Illinois Basketball: 5 observations from the Illini win over Northwestern

3. Illini freshmen pick each other up

As a freshman, you will sometimes have bad games. Jayden Epps hasn’t had a lot of bad games this season, but against Northwestern, the star freshman laid an egg.

Coming into Thursday night, Epps had been playing some solid basketball. He was coming off a game against Minnesota where he helped lead Illinois to a nine-point win by dropping 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 from three-point range.

That magic didn’t translate over to the Northwestern matchup, though. Epps would come out of the gates and fall flat on both ends of the court. He was getting torched on defense and couldn’t lock anyone down. Epps would then go 0-of-5 from the floor and 0-of-3 from three-point range for zero points, one rebound, one assist, and one steal in 14 minutes of action.

Thankfully, Illinois has one of the best trios of freshmen in the country. When Epps is having a bad game, the other two freshmen – Ty Rodgers and Sencire Harris – swoop in and help lift the program to great heights.

Rodgers was all over the court on Thursday night. He is quickly developing into one of the most tenacious rebounders on the Illinois basketball team, despite being shorter than most on the floor when he is playing.

I loved the production from Rodgers. He played 30 minutes and finished with six points, eight rebounds, and one assist on 3-of-5 shooting.

Harris started slowly on the defensive end of the court against Northwestern, but he quickly learned how to guard the seniors on the Wildcats team. Harris was locking down Northwestern in the second half, and this is a big reason for the comeback. He would finish the game with six points, two rebounds, and one assist on 3-of-4 shooting in 24 minutes on the floor.

The future is so bright for the Illinois basketball program. We have some much young talent. I am excited to see how this team looks next season.