Illinois Basketball: 5 reasons the Illini are a top 10 program

3. Illinois will become more efficient

Losing Ayo Dosunmu, Giorgi Bezhanishvili, and Adam Miller will hurt when it comes to production. But, on the same note, the Illini will be getting more efficient as a team in 2021-22.

While Ayo was a great player for the Illini, he also led the team in turnovers with 3.3 turnovers per game. A lot of the turnovers were a product of him having the ball so often, but there is another player I am looking at whose departure will make this program way more efficient.

I am looking at Miller. He is a good player, but he had a rough freshman campaign. Out of the eight players who received at least 10 minutes per game for the Illini, Miller had the worst shooting percentage. He was only hitting 39.1% of his shots. Out of the top five players who attempted the most three-point shots for Illinois, Miller had the worst shooting percentage. He only hit 34% of his three-point attempts.

In addition to the bad shooting by Miller last season, he wasn’t good from the free throw line either. He only managed to hit 68.4% of his shots from the charity stripe. So, Illinois is about to get more efficient from the field, most likely.

Illinois won’t get too much more efficient without Giorgi, though. He was bad at free throws, shooting just 62.9%. But Giorgi was pretty efficient in every other area.

Overall, I think the Illini will prove to be more efficient in 2021-22. Andre Curbelo, who was a turnover machine in his own right, is another year older and more experienced. He won’t be as loose with the ball. His shot should get better as well.

I also believe the shots that Miller was taking as a freshman will go to players like Alfonso Plummer and Austin Hutcherson. Both players have proven at their other stops that they can hit shots at a high rate. The efficiency is about to rise for the Orange and Blue.