Illinois Basketball: 5 observations from the Illini win over Minnesota

3. This Matthew Mayer is an NBA player

Early on in the 2022-23 campaign, there were NBA mock drafts that had Matthew Mayer included late in the second round. I thought at the time that this was realistic.

Mayer would then hit a rough patch. He had a stretch of four games where he failed to hit nine points. Something then changed with the Illinois program and Mayer. He started to become a bigger part of the offense, and this led to more and more victories.

Against Minnesota, Mayer continued to play some great basketball. He would finish the game with 19 points, 10 rebounds, two blocks, one assist, and one steal. He would also go 8-of-14 from the field and 3-of-6 from three-point range.

This type of performance is starting to become the norm for Mayer. He has now hit double-digit points in nine out of the past 10 contests, and the only game he failed to hit that mark was in the blowout against Bethune-Cookman. Illinois didn’t need him to score in that game.

Letting Mayer loose was probably the best thing to happen for the Illini. I think we were trying to use him too much as a Kyler Korver, but he isn’t just a spot-up shooter like that. Mayer has handles. I would argue he is better at creating his own shot than being an actual spot-up shooter.

In that same 10-game span mentioned above, Mayer has been on fire from three-point range. He has shot 43.5% from deep, which is a Steph Curry-type number. Let’s keep letting Mayer eat. He has the ability to be one of the best shooters we have ever seen suit up for the Orange and Blue.