Illinois basketball has the tough task of trying to take down No. 11 Alabama on Wednesday night.
The Illini are coming off a win over Colgate that didn’t give me a ton of confidence, but this game was on the heels of beating then-No. 11 Texas Tech. Now, Illinois has another tough test, as Alabama heads to Chicago to take on the Orange and Blue.
This will be one of the toughest tests of the season for the Illini. Alabama is always tough, and there are a few questions I will be keeping in mind as the game progresses.
Here are three key questions for the Illinois basketball team vs Alabama
1. Can Illinois hit the Purdue rebounding margin?
The last game Alabama played was against now-No. 1 Purdue. The Boilermakers could have easily lost the game against the Crimson Tide, but they dominated the rebounding department.
Despite only winning by seven points, the Boilermakers pulled down 52 rebounds compared to the 28 rebounds Alabama managed to pull down.
That begs the question: can Illinois hit that type of rebounding margin? The Illini have the rebounding ability to have a huge margin on Wednesday, but with the way the Crimson Tide operates, we might need to hit the Purdue rebounding margin.
Illinois is a great rebounding program. We average 48.8 rebounds per game, and that is good enough to rank No. 3 in the country. The crazy part is, we have been missing one of our 7-foot-1 players for the majority of the season.
The Illini guards are active on the boards, and players like David Mirkovic can rebound with the best of the best despite being slightly undersized. Illinois is going to need a massive rebounding mark on Wednesday night.
2. Will the Illini be able to hold Alabama to under 32% from 3-point range?
A big reason Illinois is going to need a wide rebounding margin is that Alabama shoots a ton of three-pointers, and they will get quite a few to go in the hoop.
This has been a trend with Nate Oates’ teams. Alabama jacks up a ton of three-pointers. Against Purdue, they shot 43 three-point attempts and hit them at a clip of 37%.
Last season, there was a clear point when Alabama would lose and win games, and that mark was 32% from three-point range. So, can Illinois hold the Crimson Tide to worse than 32% from three-point range?
Alabama currently averages 35.3 three-point attempts per game, which ranks No. 4 in the country. Meanwhile, they are hitting at 33%, which ranks No. 170 in the nation. That is not a great combination for the Crimson Tide.
While Alabama is 2-0 this season when shooting under 32% from three-point range, last season, the program was just 8-6 when shooting under 32%. When they shot at least 32%, they were 20-3. That is why I am keeping an eye on that number.
3. Do the vets step up for Illinois?
Illinois managed to come out victorious over Colgate, but it was not a pretty win by any means.
Thankfully, the Illini had freshmen David Mirkovic and Keaton Wagler step up. If those two freshmen didn’t play well, the Illini could have easily dropped a buy-game.
So, can Illinois’ vets actually step up and play well against Alabama? That is going to be a huge factor in whether or not we win the game on Wednesday.
The Illini upperclassmen came through huge against Texas Tech. Andrej Stojakovic was great with a team-high 23 points off the bench. Kylan Boswell finished with 22 points in that game as well. But those two disappeared against Colgate.
Against Colgate, Boswell and Stojakovic combined for 20 points and only shot 8-of-27 from the field. They were terrible, and this was a bit concerning.
Illinois needs Boswell and Stojakovic, among others, to step up again on Wednesday night. Alabama is a legitimate national title contender. We can’t let this opportunity slip away.