Illinois Basketball: 5 big questions for the Illini against Oakland

3. How short will Brad Underwood limit his rotations?

Illinois ended up beating Eastern Illinois soundly on Monday night. The game was close for the first 10 minutes but a 12-point halftime lead for the Illini turned into a 28-point victory by game’s end.

With a blowout win comes players getting playing time who are traditionally deep on the bench. It is nice to get these players some quality playing time so they can develop and potentially help the program down the road.

A big question I have for the Oakland game is; how short is Brad Underwood going to make the bench?

I think the Golden Grizzlies might be a better program than Eastern Illinois. They put up a good fight on the road against Ohio State, so Illinois can’t be sleeping on this team.

Underwood is likely to shorten up his rotations when we play better teams. But who makes the cut when this happens?

Obviously, non-scholarship players like Max Williams and AJ Redd aren’t going to get playing time when the game is on the line. I see the starters still being No. 1 Ty Rodgers, No. 2 Terrence Shannon Jr., No. 3 Marcus Domask, No. 4 Quincy Guerrier, and No. 5 Coleman Hawkins.

After that, I could legitimately see Underwood going a strong five or six deep still. Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn and Luke Goode are going to continue to get around 19 minutes per game. I don’t see them dropping off. The same goes for Dain Dainja and Justin Harmon. Both should get 14-18 minutes per game.

The big question lies with Amani Hansberry and Niccolo Moretti. I just don’t see Hansberry’s minutes dropping much, but Moretti could see a more limited role moving forward. He didn’t score against Eastern Illinois and had three turnovers, but the talented guard also had three assists and three rebounds.

If Underwood does shorten the bench some, I would imagine the victim is going to be Moretti. But it is something to keep an eye on against Oakland.