5. End-of-game scenario needs work
Illinois was able to secure the victory on Tuesday night over UCLA. I don’t care how close the game ended up getting, a win is the most important thing. We have now won back-to-back games for the first time since the beginning of January.
With that being said, what I saw at the end of the game was ugly. Illinois nearly let this game slip away, and that is unacceptable. It would have been a devastating loss if we would have dropped this game at home.
When someone looks at the box score, they will probably think this was a good game throughout. That wasn’t the case, though. Illinois had a 16-point lead with less than five minutes to go in the game. That is when the collapse started.
Illinois got really lazy with the basketball. I honestly believe that we thought his game was finished, and that is why we started settling for shots.
Throughout the entire game, Illinois was doing a great job not settling for shots. Most of the time, the Illini were driving the ball into the paint, and then we would kick it out for an open three-point attempt. It was either that or the ball would swing around the perimeter until an open shot was found.
Late in the game, that changed. Illinois stopped moving the ball as much. In the final 4:02 of the game, Illinois jacked up three three-point attempts and missed all of them. Kylan Boswell had a shot that blew my mind. It was an ugly attempt that gave UCLA the ball back.
In the final 4:02, Illinois had four points, one assist, one rebound, and one turnover. Kasparas Jakcuionis also had a foul that gave UCLA free throws. On top of that, we were 0-of-3 from three-point range and just 2-of-6 from the field. Illinois needs to work on end-of-game situations.