5 huge observations from the Illinois basketball win over Florida State

4. This wasn’t a good night from the Illini backcourt

Illinois played some good basketball as a team. You can’t beat the No. 19 team in the country without playing well. We also scored 83 points, which is a pretty big number.

There isn’t a lot to say negatively about the Illini after this game. I would say the biggest negative is the fact that the Illinois backcourt actually had a bad game.

Genesis Bryant and Makira Cook are the two leaders in the Illinois backcourt. They bring the ball up and get us into the offense. But even with the nine-point win, these two laid an egg against Florida State.

Cook was the better of the two. She finished the game with 20 points on 6-of-20 from the field and 1-of-5 from three-point range. She also had four rebounds, five assists, and two steals.

Bryant’s struggles were a lot more apparent. She only had eight points on the night while going 1-of-5 from the field and missing the lone three-point attempt.

The biggest issue I had with this duo was that they were missing wide-open three-point attempts. There were multiple times Florida State would leave these two open, and they just couldn’t consistently hit shots. Those open attempts need to start falling if Illinois wants to have a big year.

On the other hand, I look at the result and Illinois won by nine while their starting backcourt was a combined 1-of-6 from three-point range and had five turnovers. Just imagine if these two were playing well.