Illinois Basketball: 4 big questions for the Illini vs Arkansas State

3. Is Jacob Grandison a real scoring threat?

I have mentioned this multiple times over the past week. Illinois needs to find the scoring source to make up for the lost production by players like Ayo Dosunmu, Adam Miller, and Giorgi Bezhanishvili.

That is a lot of production to account for, mainly in the scoring department. There were a couple of options who could make up for the points lost from those three players departing. Honestly, though, Jacob Grandison was not one of the players I thought of as making up for the lost points.

In my eyes, Grandison was a good player who could do a little bit of everything on the court. If we needed more rebounds, assists, or a few more points, then Grandison would be there. But I didn’t think he was someone who could reach back and put up a 20-point night.

Against Jackson State, Grandison did just that. He finished the game with 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field and 2-of-4 from three-point range. He also got to the charity stripe and made all four attempts.

I haven’t even mentioned, Grandison did all of this in just 23 minutes of action. That is extremely efficient basketball.

The sample size is extremely small as far as Grandison being a prime scorer is concerned. I want to see if he can keep up the high-level scoring ability against Arkansas State on Friday night. If Grandison can put up another great game from the field, then Illinois has another reliable scoring option moving forward.