3. Love to see Illinois not be sloppy
When really good teams like Illinois play bad teams like Chicago State, it is easy to get sloppy with the basketball. We could have easily chucked the ball away or not taken care of it when we knew that the other team wasn’t a real threat.
That wasn’t the case against the Cougars. Illinois took this game seriously, and it wasn’t only the score that showed the difference between the two programs.
I was impressed with the fact Illinois controlled the turnovers. Usually, Kasparas Jakucionis is trying to make too many plays and coughs the ball up a few times. That didn’t happen, though. Illinois only had 11 turnovers in the game, and Jakucionis finished with just one turnover.
The only players to have more than one turnover for the Illini were Will Riley and Carey Booth. They only had two turnovers apiece.
This was one of the most efficient games of the season for Illinois as well. The 11 turnovers for the Illini were the fourth fewest of the 2024-25 campaign, and it tied for the fewest turnovers for the program in the past six games.
What the lack of turnovers shows me is the care this team has for the ball and the process. If we had a bunch of showboats going out there and trying to get their own, the turnover numbers would be much higher. This was a great team effort and one that should build confidence for the program.