Illinois Basketball: 5 observations from the Illini loss to Missouri

5. Inefficiency continues to plague Illinois

It is truly incredible how inefficient the Illinois basketball team has been and continues to be on the court. We can’t get out of our own way, and this is the reason we are struggling so much.

On Thursday night against Missouri, the Illini continued to ride the struggle bus with another 17 turnovers to just 10 assists. That comes out to a .588 assist-to-turnover ratio, which would rank No. 356 out of 363 teams in DI college basketball.

Coughing up the ball 17 times in a game and only having 10 assists is a great recipe for a loss. But this isn’t a one-off game, though. Illinois has had a trend of being a massively inefficient team.

Out of the past nine games the Illini have played, we have had more assists than turnovers in one contest. That was the Syracuse game where we had 21 assists to seven turnovers. Besides that game, it has been a rough ride of inefficiency.

Illinois’ inefficiency isn’t just about the assist-to-turnover ratio either. We can’t make shots. Illinois has only hit 45% from the field in one out of the past six contests. Our three-point shooting has been even worse. Out of the past six games, Illinois has shot over 30.4% from three-point range just one time. We have four games where we shot below 29% from distance.

The struggles of the Illinois basketball program aren’t singular. I can’t just point to one thing and say if we correct that then everything will be fixed. There are so many things wrong with this team right now. It worries me that there are too many things to correct to get this team back on track.