Illinois Basketball: Grades from the Illini win against Michigan

Illinois Basketball traveled to Ann Arbor, Michigan to take on Hunter Dickinson and the Wolverines.

The Illini had a tough road test in front of them with Michigan, even without Juwan Howard due to a suspension. Illinois led all of this one but it went down to the very end as Michigan came back roaring back, cutting the lead to two with about two minutes left.

Trent Fraizer then hit a dagger three-pointer off an offensive rebound by Coleman Hawkins to push the lead to seven points with under a minute remaining. Illinois ended up winning 93-85.

Here are some grades from the Illinois basketball win over Michigan

Offense: A+

The offense was great against the Wolverines as they scored 93 points. They shot 56% from the field and went 10-of-17 from behind the three-point arc. Alfonso Plummer continued his heater scoring 23 first-half points with five three-pointers. He finished with 26 points for the game.

The second half storyline for this one was the domination of Kofi Cockburn, who was arguably coming off of his worst game since his freshman season. Kofi scored 19 of his 27 points in the second half, as he dominated Dickinson once again.

Fraizer was also outstanding against Michigan putting up 17 points, three assists, and zero turnovers. He also hit a big three-pointer with about a minute left in the game. Andre Curbelo also contributed a great 20 minutes off the bench scoring 12 points and dropping a couple of dimes to Kofi.

Defense: B-

The Illini defense struggled at times in this one, especially in ball screen action. DeVante’ Jones seemed to get to wherever he wanted to on the court as he scored a team-high 25 points to go along with 10 assists.

Da’Monte Williams played a season-low 17 minutes for the Illini because they needed to get more size on the court to match up against Dickinson and Moussa Diabate. But that allowed freshman Caleb Houston to have a solid and efficient game scoring 21 points. Hawkins did give great minutes off the bench for Illinois, though. He seems to have peaked at the right time and earned the trust of Brad Underwood.

Overall: A

This was a huge road win for the Illini and a must-have if they wanted to have a chance at a share of the Big Ten title. Wisconsin sits atop the Big Ten at the moment but they face a tough Purdue team on Tuesday who is coming off a loss to Michigan State, so you know they will be coming in with a chip on their shoulder.

Illinois has two games left both at home. The first game is on Thursday, March 3 as they welcome Penn State to the State Farm Center. Illinois needs to win out to have any hope for a share of the Big Ten regular season title.