Illinois Basketball: 5 observations from the Illini loss to Maryland

3. Underwood is losing some trust in the bench

I think one of the best things Illinois has going for them this season is the fact we are a deep team. The Illini can use the bench to our advantage and wear teams down.

Coming into the Maryland game, I had been impressed with the Illinois bench. They had provided a ton of scoring and the “other” stats that are needed to put teams away. But, for some reason, it felt like Brad Underwood didn’t trust the bench much against the Terrapins.

Illinois’ bench only managed to play 46 minutes against Maryland. In that time, they put up 10 points, five rebounds, and two assists. They did have four turnovers as well.

From the field, the bench didn’t play badly, though. They were 5-of-12 from the field. If the bench was having a really ugly night, I would have understood not using them a lot. But Ty Rodgers only got nine minutes and had an assist and rebound. Sencire Harris was healthy enough to play but only got six minutes on the night.

The Illini have used their bench a lot lately, but that is due to the games being blowouts in favor of the Orange and Blue. The last opponent that Illinois played in a close game was Virginia. In that game, our bench was huge and played 62 minutes.

I am not sure what happened with the minutes distribution, but let’s play to our strengths. We have a deep team that can play. Let’s utilize our bench to our advantage.