Illinois Basketball: 5 observations from the Illini win over Texas

5. Matthew Mayer is starting to get into a groove

Illinois has their usual talented players who are going to put up solid numbers every night. Terrence Shannon Jr. eventually started to make buckets. Coleman Hawkins will get around 10 points in every game. But it is always nice to have someone have a big game that you aren’t expecting.

When a player who hasn’t done a ton has a big game, that makes it way easier to knock off a good team. That was the case with Matthew Mayer against Texas.

Coming into the game against the Longhorns, Mayer hadn’t been able to get into a groove on the offensive end of the court. He has been able to help Illinois in the “other” stats, but scoring was not something that was clicking for this stretch wing.

The best game Mayer has had this season coming into Tuesday night was against No. 8 UCLA when he dropped 11 points. In the prior four games leading up to Texas, Mayer had been 7-of-23 from the field and 2-of-11 from three-point range. The struggle was real.

But most fans knew Mayer was a sleeping giant. We knew he could put up big offensive numbers. He was a decent shooter at Baylor, so he could be a decent scorer with the Illini. Thankfully, Mayer came through in a big way against the Longhorns.

Mayer nearly doubled his season-high with 21 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field and 5-of-5 from three-point range. He also added in three blocks, two rebounds, one assist, and one steal on the night. He was a huge reason why Illinois was able to stay in the game. We were coughing up the ball like it was our job, but Mayer started to catch fire at the right time.

Much like the turnover ratio mentioned in a previous slide, if Mayer can find a happy medium between shooting 100% from three-point range and the 18% he had been shooting in the prior four games, then Illinois is going to be nearly unstoppable moving forward. This is the Mayer we had hoped to see with the Orange and Blue. The college basketball would better be scared.