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

The Illinois basketball season is moving quickly, as the Orange and Blue are set to take on Monmouth on Monday night.

We are two games into the 2022-23 campaign, and the Illini are currently undefeated. While we haven’t played anyone of quality, it is still nice to see this team start out well. Through the first couple of games, there were a few things I noticed that I wanted to see either continue moving forward or improve in the coming weeks.

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

1. Will Illinois continue with great defensive play

Illinois has started the season off on the right foot, as the program is 2-0 and has won both games by an average of 34 points.

The Illini offense is clearly solid, as we are putting up 86.5 points per game right now, but I would like to give a ton of credit for the blowout victories to our defense. That is why, on Monday night, I am going to be watching to see if the Illini can continue with their great defensive play.

Through the first two games of the season, Illinois’ opponents are only managing 52.5 points per game, which currently ranks No. 22 in the country. We are also holding our opponents to just 33.1% shooting from the field, which ranks No. 22 in the nation.

This is a well-rounded Illini unit as well. In the last game against Kansas City, we had 11 steals and eight blocks to go along with the Roos shooting just 31.3% from the field. It is hard to beat any team when they are putting up those great numbers.

If we can keep up this type of production, it is going to continue leading to easy fastbreak points. I am hoping that is the case against Monmouth on Monday night.