The Illinois basketball team finishes the 2024-25 season on Friday night against a tough Purdue squad.
This is going to be an interesting matchup. The Illini are playing some good basketball, but the Boilermakers are a well-coached team looking to improve their NCAA tournament seeding.
It is going to take a B+ or better game out of the Illini to beat Purdue. Could we make it three in a row?
Here are three keys for the Illinois basketball team to beat the Purdue Boilermakers
1. Backcourt defense has to be solid
Illinois has turned the tides and has been winning lately. After dropping three in a row and eight out of 13 games, the Illini have finally found a groove again.
This has been a long time coming. Illinois is healthy and starting to play well, but there is one noticeable difference in how we are playing now compared to what we looked like just a couple of weeks ago.
Illinois’ defense has improved greatly. We took a huge gut punch when Morez Johnson Jr. went down with a broken wrist. But what has struggled a lot was the backcourt defense. Kylan Boswell wasn’t playing up to his potential, and Illinois had health issues with Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn and Tre White.
Those issues are now resolved, and Illinois was able to lock down both Iowa and Michigan. We held them to 61 points and 73 points, respectively. Those two defensive outings were incredible, and we need that again against Purdue.
This isn’t your father’s Purdue squad. They don’t have a dominating big man like Zach Edey anymore. Purdue has the great ability to strike with two talented guards in the backcourt in Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer. It seems these two have been around since the Bush administration, and they are hitting teams with everything they have.
Smith is averaging 16.3 points per game this season while Loyer is at 14.1 points per game. They just dismantled Rutgers by combining for 46 points and shot 14-of-25 from three-point range. Locking these two down will be huge for Illinois in the game on Friday night.
2. This is Tomislav Ivisic time
In the previous slide, I touched on how Purdue will be playing Illinois without someone like Zach Edey. This will be the first time in a long time that we haven’t had to go up against that monster.
Do you know what that means? It is time for Tomislav Ivisic to dominate. If Edey was still around, Ivisic would have a hard time with the physical play of the Purdue big man. Thankfully, he has moved on to the NBA, and now Ivisic can work his magic.
The only worry that I have is with Trey Kaufman-Renn. He can hold his own at 6-foot-9, and Kaufmann-Renn is physical. While Ivisic has four inches on him, Kaufmann-Renn will use his size to bully around in the paint.
What is great about Ivisic is that he can pull someone like Kaufmann-Renn or whoever Purdue throws at us out to the three-point arc. Ivisic can go out and set screens and roll to the bucket. He can also screen and roll out to the three-point arc for a nice shot from deep. That really puts the opposing defender in a bind.
Ivisic has been extremely effective for the Illini this season and in the last two big wins in particular. Illinois is going to need him to come up big against Purdue so we can head into the Big Ten Tournament on a three-game winning streak.
3. Purdue will eat Illinois up if we settle
Illinois is going into a game on Friday night against a Purdue squad that doesn’t have the most talent on paper. This is a team that is scrappy and well coached.
I have always been impressed with Matt Painter. I think he gets the most out of the least when it comes to roster talent production. Painter is a great coach, and that is what scares me on Friday night.
If Illinois doesn’t play smart basketball, Purdue could eat us up. What I am talking about is not settling for three-pointers all game long, or at least early on in the game.
Listen, I realize Illinois shot lights out against Michigan. We were 14-of-37, 37.8%, from three-point range in that victory. But the Illini didn’t start shooting from three-point range early on. We let the game come to us and got our confidence up by seeing the ball go in the bucket early on.
Illinois was able to get to the rim and play more compacted basketball in the first half against Michigan. If we had shot more three-pointers in that first half, it would have dug us into a hole. Illinois was only 3-of-14 from three-point range in the first 20 minutes of that game.
Purdue will have a heyday with the Illini if we start chucking up three-pointers earlier. Not only are we inconsistent when shooting from long range, but Purdue is also good at shutting down the three-point shots.
This season, the Boilermakers only allow opponents to shoot 30.5% from three-point range. That is good enough to rank No. 25 in the country. Let’s start off aggressive and sprinkle in three-pointers. Don’t start by firing three-pointers at a high clip.