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

4. Can Illinois tighten up the turnovers?

I like to think Illinois is a disciplined team that takes care of the basketball. That hasn’t been the case through one game this season.

Against Jackson State, the Illini were a little sloppy across the board. As a team, we had 19 turnovers and narrowly won the turnover battle 19-22. Nearly every player contributed to the turnover category for Illinois as well.

Coleman Hawkins led the way for the Orange and Blue with four turnovers. Alfonso Plummer and Omar Payne each had three turnovers apiece. Jacob Grandison, Da’Monte Williams, Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk, and RJ Melendez each had two tunovers.

It was a team effort in the turnover department. But I want to see if we can tighten up our game a little bit and reduce the turnovers against Arkansas State.

As of right now, and I know it is early in the season and every team hasn’t played yet, Illinois ranks No. 249 in the nation in turnovers. The 19 turnovers the Illini had in the first game makes them one of the worst teams in the country in the turnover department.

Now we can compare that to last season. Illinois only averaged 13 turnovers per game, which ranked No. 169 in the nation. Where would their current 19 turnovers per game rank last season? They would be 347 out of 347 teams in turnovers.

It is extremely early and we aren’t at full strength, but Illinois needs to tighten things up and not turn the ball over as much against the Red Wolves. That is something I will be keeping an eye on.