4. You have to have more court awareness at the end
This season, the Illinois basketball team has done a good job defensively. We tend to lock down opponents, and this didn’t change on Saturday evening.
Illinois did a great job defensively against Tennessee. We held the Vols to just 66 points, and they couldn’t get much going. Tennessee was 6-of-24, 25%, from three-point range. I thought Kylan Boswell was a monster out on the perimeter, and it showed by the poor Tennessee shooting.
At the end of the day, none of that mattered. We still lost the game, and it came down to a poor defensive effort on the final play of the game.
Illinois had to stop the ball. Tennessee was dribbling down the court, and they were able to go right through our defense. The Illini didn’t get back quick enough, and no one came over to help Kasparas Jakucionis.
The lack of communication and defensive effort on the final play allowed Tennessee to make a great shot. I also want to point out Tomislav Ivisic on the final play.
Ivisic had every opportunity to come over and help Jakucionis. While playing help defense would have left his man open, there was such little time on the clock that there wouldn’t have been time for his man to get a shot up.
Jakucionis’ man ended up getting by him, and Ivisic just watched as the play happened. His long reach could have prevented the ball from going in or at least made the attempt much more difficult. This was a bad breakdown on defense and a lack of court awareness. It was also a brutal way to lose the game.