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

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Dec 17, 2022; Champaign, Illinois, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini guard Jayden Epps (3) and Alabama A&M Bulldogs center Olisa Blaise Akonobi (33) battle for a rebound during the second half at State Farm Center. Mandatory Credit: Ron Johnson-USA TODAY Sports /

2. Can the Illini get more efficient

I think the Illinois efficiency, or lack thereof, goes hand-in-hand with the first slide. Once we get the flow better on offense, then I think the Illini efficiency will skyrocket.

Honestly, for the past month, Illinois has been a pretty inefficient team. In the past seven games, we have only had more assists than turnovers in one contest, and that was the blowout win over Syracuse. That is probably why we are just 4-3 during that stretch.

In this same seven-game stretch, Illinois has an assist-to-turnover ratio of .898, which would rank No. 195 out of 363 teams in DI basketball. That is with the lopsided Syracuse game. If you take out that game against the Orange that skews the numbers, then the Illini would have an assist-to-turnover ratio of .736, which would be bad enough for No. 267 in the country.

I will be keeping an eye out to see if the Illini can tighten up their efficiency against Missouri in the Braggin’ Rights game. This will be important if we want to get the win.

Missouri tends to force a lot of turnovers. They are currently forcing 20.1 turnovers per game, which ranks No. 3 in the nation. But that stat is skewed because they have played mostly bad teams this season. The only good team Missouri has played is Kansas, and the Jayhawks had 24 assists to just 13 turnovers against the Tigers.

This needs to be a game that Illinois hones in on efficiency. If we can have more assists than turnovers against Missouri, then this game won’t be close.

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