Illinois Basketball: 5 observations from the Illini win over Michigan State

5. I still like the Illini rotations

Brad Underwood is really quick to make in-game lineup adjustments. In the first couple of minutes, if you turn the ball over or take a bad shot, there is a chance he pulls you and you don’t play much that night.

That seems to be what happened with Sencire Harris. In the first few minutes, Harris was pulled and we didn’t see much of him in the first half. He would later go down with a knee injury that seems to be okay, according to his tweet, but Underwood clearly wasn’t happy with Harris before the injury.

Despite the quick pull by Underwood, I think the rotations are good. I don’t think we need to change a thing moving forward. In fact, I would argue that these rotations need to stay the same for the rest of the season.

Illinois’ starting rotation is gelling right now. They are playing well with each other, and this needs to continue. I believe the only reason we struggled in the first half against Michigan State was due to Terrence Shannon Jr. making a few shots, and then Illinois just continuing to feed him. We couldn’t get into our usual offense due to this.

I love the spark plug of Jayden Epps off the bench. He has been playing starter minutes even though he comes off the bench. His ability to light up the scoreboard is exciting. I also like his energy. He is a young pup in the mix of some old dogs.

Honestly, I didn’t think I would ever be comfortable with the Illinois rotations after the start we had this year. But I am loving what I am seeing. Just think, we are going to get Luke Goode back in the coming month as well. If we could ease him in as a reserve, that would be optimal. The depth is about to be growing.