Illinois basketball once again took care of business, this time the victim was Florida Gulf Coast.
The Illini have never looked this good two games into a season. We are clicking on both ends of the court, and the offense, especially, has been eye-popping.
From the jump, this game got out of hand. Illinois soared to an early 17-1 lead over Eagles and never looked back. A 59-27 halftime lead would eventually increase into a 113-70 pounding of Florida Gulf Coast.
Here are five exciting observations from the Illinois basketball win over Florida Gulf Coast
1. Illinois looks incredible without a full roster
Any fully healthy program in the country would kill to be doing what Illinois is doing right now. We are 2-0 and have completely dominated our opponents this season.
The crazy part for the Illini is that we haven’t been even close to fully healthy to start the season. In both games, Illinois has had at least three key contributors out with an injury.
In game one of the season, the Illini were missing Mihailo Petrovic, Brandon Lee, and Andrej Stojakovic. The result was still a 58-point drubbing of Jackson State. Two of those players are projected starters, and the other, Brandon Lee, is going to be a nice rotational piece.
On Friday night against Florida Gulf Coast, the Illini thrashing continued. We beat them by 43 points, and Illinois was missing Petrovic, Lee, and Tomislav Ivisic. Ivisic is a full-time starter and arguably our best player.
It is hard to pinpoint one other team in the country that could average winning by 50.5 points against DI teams without two starters and a key rotational piece through the first two games. Illinois has a chance to be a juggernaut once everyone is suiting up.