4. Where the heck was Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn
Illinois has been going through some illness issues the past month or so, and this has affected the roster quite a bit. But we are coming out of this funk, and the team is starting to get healthy again.
One of the many players who was sick in the past week or so was Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn. He shouldn’t have played in the Minnesota game, as he was sick in that contest. Gibbs-Lawhorn then played seven minutes against UCLA to get his feet underneath him again.
In the Michigan State contest, Gibbs-Lawhorn was good to go. He had a chance to be a spark plug for the Illini, but for some reason, we didn’t get to see him against the Spartans.
Gibbs-Lawhorn only played three minutes in the game. He gave Illinois an offensive rebound in that time, but Brad Underwood then pulled him and we never saw him again. He played fewer minutes than in the game when he was sick.
This was a mind-blowing mistake by the Illinois coaching staff. How do you let this kid just sit on the bench? Illinois needed better guard play for much of the night, and Gibbs-Lawhorn could have provided a much-needed jolt to the team, especially down the stretch when we missed our last 19 shots of the game.
Instead of subbing in Gibbs-Lawhorn for more than three minutes, Brad Underwood and the Illini coaching staff rolled with Kylan Boswell, who gave us 29 minutes and failed to score a single point. Underwood realized this after the game too.
Brad Underwood: In hindsight, I wish I had played Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn quite a bit more because he's a guy that can get downhill. That's on me. I'll have that conversation with him tomorrow. #Illini #B1G
— Scott Richey (@srrichey) February 16, 2025
This was a massive coaching blunder. The spark that Gibbs-Lawhorn has provided this team on numerous occasions this season has helped us win games. You let that rot on the bench while our guards looked lost on the court. That is a bad look.