Illinois Basketball: Grades from the Illini loss to Purdue

Illinois Basketball traveled to Mackey Arena in West Lafayette to take on the Purdue Boilermakers for their second straight game in the state of Indiana.

After an absolute wild first half, the Illini went into halftime with a two-point lead. Unfortunately, for the Illini, Jayden Ivey showed why he is a projected lottery pick scoring 22 out of his 26 points in the second half and leading Purdue to an 84-68 victory.

Here are some grades from the Illinois basketball loss to Purdue.

Offense: B-

The Illini offense had a great first half led by Alfonso Plummer with 14 first-half points. He hit four three-pointers during the first 20 minutes. Unfortunately, Purdue was able to neutralize him in the second half, as Plummer went scoreless.

Andre Curbelo got more run in this one logging 21 minutes. He was absolutely fantastic against Purdue, scoring 15 points off the bench and getting to the free throw line six times.

The Illini needed Curbelo in this one. Trent Fraizer, Da’Monte Williams, and Jacob Grandison went a combined 5-of-21 from the field and 2-of-14 from the three-point arc. Illinois isn’t going to win many games when you have three important pieces shoot that bad.

Kofi Cockburn was just okay battling with Zach Edey. He scored18 points but some of those buckets were meaningless after the game was out of reach.

Defense: C

Illinois’ defense had a solid first half much like the offense. Fraizer and Williams shut down Ivey and Sasha Stefanovic in the first half holding them to 2-of-10 from the field and only six points combined.

It was a tale of two halves for the Illini defense, though. Ivey went absolutely bananas scoring 22 points in the second half and added six assists on the night. In the words of Brad Underwood, “one thing Matt’s done of late is to quit screwing around, get the ball to Ivey and get everyone out of the way”.

Purdue came out and attacked Plummer on the defensive end in the second half. Eric Hunter Jr. also scored all nine of his points during this time.

Overall: C+

I am not hitting the panic button on this Illini team at all. Purdue is very good, and a better team than Illinois right now. Purdue, Wisconsin, and Illinois sit atop the big ten at 10-3, so the Illini aren’t out of the Big Ten regular-season title race by any means.

Illinois looks to bounce back against Northwestern at the State Farm Center on Sunday, February 13 on the Big Ten Network. Northwestern has been playing solid basketball as of late, as they are winners of their last three games. If Illinois wants to stay in this race, they need to win this one.