Illinois Basketball: 4 observations from the Illini loss to Marquette

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MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN – NOVEMBER 15: Darryl Morsell #32 of the Marquette Golden Eagles and Trent Frazier #1 of the Illinois Fighting Illini fight for a loose ball in the second half during a college basketball game at the Fiserv Forum on November 15, 2021 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) /

2. Reality check for the Illini

Monday night’s loss to Marquette was brutal as a fan. But I am not sure it is completely a bad thing for this program.

Listen, all losses are terrible and I never want to lose a game, but Illinois clearly needed a reality check. This program was coming off a tremendous run last season where they won the Big Ten Tournament and was the No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

That run was with three talented players in Ayo Dosunmu, Adam Miller, and Giorgi Bezhanishvili. Those three players aren’t on the team anymore. Last season, Andre Curbelo could run wild because some of his mistakes would be covered up by how talented the Illini team was that year.

This isn’t the case anymore, though. Curbelo is a talented player but he also needs to find a happy middle ground between insane tear your face off intensity and being too conservative. Once he finds that happy medium, then he will unlock his true potential.

I honestly believe Illinois felt sort of invincible heading into the Marquette game. Now that the Golden Eagles beat the Illini, we can go back to the drawing board and see what is wrong and what to fix.

While the loss was a bad thing as far as the record goes, in the long run, it might end up helping this program tremendously.

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