5 big questions for the Illinois basketball team against Ole Miss

Illinois basketball is back in action after months off, but how will the Orange and Blue look in an exhibition game against Ole Miss?

Oct 3, 2024; Rosemont, IL, USA; Illinois guard Kylan Boswell and Illinois guard/forward Ty Rodgers take a question at the podium during the 2024 Big Ten Menís Basketball media day at Donald E. Stephens Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Melissa Tamez-Imagn Images / Melissa Tamez-Imagn Images

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3. Does Kylan Boswell emerge as the focal point?

While Illinois brought in some insanely good freshmen from the class of 2024, we also added a nice haul via the transfer portal.

The biggest transfer get for the Illini was Arizona guard, Kylan Boswell. Coming out of high school, Boswell was picking between the Wildcats and Illini but ultimately headed out west. After two seasons, Boswell is now with Illinois ready to shine.

Boswell is the most polished backcourt presence Illinois has right now. He has experience and can shoot the basketball. He is also good at distributing. But with so much talent on the court, can Boswell emerge as a focal point?

When teams that have a lot of talent don’t have a leader, they usually struggle. There is no one to get players into the offense or to communicate on defense. This tends to lead to teams having a rough start. Illinois is going to need Boswell to become a leader from the jump.

I will be watching to see if Boswell emerges as that focal point. Can he be the leader that this program needs so we can come out in the regular season and look good from game one? I think we will be able to see that in the Ole Miss exhibition game.

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