Illinois Basketball: Grades from the Illini win over Rutgers

The Illinois basketball team welcomed the Rutgers Scarlett Knights to the State Farm Center for the first Big Ten conference game of the season.

The Illini were still without star point guard Andre Curbelo, due to an injury, on Friday night. That didn’t seem to matter once the game tipped off, as Illinois beat Rutgers 86-51 improving 6-2 on the season.

Here are the grades from the Illinois basketball win over Rutgers.

Offense Grade: A

The only reason why the offensive grade isn’t an A+ is the fact the first four minutes of the game were very sloppy with five turnovers during that span. After that, the offense went on a 15-2 run led by Alfonso Plummer and Jacob Grandison and they never looked back cruising to a 15 point win.

Plummer led the Illini offense with his fourth straight 20+ point performance scoring 24 points on 8-of-15 shooting from the field and 3-of-8 from behind the arc.

Grandison was also great coming off the bench in this game. He scored 16 points and knocked in 2-of-5 from the three-point arc.

Kofi Cockburn had his 31st career double-double scoring 13 points and bringing down 15 rebounds. The offense looks like a completely different unit from what we saw in Kansas City against Cincinnati when the Illini were blown out.

When Kofi gets doubled he takes his time and kicks the ball to the open man for a shot or hockey assist, which is something he hasn’t been comfortable with in the past. With all the open shots, the Illini shot 12-of-33 from the three-point range.

Defense Grade: A

Last game against Notre Dame, I might have been a little too generous with the grade I gave them. Not in this game. The Illini played outstanding defense led by sophomore Coleman Hawkins, who had the pleasure of guarding a very good player in Ron Harper Jr.

Hawkins held Harper to 1-of-9 from the field and only five points. He also tied for the team lead with Kofi with two blocks. Omar Payne brought a ton of energy off the bench bringing down seven rebounds and adding a block on fan-favorite Paul Mulcahy. This made the State Farm Center erupt.

The Illini also forced 14 turnovers, and just made the Scarlett Knights uncomfortable all night long.

Overall Grade: A

This was the most well-rounded game from the Illini this season. Illinois shot just under 50% from the field and held Rutgers to just 31% shooting on the defensive end. Ever since Brad Underwood has surrounded Kofi with shooters, the offense has run much smoother and has created a ton of open looks.

Illinois now has some confidence as they head into their second conference game of the season at the Carver-Hawkeye Arena against Iowa on Monday, December 6th.