The Illinois basketball program looks to take down the Indiana Hoosiers, once again, on Tuesday night.
Illinois won the first matchup between the two teams back in December. While Indiana looks to exact revenge, the Illini are looking to continue their push to be one of the top seeds in the NCAA tournament. What will Illinois have to do to get the victory against the Hoosiers, though?
Here are four keys for the Illini to beat the Indiana Hoosiers again.
1. Keep Trayce Jackson-Davis in check
Indiana actually has a pretty good team this season. While their record doesn’t show it at 9-7 overall, three of their losses have come in overtime, and they have only had two losses by double-digits.
One of the big reasons, literally and figuratively, for Indiana’s solid play is thanks to Trayce Jackson-Davis. He is a superstar playing for the Hoosiers, averaging 20.1 points and 8.7 rebounds while shooting 53.6-percent from the field.
Illinois has already gone up against Jackson-Davis this season. It was a close battle, but the Illini emerged victorious 69-60. We were able to come out of that game with a big win because of the ability to hold Jackson-Davis to his lowest point total of the season.
Jackson-Davis only managed to put up 11 points on 3-of-13 shooting from the field. This is currently his lowest point total and shooting percentage this season. It was a dominating performance by the Illini against a future NBA talent.
We need to take the blueprint from that first game and implement it on Tuesday night. Jackson-Davis’ game is in and around the paint. This is a great matchup for the Illini and a bad one for the Hoosiers. Illinois has the ability to unleash a combination of a huge big man in Kofi Cockburn and an athletic lanky kid in Giorgi Bezhanishvili.
If we want to take down the Hoosiers one more time, we are going to need to shut down Jackson-Davis. We have the personnel to pull this off. Let’s see if we can hold him to another season-low.
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