Illinois Basketball: 4 observations from the Illini win over Iowa

2. Illinois contained Luka Garza

When someone says a team contained a player, that usually means that players didn’t hit double-digit points and wasn’t effective for the other team.

Well, a part of that is true for the Illini against Iowa big man Luke Garza. Garza went for 19 points and 4 rebounds on the night while shooting 9-of-18 from the field and 1-of-3 from three-point range. Those numbers look good for an ordinary player, but he isn’t an ordinary player.

Garza is averaging 26.44 points per game this season, which leads the enter college basketball world. That man was held to only 19 points, which is seven points below his season average. He is also averaging 8.62 rebounds per game, which ranks No. 59 in the nation. Garza only had four rebounds on the night, which is half of his season average.

Illinois’ defensive game plan against Garza was impressive. The big man shot 50-percent on the night, which is 10-percent lower than his season average of 60.2-percent. Garza only shot 33-percent from three-point range, which is 12-percent lower than his season average of 45.5-percent.

I have to give a massive amount of credit to the Illini on executing what they wanted to do against Iowa. Kofi Cockburn was a beast in the paint. He out-physicaled Garza all night long. When Garza would get the ball in the paint, Illinois was eyeing him and would have a player collapse on the Iowa big man.

Clearly, Illinois had almost two weeks to prepare for Garza. It showed on Friday night as the Illini took down the No. 7 ranked team in the nation thanks to their defense on the future NBA center.