Illinois Basketball: 5 observations from the Illini loss to Penn State

5. Too much me, not enough we

In the first slide, I touched on the comments Brad Underwood made after the game. He expressed his feelings about Illinois having a lack of leadership on the team.

This past offseason, Underwood was able to secure quite the recruiting haul. We were able to land a great class of 2022, and the Illini also snagged some great transfers in the portal.

Even though Underwood did a good job filling the roster on paper, there seems to be one big flaw with the roster construct. I believe Illinois currently has too many players that are trying to get their own and not enough players who are trying to improve the team.

When the ball comes down the court and Illinois tries to get into an offense, you can tell that players aren’t trying to develop an open shot. There are a handful of players who are trying to find their shot and are working to get the ball so they can shoot it.

It seems like whenever Matthew Mayer gets the ball, he is looking to shoot regardless of where he is on the court. He isn’t trying to move the ball around to get a better look for the team. That ball is stopping, and he tends to chuck it up.

Terrence Shannon Jr. isn’t being patient with the ball. When he does get it, and he notices that he isn’t putting up big numbers, Shannon tends to either jack up a three-pointer or drive to the hoop for an off-balance shot or layup that tends to not go in. He doesn’t let the game come to him. That is a problem.

These are the two main culprits of the me-ball right now. Coleman Hawkins dabbles in this me-ball mentality, but he is great at communication and does move the ball around a lot more than the other two.

If we can get Mayer and Shannon to buy into more of a team mentality, then I think Illinois is going to win a lot of games moving forward. But if they don’t, this season could end up being a struggle.