Illinois Basketball: 5 observations from the Illini win vs Michigan State

5. Three-point shooting is still a concern

Illinois had a big win on Saturday. Beating No. 19 Michigan State helps immensely considering we were dragged by Rutgers earlier in the week.

This win over the Spartans should keep us about the same in the AP Top 25 on Monday. Despite the huge win, I still have a concern moving forward.

Illinois has to get the three-point shooting woes figured out sometime. Thankfully, Jacob Grandison woke up and started hitting his three-point shots. He was 6-of-10 from deep. But he was the only one hitting shots from three-point range consistently.

If you take Grandison out of the equation, the rest of the Illinois basketball team shot 2-of-17 from three-point range, which is 11.8%. That is really bad and will most likely haunt us come NCAA tournament time.

Alfonso Plummer is the main player I am looking at when it comes to three-point shooting. He was 0-of-3 on Saturday against Michigan State. He almost seems hesitant to take three-point shots right now. Over the past two games, Plummer is now 0-of-7 from deep.

As a team, I want to see better results from three-point range. It doesn’t all lay on the shoulders of Plummer. Trent Frazier had a huge shot at the end, but that three-pointer brought his night to 2-of-7 from deep. Da’Monte Williams, Coleman Hawkins, RJ Melendez, and Andre Curbelo were a combined 0-7 from three-point range. I need to get a couple of makes out of that group too.

Three-point shooting continues to be a concern for me. If we can get that figured out, Illinois is easily one of the best teams in the country. Until then, it is on my radar and it could bite us in the butt.