Sandwiched between two ranked contests, the Illinois basketball team has a competition against Colgate to take care of.
The Illini are coming off a huge win over No. 11 Texas Tech. This victory puts the Illini in the national spotlight, and our expectations are now a level higher after the win. But Colgate isn’t a horrible team by any means, and they could catch us sleeping.
Illinois needs to be on our game against the Raiders, or this could be a close game. There are a few key questions I have for the Illini in this contest, too.
Here are three key questions for the Illinois basketball team vs Colgate
1. What type of playing time does Mihailo Petrovic receive?
In the postgame press conference after the Texas Tech game, Brad Underwood mentioned that Mihailo Petrovic was close to going against the Red Raiders. He said he wanted him to go through all of the warm-up routine to get used to that.
To me, that means we are likely going to see Petrovic against Colgate. This is a perfect opportunity to unleash him against a lower-level competitor and not risk chemistry issues. Illinois can figure out what works best with Petrovic on the court while not having to worry too much about falling behind in the game. The big question is, how much playing time will Petrovic receive against the Raiders?
2. How sharp will Illinois look on Friday night?
Coming off a high of beating the No. 11 team in the nation is probably a crazy feeling. Illinois is one of the best teams in the country, and there is a game against No. 8 Alabama looming on Wednesday of next week.
With that being said, how sharp does Illinois look against Colgate? It is only natural to look ahead and not really think about the Raiders. But will that affect the play on the court? Illinois needs to come out and not play with our food. Let’s see how sharp we are on Friday night.
3. Can the Illini freshmen get back on track?
I have said it a few times this season. Freshmen look great against bad teams because they are better players than the players on those bad teams. But when Illinois plays good teams, can those freshmen keep the same energy?
Against Texas Tech, the Illini freshmen didn’t have a great game. Can the Illinois freshmen get back on track against Colgate? David Mirkovic and Keaton Wagler combined to shoot 8-of-21 from the field and 1-of-8 from three-point range. That didn’t bother me much because both players still affect the offensive end positively. The one thing that bothered me was the combined six turnovers. That needs to be cleaned up.