Illinois Basketball: 5 observations from the Illini win over Bethune-Cookman

3. Good, meaningful, ball movement

The Illinois basketball team has not been good at moving the ball over the past six games. We were either not moving the ball enough or, like in the past couple of games, we would move the ball without a purpose.

This type of offense would lead to the Illini not being able to score at a high level. Leading up to Thursday night, Illinois scored 73 or fewer points in five out of the past six contests. This included scoring 68 points or fewer in three of those games.

Illinois’ lack of meaningful ball movement showed on the stat sheet as well. In the five games before the Bethune-Cookman contest, the Illini had 11 or fewer assists in each game. In two of those contests, we failed to hit 10 assists.

On Thursday night, Illinois got back into a groove. We started moving the ball with a purpose. Each pass was to help get a teammate open for a shot. I honestly attribute the great ball movement to Sencire Harris.

Once Harris was inserted into the starting lineup, Illinois played a better brand of basketball. He would actually bring the ball up the court and would get it swinging around quicker in the shot clock. His ability to get out on fast breaks also led to Illinois racking up more assists.

Illinois would finish the Bethune-Cookman victory with 17 assists on the night. That was the most assists for the program since the thumping of Syracuse back on November 29. This was also the first positive assist-to-turnover ratio since that Syracuse game.

I love how Illinois moved the ball on Thursday night. We didn’t overpass. The ball would swing around and when it got to a player who had an open shot, that player would fire the ball up. That is how it is supposed to work. If we can have this type of ball movement moving forward, then we will win a lot of games.