Illinois Basketball: Grades from the Illini win over Maryland

The Illinois Basketball team welcomed Maryland to the State Farm Center on Thursday night for Ayo Dosunmu night, as the Illini retired his Jersey.

Heading into this game, the Illini had lost four straight contests against Maryland. That streak would come to an end after Illinois defeated the Terrapins, 76-64. The Orange and Blue improved to 11-3 overall and remain undefeated in the conference at 4-0.

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

Offense Grade: B

This is the worst offensive grade that I have given the Illini in some time, but there was one thing in particular that stuck out to me. The offense going on a six-minute stretch in which they didn’t make a shot from the field.

We all caught a glimpse of what life after Kofi Cockburn looked like, as he was on the bench with two fouls. The offense just wasn’t humming, and the Illini just weren’t hitting open shots as they saw a 12-point lead dissolve to being down by four at halftime.

The second half was a totally different story with Kofi staying out of foul trouble. He had seven points and three rebounds in the first half. In the second half, he had 16 points and 15 rebounds. Just an awesome performance from King Kofi.

The Illini came into this game as the10th best three-point shooting team in the country at 40% from the field. Those shots were not falling in this one, as the Illini were just 8-of-30 from the three-point arc.

Trent Friazer caught fire from three-point range in the second half where he hit four of them. Two of the three-pointers came on back-to-back possessions to take the lead in the second half, and that was where the momentum of the game turned.

Defense Grade: A

Illinois’ defense has really started to come together during the last few games. Maryland has a lot of talent on the offensive side of the court between Eric Ayala and Donta Smith, but the Illini defense, led by fifth-year seniors Trent Fraizer and Damonte Williams, were all over the place.

Brad Underwood said earlier in the week that Fraizer was the best defender in college basketball, and I happen to agree with him. I feel like the man just never gets caught up on a screen and disrupts the flow of the opposing offense.

Overall Grade: B+

This was an encouraging game to see from the Illini, as they had to battle through some adversity.

Illinois built up a 12-point lead to see it disappear with Kofi on the bench. To be down by four points at halftime had to be a gut punch. But that didn’t matter. Fraizer and Kofi weren’t going to allow the Illini to lose.

The Illini won this game on the boards. They outrebounded Maryland 45-27, obviously led by Kofi’s 18-rebound night. But I wanted to shout out sophomore forward Coleman Hawkins who had an awesome game off the bench. He scored eight points and collected eight rebounds, six of which were of the offensive variety. Hawkins was huge in this game.

Illinois basketball will travel to Lincoln, Nebraska to take on the Cornhuskers on Tuesday, January 11. They hope to improve to 5-0 in the Big Ten before the schedule toughens up.