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Illinois Basketball: 3 things to watch for in the Illini game against Eastern Illinois

By Rees Woodcock

CHAMPAIGN, IL - DECEMBER 06: General view of Illinois Fighting Illini basketballs seen before the game against the IUPUI Jaguars at State Farm Center on December 6, 2016 in Champaign, Illinois. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
CHAMPAIGN, IL - DECEMBER 06: General view of Illinois Fighting Illini basketballs seen before the game against the IUPUI Jaguars at State Farm Center on December 6, 2016 in Champaign, Illinois. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images) /
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Illinois basketball
PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA – MARCH 20: Head coach Brad Underwood of the Illinois Fighting Illini draws a play in the first half of the game against the Houston Cougars during the second round of the 2022 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at PPG PAINTS Arena on March 20, 2022 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Kirk Irwin/Getty Images) /

Illinois basketball tips off the 2022-23 season on Monday night against Eastern Illinois.

It is crazy that basketball season is already here. The Illini have a pretty new team this year, but with some great offseason moves, I think this team is ready to do some damage.

We all had a chance to see what this new-look Illinois team could do against Quincy in an exhibition, but hopefully, some of the flaws from that game have been ironed out over the past week or so.

Here are three things to watch for in the Illinois basketball game against Eastern Illinois.

1. How will the minutes distribution play out

While the season’s first game is finally here, Illinois fans did get to see the team play an exhibition game less than two weeks ago against Quincy.

In this game, Brad Underwood took an interesting strategy. He spread out the minutes on the court despite the Illini not exactly blowing out Quincy early on. Illinois only had a 34-24 lead at halftime.

Nine different Illinois players received at least 13 minutes against Quincy. Skyy Clark received the most time on the court at 29 minutes, and Sencire Harris saw the least amount of time on the court out of the nine players at 13 minutes.

I will be watching to see if Underwood goes with the same strategy against Eastern Illinois on Monday night. Will those nine players keep seeing double-digit minutes or will Underwood lean more on the starters and less on the inexperienced bench play?

Obviously, this early in the season, Underwood wants to get as many players as many minutes as possible. This will help down the road, especially considering our bench has a total of three games of experience at the college level. I would imagine we see a similar minutes distribution against Eastern Illinois on Monday night.

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