Illinois Basketball: 4 observations from Illini win over Minnesota
By Collin Allen
4. The Illini bounced back defensively
After seemingly not being able to stop Missouri on Saturday night, as they allowed the Tigers to score 81 points, the Orange and Blue had the defensive turnaround they needed against Minnesota.
Points were not easy to come by for the Gophers, as the Illini were playing lockdown defense and face-guarding their opponents all night long.
Illinois would force Minnesota, who averaged 84.2 points per game going into the game, to only 65 points on the night. The Illini also held the Gophers to a very poor shooting night, as they went 19-of-69 from the field, which comes out to 27.5-percent. Minnesota was bad from beyond the three-point arc as well. They only shot 7-of-28 from distance, which is 25-percent.
The Orange and Blue additionally dominated the rebounding battle, as they hauled in 53 total boards compared to Minnesota’s 35 rebounds.
Trent Frazier, who held Minnesota star guard Marcus Carr to only 3-of-13 shooting, even tweeted about the Illini’s defense shortly after the win.
https://twitter.com/_trentfrazier1/status/1339041927593865217?s=21
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The Illini will look to stay undefeated and improve to 2-0 in Big Ten play as they travel to Piscataway on Sunday to take on the Rutgers Scarlets Knights at 1:00 EST. This one should be much more competitive, as Rutgers has not lost any of their four games and are ranked No. 19 in the country.