that are able to play next year. This should help the team tremendously.