Illinois Basketball: 5 observations from the Illini loss to the Iowa Hawkeyes

The Illinois basketball team fell in a tough-fought battle against the Iowa Hawkeyes on Saturday afternoon.

This was one of the best games I have watched this season. Both teams played well, but the Illini couldn’t manage to clip the hot-shooting Hawkeyes bunch.

There might be some people that come out of this loss in panic mode. I don’t think we should be panicking right now. Illinois played some good basketball. I believe this is just one of those games where one team has to lose, and it just happened to be the Illini. We ran into an Iowa team that could shock some people come March. With that being said, the 81-79 loss to the Hawkeyes is still disappointing.

Here are five observations from the Illinois basketball loss to the Iowa Hawkeyes.

1. Illinois needed something from Coleman Hawkins

Coming out of the game, I honestly believe Illinois played pretty well. This wasn’t one of those contests where the program looked out of sorts and we didn’t win because of that.

This was one of the best games I have seen the Illini play. With that being said, Coleman Hawkins was arguably the most disappointing player on the floor. The veteran had a chance to put Illinois over the top but failed to do so.

For the game, Hawkins would finish with six points, nine rebounds, three blocks, and one assist. He also had three turnovers in the game, but the most heartbreaking number that came from the loss to Iowa was the fact Hawkins was 0-of-7 from the floor and 0-of-4 from three-point range.

Illinois needed something out of Hawkins offensively. One bucket would have put this game, at worst, into overtime. There were so many opportunities for him, and most of them were wide-open shots.

There were also multiple times during the game when Hawkins caused some bad momentum plays. Illinois would have a chance to come down the court and put points on the board, but Hawkins would cough the ball up and Iowa would score. These plays were five or six-point swings.

I expect bad and sloppy play out of freshmen, but Hawkins is supposed to be one of the lead guys for the Illini. We just needed some type of offensive production out of him on Saturday.