Illinois Basketball: 5 observations from the Illini loss to the Purdue Boilermakers

3. What a disappointing showing from Matthew Mayer

Illinois’ offseason looked to be one of the best I have seen in years. We were able to land two of the biggest transfers in the portal in Terrence Shannon Jr. and Matthew Mayer.

I touched on Illinois needing more out of Shannon in the first slide, but he isn’t the only one taking heat for this loss to Purdue. I think a lot of the issues from the defeat rest on the shoulders of Mayer as well.

Mayer is supposed to be one of the main scorers and leaders on this Illinois basketball team. He is someone who the younger guys should be able to model their game after. What I saw against the Boilermakers was the opposite of that. I think Mayer needs to look at the freshmen and sophomores, and maybe learn a thing or two from them.

I was extremely disappointed with how Mayer played against Purdue. He would log 32 minutes and finish with 16 points, six rebounds, two steals, and one assist. He was wildly inefficient, though. Mayer would have two turnovers and go 5-of-14 from the field and 1-of-10 from three-point range.

If you peel back what Mayer did to the Illinois program, the rest of the team was 6-of-12 from three-point range. If we played more team basketball and had an idea of what we were doing in the half-court, then maybe we win that game against Purdue.

This team is just so frustrating beyond belief. Illinois has the young guys out there hustling, moving the ball, and taking decent shots. Meanwhile, we have our veterans out there just chucking up three-pointers and turning the ball over. I hate it.