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

The Braggin’ Rights game against Missouri is always huge for the Illinois basketball program, but this game has a little extra meaning to it on Thursday.

It has been a weird couple of weeks for the Illini. After taking down No. 2 Texas in glorious fashion, Illinois has now dropped a double-digit loss to Penn State and struggled against Alabama A&M.

Illinois is still trying to figure things out on the fly. I think we have a really good team, and as soon as they start building up chemistry, look out college basketball.

With that being said, there are a few specific things I am going to be watching for against Missouri.

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

1. Will there be flow to the Illinois game

You don’t need a postgame press conference to tell you that there are some chemistry issues going on with the Illinois basketball program. Chemistry issues aren’t a bad thing, but they will need to be ironed out eventually.

The biggest red flag I saw with chemistry issues is the lack of flow to the Illinois game, mainly on the offensive side of the court.

Over the past couple of games, the Illini haven’t had a good flow on offense. It seems like things are being forced and no one is wanting to make a mistake. This hesitancy makes our offense a bit constipated, and in turn, Illinois just doesn’t put up the points we should be putting up.

On Thursday night against Missouri, I am going to be watching to see if Illinois can get a better flow on offense. In the Alabama A&M game, even when we had a big lead, the team seemed way too passive with the ball. We went from too much me-ball and overcorrected to passing it too much.

If we can find a happy medium between not enough passing and too much passing, then I think the Illinois offense will start clicking. Chemistry will be figured out eventually.