5 disappointing observations from the Illinois basketball loss to Northwestern

4. The Illini had horrible shot selection

I kind of touched on this point in the last slide with Ben Humrichous. On Friday night against Northwestern, Illinois took way too many bad shots for no reason.

Humrichous’ shots weren’t really bad, they were just pointlessly long. He didn’t have to shoot from that distance that often. One or two NBA range three-point attempts can shock a defense, but at one point, the Wildcats were okay with him taking long three-point shots.

Even though Kasparas Jakucionis had a great night and looked incredible, he did take a few bad attempts. He rushed a few three-point shots as well, and one came toward the end of regulation. I understand he was hot and you ride the hot hand, but there is no reason to take a contested three-point attempt early in the shot clock.

The most egregious violator of bad shots is Will Riley. Each time he would come into the game, the first thing that would happen is that Riley jacks up a three-point attempt from beyond three-point range. He is always guarded heavily out on the perimeter as well.

Without a doubt, Riley is a great player who has a bright future, but he has to be smarter than that. He can’t just jack up shots without a purpose. Sure, they are electric when they go in, but that isn’t often. Riley went 0-of-6 from three-point range because he wasn’t patient and took bad shots.

Illinois is a young team that has a lot of learning. This loss will hopefully be a good teaching moment. Even in the NBA, if you are taking those bad shots, you are going to be riding the pine or sent down to the G-League.