Illinois basketball is 2-0 this season with a tough game against Marquette merely hours away.
The Illini took care of business against Arkansas State on Friday in a 92-53 drubbing, but there were some issues that I had with how we executed in that victory. The first two games were cakewalks, but Marquette is one of the big boys.
Here are four big questions for the Illinois basketball team vs Marquette.
1. Could free throw shooting bite us?
Through two games this season, it is hard to say Illinois has done too many things wrong. There are a few issues that I would like to fix, though. One of those issues is at the free throw line.
Illinois has been pretty bad from the charity stripe this season, and they are coming off their worst game yet. The Illini only managed to hit 23-of-38 from the free throw line against Arkansas State, which comes out to 60.5%.
This bad free throw shooting has been a trend this season for the Illini. I know it is just through two games, but Illinois is hitting their free throws at a clip of 62.7% for the season. That is bad enough to rank No. 277 out of 349 teams that play college basketball at the DI level.
The Illini could get away with bad free throw shooting against teams like Arkansas State and Jackson State, but will their poor performance from the charity stripe end up biting them in the butt? That is something I will keep an eye on Monday night against the Golden Eagles.