Illinois Basketball: 5 observations from the Illini win over the Minnesota Golden Gophers

3. This was an ugly win for Illinois

At this point in the season, every game is pretty much survive and advance. The mentality should be that of the NCAA tournament. We need to win this game so we can move on to the next contest.

Illinois had been on the struggle bus when it comes to wins and losses lately. We had dropped our last two contests and three out of the past four. To say we needed a win on Monday night would be an understatement.

The Illini were able to get that much-needed win. I want to stress that I am proud of this team for winning, and a win is a win at this point in the season. But this was an ugly win, there is no way around it.

Illinois took care of business, but we just kind of struggled against, by far, the worst team in the Big Ten. Minnesota is not a good squad. They came into Champaign, and Illinois couldn’t pull away from them.

Even when things are not going well on offense, I like to think Illinois has a great defense. Well, we just gave up 69 points to a Minnesota team that has averaged 55.4 points in the prior nine games.

Free throw line issues reared its ugly head on Monday night. We were 14-of-26 from the charity stripe, and the only reason it was that high was due to Matthew Mayer going 6-of-9. Every other Illinois player was 50% or below.

Illinois would have eight assists for the entire game. There was more ball movement in the second half, but we only had two assists in the first 20 minutes. That is insanely low, and we will get beat down if we don’t move the ball and play more team-oriented basketball.

I love that we won the game. Illinois is now tied for fourth in the Big Ten. But this was a sloppy win. It makes me a little nervous moving forward.