Illinois Basketball: 5 observations from the Illini win over Northwestern

Illinois basketball just had one of the biggest roller coaster games of the season against the Northwestern Wildcats.

Despite a horrendous first half, the Illini managed to snap back to reality in the final 20 minutes of action. Down 18 points, Illinois came out of the gates with a new lease on our basketball lives.

Terrence Shannon Jr. and Matthew Mayer woke up. The team rallied around them and erased the large deficit. Some clutch free throws in the final minutes sealed the deal, as the Illini would come away with a win over Northwestern, 66-62.

Here are five observations from the Illinois basketball win over Northwestern.

1. Terrence Shannon Jr. was magical

Man, that was a bad first half of basketball. Illinois looked completely checked out against Northwestern, and this enabled the Wildcats to snag an 18-point lead going into the halftime break.

The Illini needed something different to happen. We needed someone to put on the cape and fly in to save the game and, potentially, the season. Thankfully, Terrence Shannon Jr. woke up and had one of his best games of the season.

In the first 20 minutes, Shannon was pretty awful. He had two points and one rebound to go along with his three fouls and two turnovers at halftime. This wasn’t the production Illinois needed.

The second 20 minutes were special, though. Shannon came out of the gates on fire. In the second half, he would go 7-of-8 from the field and 4-of-5 from three-point range. Shannon would end up with 24 points in that second half, and he didn’t have a single foul and only had one turnover.

I believe that Shannon’s A-game is just as good as anyone in the country. The issue is that he is super inconsistent with that A-game. When he does bring his A-game, Shannon is magical on the basketball court.