3. Illinois is a bad three-point shooting team without Kasparas Jakucionis
I would love to say that all Illinois players are good at shooting the basketball. At the end of the day, that is just not the case.
When Kasparas Jakucionis is allowed to play, he is Illinois’ best three-point shooter. We didn’t have him for 75% of the game on Saturday, though. So, the Illini had to rely on the rest of the cast.
That isn’t good news. Illinois finished the Michigan State game shooting 5-of-24, 20.8%, from three-point range. It was a struggle for the Orange and Blue, but that doesn’t come as a surprise.
For the season, without Jakucionis, the rest of the Illinois basketball team is shooting 31.8% from three-point range. Jakucionis alone shoots 41.6% from three-point range. The second-best shooter is Ben Humrichous at 37.4%, and he has been extremely inconsistent this season.
I think a major problem with Illinois’ shooting is that we don’t run a lot of plays to get shooters open on the perimeter.
Jakucionis can create his own shot, and that is where his source of deep shots comes from. Illinois does run plays that get Tomislav Ivisic open at the top of the key, and he takes advantage of that fact at times, as he is our third-best three-point shooter at 37%.
Besides for those two, it is a bit chaotic out on the perimeter. Illinois has to hope that some of the players will be open in transition for a high-quality three-pointer.
After the game against Michigan State, it is pretty evident that Illinois isn’t a good three-point shooting team. We jack them up, and sometimes they go in at a high rate, but we struggle more than we don’t.