Illinois Basketball: Grades from the Illini win vs Iowa

The Illinois basketball team welcomed the Iowa Hawkeyes to the State Farm Center for senior night on Sunday.

This ended up being a huge game for the Illini as they had the opportunity to win a share of the Big Ten regular season title with Wisconsin losing to Nebraska earlier in the day.

Illinois came out a bit sluggish in the first half going down by as much as 15 points at one point. They were able to cut the lead down to six by halftime, though.

It was a tough battle in the second half, but Iowa missing key free throws down the stretch helped the Illini. Kris Murray then missed a three-pointer at the buzzer. With that miss, the Illini won the game, 74-72. They also won a share of the Big Ten title for the first time in 17 years.

Here are the grades from the Illinois basketball win vs Iowa.

Offense: A-

The Illini offense had a solid game led by the man in the middle, Kofi Cockburn. He led the team in scoring with 21 points and also had 14 rebounds, seven of which were on the offensive glass. Kofi just has a huge size advantage over this Iowa team. If this was his last game at the State Farm Center, Kofi went out with a bang.

Alfonso Plummer had a solid game on his senior night scoring 15 points and knocking down two three-pointers. His guard mate Andre Curbelo gave you a solid game off the bench scoring 14 points and dropping six assists to go along with four rebounds in 22 minutes.

It was a roller coaster game for Curbelo as he was very careless with the ball at times. He would make some bad mistakes, which led to four turnovers. Coleman Hawkins also added nine points in 37 huge minutes, as he started for the injured Jacob Grandison.

Defense: B

This was a tale of two halves for the Illini on the defensive side of things. In the first half, Iowa was able to do whatever they wanted, as rotations were slow, and the on-the-ball defense was just bad. Iowa scored on 12 straight possessions at one point.

I get it that Iowa has a fantastic offensive team, but you can’t allow them to score 12 straight times. I felt Iowa really attacked Plummer and it was effective, as he didn’t have a great defensive game.

Hawkins was my defensive MVP in this one. He gave Iowa and Keegan Murray fits all night. Murray did score 22 points, however, it took him 22 shots to do so going 7-of-22 from the field. Hawkins stepped up in more ways than one with Grandison out. He also added 11 rebounds, which the Illini desperately needed.

Overall: B+

The Illini are Big Ten regular season champions. I couldn’t be happier for this team. They have been through some tough injuries and losses during the 2021-22 campaign. Credit to Brad Underwood for getting this team ready, even though I believe he didn’t coach his best game Sunday night.

With the win, the Illini are the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten Tournament as they finished 15-5 in conference games. That means the Illini play the winner of Michigan and Indiana on Friday at 10:30 a.m. CT, as they look to win back-to-back Big Ten Tournaments.