Illinois Basketball: Grades from the Illini win over Minnesota

The Illinois Basketball team traveled to Williams Arena in Minneapolis, Minnesota to take on the Gophers in their third conference game of the season.

Illinois hadn’t played a game in two weeks after they had a Covid-19 breakout throughout the program that included at least 10 positive tests. That didn’t seem to affect the Illini too bad considering they blew Minnesota off their home court 76-53 to improve to 10-3 overall and 3-0 in Big Ten play.

Here are some grades from the Illinois basketball win over Minnesota.

Offense Grade: A-

The offense was once again humming like it has been for most of the season, starting with the man in the middle Kofi Cockburn.

Minnesota had no answer for Cockburn as he imposed his size early and often scoring 29 points on 10-of-19 shooting from the field. He also added 10 total rebounds, three of which were offensive, for his eighth double-double of the season.

The Illini only had two other players who were in double figures in this game and that was Jacob Grandison and Alfonso Plummer. Grandison scored 11 points on an efficient 4-of-5 from the field and hit both of his three-pointers. He has now improved his three-point percentage to a whopping 51% on the season.

Plummer cooled off some missing all three of his three-pointers he shot and going 3-of-8 from the field for 10 points. Plummer had scored at least 19 points in each of his last eight games before Tuesday night’s game. The Illini really didn’t need a secondary scoring option with how dominant Cockburn was on the court.

Defense Grade: A

The Illini defense played great all night long holding Minnesota to 35% from the field for the game, which is a massive drop from the 46% they are shooting from the field this season. Minnesota also shot 20%, 3-of-15, from the three-point arc, which is well below their season average of 36%.

Illinois only forced seven turnovers, but Cockburn was a big-time presence in the paint blocking a season-high four shots. Omar Payne made his presence felt off the bench as well recording two blocks himself. The Illini also dominated the defensive rebounding battle 39-20.

Overall Grade: A

Illinois was still without star sophomore guard Andre Curbelo for the eighth straight game. But it was good news to hear that Curbelo took part in pre-game drills, so it sounds like he is close to returning.

This was a solid game by the Illini on both ends of the court against Minnesota on Tuesday night. They showed that they can win games without hitting a bunch of three-pointers, as they had in previous games. Cockburn is just a matchup nightmare for just about every team in college basketball as well.

The Illini have a quick turnaround as they welcome Maryland to the State Farm Center on Thursday night at 6 p.m. on ESPN 2. Illinois hopes to improve to 11-3 on the season and 4-0 in the conference on the night that they retire former All-American guard Ayo Dosunmu’s jersey.