The integration of the Pac-12 is starting to finally hit the Illinois basketball program.
Most Illini games are played at a decent time, but on Wednesday night, we travel to USC to take on the Trojans. This game starts at 9:00 p.m. CT/10:00 p.m. ET.
USC is a sneaky good team with at least one future NBA player. Now that Alijah Arenas is healthy, they are a team that could be dangerous in the coming weeks.
Illinois has to be ready for the Trojans on Wednesday night. We can’t sleep through this game, or USC will knock us off.
Here are three keys for the Illinois basketball team to start the road trip off right
1. Illinois’ guards need to stay out of foul trouble
Foul trouble hasn’t been a big problem for Illinois this season. We are a program that stays out of foul trouble, but being on the West Coast, who knows what will happen?
The biggest player who needs to stay out of foul trouble is Keaton Wagler. Yes, obviously he is important for offensive production, but my focus is more on his defensive abilities against USC.
I think Wagler will be matched up with superstar Alijah Arenas for a lot of the night. I would say it is going to be Kylan Boswell, but the size difference might be too much for him.
Arenas is a 6-foot-6 guard who can shoot well. Wagler has the same size and can really cause problems for Arenas. This will be a fun freshman-on-freshman matchup. My biggest worry with Wagler is that Arenas has averaged 10.3 free throws per game in his last three contests. He gets to the rim and is aggressive.
Keep Wagler out of foul trouble, and Illinois should be successful on Wednesday night.
3. The Ivisic brothers need to cause a lot of headaches for USC
There are numerous ways Illinois’ big men, Tomislav and Zvonimir Ivisic, can cause problems for the Trojans.
The first way I am pinpointing is by stretching the floor. Both big men can shoot from three-point range, and this should give USC headaches. 7-foot-5 Gabe Dynes has been playing a lot this season, but Illinois should be able to pull him out of the paint and to the perimeter quite often.
For a team that has some size, USC has had problems rebounding. They do average 36.6 rebounds per game, which ranks No. 92 in the nation. Ohio State did manage to hold the Trojans to just 32 rebounds in their last game, though.
I am excited to see what the Ivisic brothers can do against USC. Keep the ball moving and have them play out on the perimeter a lot. This helps pull the big men out on defense, and it enables Illinois to score from all levels of the floor.
3. Surviving on 23% from 3-point range is dangerous for the Illini
I haven’t checked, and I will after this, but I would imagine there aren’t too many Illinois games where we have shot sub-30% from three-point range and still won the game by 20 points.
In the last game against Indiana, that is exactly what happened. The Illini shot 23%, just 7-of-31, from three-point range. It was a pretty bad game from the perimeter, but we still managed to secure a 20-point win over the Hoosiers.
Indiana isn’t a very good team, so Illinois can’t be okay with that shooting performance. If we continue shooting sub-30% from three-point range, losses will follow.
I don’t think Illinois needs to change anything, either. This was just a bad shooting game. It isn’t a trend, as the Illini have shot well from deep quite often this season. In nine out of the last 12 games, we have hit at least 33% from three-point range.
At the end of the day, let’s not shoot 22.6% again. If we put up that number against USC, this will be a loss on the road and one that will be devastating for NCAA tournament seeding. Keep the three-point shooting percentage north of 30%, and we should end up coming out on top.