5 brutal observations from the Illinois basketball loss to the Maryland Terrapins

It wasn't a pretty sight on Thursday night, as the Illinois basketball team laid an egg against Maryland.

Maryland v Illinois
Maryland v Illinois | Michael Reaves/GettyImages
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The Illinois basketball team received some bad news before the tip off against Maryland on Thursday.

The Illini were going to be without starting big man Tomislav Ivisic. This was going to hurt the program, as he is a great center who can do everything on the basketball court. Mainly, he can pull out Maryland’s big men with his three-point shooting.

Without Ivisic, Maryland dominated the paint. Illinois didn’t have an answer for their big men, and it showed throughout the night. By halftime, the Illini managed to keep it to just a three-point deficit. Maryland took over in the second half, though. Within six minutes in the second half, Illinois was down by double-digit points and couldn’t recover. The Terrapins ended up beating the Illini, 91-70.

Here are five brutal observations from the Illinois basketball loss to the Maryland Terrapins

1. Illinois’ big man bullpen was shallow

Coming into the game on Thursday, everyone knew that the Illini were in some type of trouble due to health. It is hard to take out our best big man and expect everything to run fine.

Tomislav Ivisic missed the Maryland game with an illness, so the Illinois basketball team had to run with Morez Johnson Jr. starting at the No. 5 spot.

Johnson struggled at times, but he is just a freshman thrown into a starting role. He had his good moments, but for the most part, Johnson had a hard time with Maryland’s twin towers in Julian Reese and Derik Queen.

Taking on two guys who are 6-foot-9 and 6-foot-10 is a tough ask. And on top of Johnson not having a great game, Illinois didn’t have any size in the bullpen ready to go.

Ivisic is usually the starter at the No. 5 spot, and then you have Johnson as his backup. That is a great one-two punch, but when you are missing one of the two big men, Illinois becomes extremely shallow at the position. That is what happened against the Terrapins.

Brad Underwood tried a few options on the bench, but nothing was working. Without Ivisic, we had zero answers for Maryland’s size and athletic ability. There isn’t much you can do in this situation, though. It is not like you can go three deep at the No. 5 spot with another quality big man. This was just one of those cases where Illinois was outmatched in the paint, and we were in for the ride.

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