After a tough loss to Virginia, the Illinois basketball team needed a get-right game against Lindenwood.
This wasn’t much of a contest from the jump. The Illini looked strong the entire night. We ran the court well and put together one of the best performances of the season.
Illinois came out of the gates firing with 49 points in the first half. A 49-25 lead at halftime would end up turning into a 92-59 drubbing of the Lions.
Here are five observations from the Illinois basketball win over Lindenwood.
1. Illinois had another good game from deep
The transformation of the Illinois basketball team has been astonishing to watch. We went from last season dumping the ball down to a big man constantly to now playing quickly and on the perimeter.
Without Kofi Cockburn manning the paint, this Illini team has been able to be free with the ball. The ball moves around the court a lot, and this enables shooters to have open shots from deep. This has bumped Illinois’ three-point shooting up this season.
Coming into the game on Friday night, the Illini were one of the best three-point shooting teams in the country. We were hitting 38% of our three-point shots, which ranks No. 56 in the nation. This is also a large jump from the 35.9% Illinois was shooting last season.
In the game against Lindenwood, the Illini continued with their strong three-point shooting performance. The team ended up hitting 11-of-30 from three-point range, which comes out to 36.7%. This might be a slight drop in percentage, but it is still a really solid team shooting performance.
I think the thing that impressed me the most is that our three-point shooting isn’t coming from a single player. It’s not like we rely on someone to take the shots from beyond the arc. This is a true team effort. We have snipers from every spot on the court.