Illinois Basketball: 5 observations from the Illini win over Rutgers

2. The freshmen put life into the Illini

Illinois wasn’t showing a lot of life in the game against Rutgers. To start the contest, it looked like we were still asleep from the night before. This seemed to show a lot with players like Terrence Shannon Jr. who made some bad mistakes early on.

This sloppy play and low-energy play continued for much of the first half. We were down by four points at halftime, and we had seven turnovers and four fouls while going 1-of-12 from three-point range. Not to mention, Rutgers couldn’t be stopped, as they were shooting 42.4% from the field and 50% from three-point territory.

Brad Underwood would go with our freshmen in the second half, though. At the 15:23 mark in the second half, Illinois was down 45-39. That is when Underwood started subbing in the freshmen.

Sencire Harris came into the game at that point. Illinois would cut the deficit to five points. Ty Rodgers would then come into the game. The Illini would get the deficit down to three points. At the 13:54 mark, Jayden Epps entered the game. Illinois was down three points, and Underwood decided to go with three true freshmen on the court at the same time.

This group played incredibly well together. With three true freshmen on the court midway through the second half, Illinois would go from being down by three points to being up four points. This was a huge turning point in the game.

The Illinois freshmen put life into this Illinois basketball program. This isn’t the first time they have done this either. I would argue that the Illini freshmen are one of the main reasons we are anywhere near the top of the Big Ten. They have been sensational.