3. Key Illini players didn’t play well
What we witnessed on Wednesday night was a basketball massacre. From the opening tip, Illinois was clearly the better team and just thrashed the Nittany Lions.
Illinois won this game by 39 points, and while that is a massive number, it isn’t the craziest part of the victory. What stands out to me more than Illinois winning the game 91-52 is the fact that some of the key Illini players didn’t actually play well.
Kylan Boswell did a good job making up for the lost production from Kasparas Jakucionis, but he isn’t quite the point guard. Boswell, who is one of our leaders, only had five points, six assists, five rebounds, and shot 2-of-8 from the field. He also had five turnovers.
Big man Tomislav Ivisic also had a stinker of a night. He has incredible talent and can tear teams apart if he gets going, but Ivisic only had four points, seven rebounds, three assists, two blocks, and one steal in 24 minutes. He only shot 2-of-6 from the field too.
And then you have Will Riley. The talented five-star recruit got the start in place of Jakucionis. He had an okay game but was terrible from the field. Riley finished with seven points, six rebounds, six assists, one block, and one steal. But he only shot 2-of-11 from the field.
So, breaking it down, three of Illinois’ starters had a combined 16 points and were 6-of-25, 24%, from the field. We still won the game by nearly 40 points. Let that soak in for a second. Just imagine what the score would have been if those three played an average game. Incredible.