5 big observations from the Illinois basketball win over Maryland Eastern Shore

2. Brad Underwood teases us with bench depth

I feel like this happens every year, but I wish Illinois would go deeper on the bench. I think we have some really talented bench players who could help this team win games.

The 2024-25 Illinois basketball team might be the deepest roster I have ever seen in Champaign. We can legitimately go nine-deep and not miss a beat. On Saturday, we got a little taste of that depth.

Maryland Eastern Shore is a bad program, so Brad Underwood can toy around with his lineup more. But it was fun seeing some of the new guys come in and put up big games.

Jake Davis got 15 minutes and finished with two points and four rebounds. He has a ton of potential and will be a big part of this team next season. Illinois got him from Mercer after a solid freshman campaign.

I like that Carey Booth got more action too. He transferred in from Notre Dame after a good freshman season. Booth is a long and athletic player who can stretch the floor.

Seeing these players on the court and getting them experience will only help the program down the road. The thing with seeing these players log minutes is that it is a bit of a tease. Just looking at the last couple of games, we know what Underwood is going to do with the lineups.

When push comes to shove, Underwood is going to shorten the lineups and rely on the starters and a couple of bench guys who could be starters on most teams.

The starting lineup of Kylan Boswell, Tre White, Kasparas Jakucionis, Ben Humrichous, and Tomislav Ivisic is the go-to for the Illini. Will Riley will then come off the bench and get starter minutes. That is about it for what Underwood wants to do. He also has Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn play minutes, but I feel like the leash is getting shorter there.

I wish Underwood wouldn’t tease Illinois fans with the extended lineups. I think some of these players have the ability to log quality minutes in meaningful games.