Illinois basketball is less than a week away, and we have a lot of talent on the roster.
The Illini are poised to have a big 2023-24 campaign, as Brad Underwood did a great job adding some talented transfers and freshmen this offseason.
These newcomers are going to fit in nicely with the veterans we already have on the roster. Some of these newcomers and veterans will see a boost in their point production from last season as well.
Here are five Illinois basketball players poised to increase their scoring average
I am excited to get a healthy Luke Goode. He is going to be one of the deep-scoring threats on the team. I also think his defense is going to be invaluable.
Goode didn’t get to play much last season due to injury. He played in the final 10 games of the 2022-23 season and averaged 4.0 points on 42.1% shooting from three-point range. He managed to do this while only playing 13.8 minutes per contest.
I believe Goode will end up being a big-time scorer for the Illini this upcoming season. He is now healthy and ready to rock, so look for him to drop some big shooting nights.
Goode only saw 10 minutes against Kansas in the exhibition game on Sunday. He went 0-of-2 from three-point range and failed to score in the game. I am not putting too much stock into this showing, though.
While this game was played with a regular season mentality, I think during the actual season, Brad Underwood is going to go with more of a timeshare between Goode and Marcus Domask. Domask played 30 minutes against the Jayhawks.
I am projecting Goode to receive around 15 minutes each game. I think he boosts his scoring average from 4.0 points per game to around 5.5 points per game in 2023-24.