Illinois Basketball: 4 observations from the Illini loss to Maryland

3. Too many in the o-fer club

The o-fer club is not a place you want to be. This means you have failed to make a basket and, effectively, didn’t help the team win the game.

Illinois had a lot of players in the o-fer club on Sunday night. Let’s start with our starters. Two seniors who need to be leading this team failed to do so against Maryland.

Da’Monte Williams, a player who is now shooting 63.6-percent from three-point land and ranked No. 7 in the nation in this category, failed to score a single point against Maryland. He went 0-of-3 from the field and 0-of-1 from the three-point arc. Despite his 9 rebounds and 5 assists, Williams still couldn’t put the ball in the hoop. He also had two missed free throws down the stretch that were crucial.

Following Williams was fellow senior guard, Trent Frazier. Hampered by injury for some of the game, Frazier still managed to play 23 minutes but failed to score a point. He was 0-of-2 from the field and 0-of-1 from three-point land. He did have 5 assists and 2 steals on the night, but we needed points and that just wasn’t happening.

Illinois’ bench didn’t play well either. Giorgi Bezhanishvili and Jacob Grandison, both experienced players, combined for 13 minutes and went 0-of-4 from the field and 0-of-1 from three-point territory. They had zero points on the night.

So, the Illini had four players who failed to score a point for this program. All we needed was for each of these players to have a single point, just one, and this is a 67-66 win for Illinois. That didn’t happen, and now we have more questions than answers.