2. This was a complete team effort
Kofi Cockburn was the leader for the Illini in the win over Minnesota on Saturday. There is no question about that. He is a massive mismatch for the Gophers.
But let’s not get things confused, this was a complete team effort by the Illinois basketball program. Let’s first look at the Illini starters.
Four of the five Illinois starters scored double-digit points and each player had at least 12 points. The starters also shot 28-of-48 from the field, which is one of their best shooting performances of the season.
Even the one starter who didn’t score in double-digits, Adam Miller, still contributed in various other ways. Miller was hustling the entire game and added 4 rebounds and 3 assists. I was happy with what we got from Miller.
Now onto the bench. Illinois’ bench performed very well, led by Giorgi Bezhanishvili. Giorgi finished the game with 9 points and 3 rebounds. He was a great option to go to when Kofi was too tired to continue dominating.
Andre Curbelo and Da’Monte Williams were also tremendous assets off the bench. Belo finished with 4 points, 2 rebounds and 4 assists. He was all over the court, and he only had 1 turnover in the game. I was impressed. Williams was also great with 3 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists.
Overall, this was a great team win. I needed to see this especially after struggling in the past two games against below-average programs.