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

3. Is Illinois hitting their three-pointers

At one time this season, the Illinois basketball team was good at shooting the ball. We were consistently putting up good three-point shooting nights and were winning games.

In fact, through the first six games of the season, the Illini were hitting their three-pointers at a clip of 37.7%, which ranked No. 55 in the country. Since that sixth game, though, the program has hit tough times beyond the three-point arc.

Illinois has only shot better than 31% from three-point range once in the past five games. We have shot worse than 29% from three-point range in three out of those five contests. The only good three-point shooting performance was against Texas where we shot 43.5%. That game skews the numbers a bit as well.

As mentioned before, Illinois hit 37.7% from three-point range in the first six games this season. Over the past five contests, we have shot 30.3% from beyond the three-point arc. That is a massive drop.

On Thursday night against Missouri, I am going to be watching to see if we can get back to making our shots from deep. If there is any team in the country that could help solve our three-point shooting woes, it would be the Tigers.

Missouri is one of the worst teams in the country in three-point shooting defense. Their opponents are shooting 37.6% from deep, which ranks No. 322 in the nation. The Tigers have allowed opponents to shoot better than 41% from three-point range six times this season, which includes the last four games they have played.

I think there is a real opportunity for Illinois to get hot from three-point range on Thursday night. This is the chance for this program to get right. Let’s start dropping shots from deep early and often and end this game in the first half.