Illinois Basketball: 4 observations from the Illini win over Missouri

2. This team can go deep in the NCAA tournament

Just about a month ago, I was thinking Illinois was going to struggle this season. They lost Andre Curbelo, a potential first-team All-American, to injury, and things just weren’t looking good.

But the Illini started to gel over the past 30-ish days. Players started to get more comfortable in their roles and developing. Illinois is not the same team they were just a month ago.

As I sit here right now, I believe this is the best offense Illinois has had since the 2004-05 squad. We have a great mix of shooting, hustle, and a big man. There isn’t just a solo shooter either. Illinois has plenty of weapons in the arsenal.

We can get the ball down to Kofi in the paint. He now has the ability to either get to the rim or dish it out and get the ball moving. When the ball does go out on the perimeter, there are multiple options to hit a shot.

Alfonso Plummer is shooting a ridiculous 7.8 three-pointers per game, and usually when the quantity increases the quality decreases. That isn’t the case here, though. Plummer is hitting 44.7% of his three-point shots this season. I’ve never seen an Illinois player take and hit that many three-pointers.

But even if Plummer is closed out on, he can keep the ball rotating to Jacob Grandison, who is hitting 51% of his three-pointers. If he is covered, the ball then can go to Trent Frazier, who is hitting 39.1% of his three-pointers.

The perimeter play is some of the best I have ever seen. The paint play is something of the best I have ever seen. I would argue this is a better team than what we saw on the court last season. Illinois could, legit, make a run in the NCAA tournament this year.