Illinois basketball avoided the dreaded three-game losing streak on Tuesday night against Kansas State.
The Illini needed some positive vibes, and they got that with a big 72-64 win over their former head coach, Bruce Weber. I also wanted to mention that this was a victory over former Illini player Mark Smith as well, so that is a bonus.
Illinois looked solid for much of the night. Kansas State did make a few threats, but some hot shooting from outside and the presence of Kofi Cockburn was just too much for the Wildcats.
Here are four observations from the Illinois basketball win over Kansas State.
1. That win was a must
It has been a long time since I have felt this way, but Tuesday night was a must-win for the Illinois basketball program.
I know that in the observations article from the Cincinnati loss I mentioned that there were still 26 games left to play, but if we dropped the game against Kansas State on Tuesday, I think it would have been mass panic within the Illini fanbase.
A 3-2 record looks a lot better than a 2-3 record. Illinois also notched a victory over another power-five conference program in the Wildcats. That is a good win regardless of what the Kansas State record is going to be at the end of the season.
This victory for the Illini is what I needed to see. I needed to see Illinois come out of the gates strong and finish strong. That is something that hasn’t happened in the past few games.
I needed to see Kofi Cockburn look like he was in game shape. He did that on Tuesday night. I needed to see a legit scoring threat somewhere outside of the paint. Alfonso Plummer brought that scoring threat. I needed to see the bench come alive a little bit. Plummer, Austin Hutcherson, and Jacob Grandison were sparkplugs off the bench.
This is the game I needed to see out of Illinois. The season is young, but positive momentum was a must.