The Illinois basketball team is coming off a big win over Northwestern this past Sunday.
It was nice to see the Illini give a little payback to the Wildcats after losing to them in overtime the first time around. Illinois cruised to an easy win and was once beating Northwestern by over 20 points.
Illinois now heads into a game on Thursday night against Nebraska. The Cornhuskers aren’t a great team this season, but they are always dangerous no matter the record.
Brad Underwood is once again going to be a man down against Nebraska. Illinois needs to be on point to win.
Here are three keys for the Illinois basketball team to beat the Nebraska Cornhuskers
1. Illinois has to come with defensive energy
This season, we have seen Illinois look like a juggernaut on the offensive end of the court. I mean, we had a four-game stretch where we averaged 99.5 points per game, which included a 109-point performance against then-No. 9 Oregon.
I would argue that the most impressive part of the Illini this season has been on the defensive end of the court, though. Without our defense, this program isn’t competing in the Big Ten and nationally for a top seed in the NCAA tournament.
That is why I think defense is going to be so important against Nebraska. Illinois needs to bring the defensive energy to beat the Cornhuskers.
This might sound vague, but despite Illinois being great defensively this season, there have been times when we lacked defensive energy.
Against Maryland, Illinois was missing our center, but we still gave up 91 points. In the previous game, Illinois allowed 80 points to Michigan State.
On the flip side, the Illini have done a great job holding good teams to lower point totals. On the road against Indiana, Illinois allowed 69 points. We gave up 52 points against Penn State and only 77 points on the road against Oregon.
I always want a good offensive start to games, but Illinois needs to come out with high energy against Nebraska defensively. That is what sets the tone. You can’t let a Fred Hoiberg-led unit get going or it could be a long game. Let’s lockdown the Cornhuskers early in the contest, and that will guide us the rest of the way.