The Illinois basketball team put together an impressive win over a tough UCLA team on Tuesday night.
For most of the game, I was impressed with how the Illini played. The ball was moving all night long, and for the first time in a while, this felt like a team that had been playing together for years.
Despite only being up by six points in the first half, Illinois seemed to have control. We were keeping the Bruins at arm’s length, and this continued in the second half.
With less than five minutes to go in the game, Illinois increased the lead to 16 points. Most people thought the game was likely over, but UCLA had other plans. They started hitting big shot after big shot, and Illinois got lazy with the basketball.
One thing led to another, and it was a single-digit deficit with three minutes left. You blink again, and with 1:08 to go in the game, UCLA turned it into a one-score contest. It was a wild final five minutes of action. Thankfully, the Illini converted at the free throw line and made a couple of big shots to come away with the 83-78 win over UCLA.
Here are five huge observations from the Illinois basketball win over the UCLA Bruins
1. Kasparas Jakucionis is back to normal
Illinois currently has one of the best players I have ever seen suit up for the program on the roster right now. Kasparas Jakucionis can do things on the court that I have never seen in Champaign.
Before his injury, Jakucionis was dazzling us with his ability to create shots, hit shots, and distribute the basketball. He was incredible. But that injury definitely affected him, and he hasn’t been the same since.
Against Minnesota, Illinois started to get the Jakucionis of old. He looked great, as he went for 24 points, four rebounds, four assists, and one block in the victory over the Golden Gophers. Having one good game isn’t a prover for me, though. I needed to see good games stacked on each other. The UCLA contest was going to be a big showing of whether or not Jakucionis has shaken off the rust.
Let me tell you, the freshman sensation passed with flying colors. It was almost an exact replica of what we saw against Minnesota. Jakucionis was great against the Bruins, giving the Illini 24 points, eight rebounds, four assists, and one block.
Early in the game, Jakucionis tried to force the game instead of letting it come to him, so he had five turnovers in the contest. That isn’t a huge worry, as he settled down and was efficient in the second half.
The shooting aspect is what stands out to me. Shortly after the injury, Jakucionis wasn’t able to hit shots, and he wasn’t creating the space he was usually able to create. Against UCLA, that all changed. Jakucionis worked some magic and hit big shots
In the last two games alone, Jakucionis is 5-of-12, 41.7%, from three-point range. He has made more three-point shots in the last two games than he did in the prior six contests. I think Jakucionis is finally back to normal.
2. Shot selection has improved for Ben Humrichous
There is usually a player every year who I am frustrated with for one reason or another. This season, it is Ben Humrichous.
I expected Humrichous to come into the Illinois basketball program and become our ace three-point shooter. For the first half of the season, that wasn’t the case. He was just average at best. Humrichous wasn’t taking good shots, and it affected the team negatively.
There is something I have noticed over the past few games, though. Humrichous seems to have changed his style of play, and it has proved to be beneficial to the talented scorer.
When Humrichous started playing for Illinois, he was taking bad three-point attempts. His shots were from beyond NBA three-point range. There was no reason to really guard him out there because he wasn’t going to make them often.
Humrichous wasn’t driving to the basket a lot either. He was more of a perimeter guy who was just standing around and waiting for the ball to come to him.
The Humrichouis Illinois has right now is not that at all. He is someone who is constantly moving around the court. This enables him to come off screens and find more open space for better, closer, shots at the basket.
I love it when Humrichous gets aggressive too. He has the ability to back his man down with his 6-foot-9 size. That was underutilized early in the season, but he is now playing a little booty-ball, and it is paying off.
Humrichous doesn’t have to put up 20 points per game to be effective. He dropped nine points, three rebounds, two assists, one block, and one steal against UCLA on Tuesday night. Over the last three games, he is averaging 10.7 points and is 7-of-17, 41.2%, from three-point range. On top of that, he only has one turnover in those three contests. That is the Humrichous Illinois basketball needs.
3. Illinois tightened up the silly turnovers
The game of basketball can be weird sometimes. Illinois played much worse in the first half than the second half, but we won the first half by six points and lost the second half by a point.
Like I said, that first half for the Illini wasn’t great. We weren’t hitting shots, and the thing that bit us the most was the sloppy play. Illinois was turning the ball over at way too high of a rate.
Illinois didn’t take care of the ball, and at times, we were trying to make the flashy play instead of the right play. This resulted in nine turnovers in the first half of action. There are three teams in the country that average less than nine turnovers in an entire game. Illinois had more than that in a half of basketball.
The Illini played much better and more efficiently in the second half, though. We stopped trying to do the no-look passes, and the fancy stuff. Kasparas Jakucionis was smarter about where he was going with the ball as he was going through the lane and on the perimeter.
If Illinois had replicated the first half in the second half, it would have resulted in UCLA beating us. Having nine turnovers against the Bruins would have ruined everything. But Illinois tightened up and only had five turnovers in the second 20 minutes of action.
It has been difficult for the Illini to put two quality halves together this season. If we took care of the ball in the first half, this game would have been a blowout.
Illinois now averages 11.9 turnovers per game, which ranks No. 185 in the nation. That number will continue to get worse if we keep putting up 14-turnover games, though. Every turnover matters, especially in Big Ten play.
4. The Illini ball movement was phenomenal
Illinois came away with a huge win on Tuesday night, and a big reason we secured this victory was due to the great ball movement by the entire Illini squad.
When I looked at the box score after the game, I was baffled by the assist number. Illinois had 15 assists in the game but honestly, I thought it was going to be more. With the way the Illini were distributing the basketball, I thought it was going to be closer to 20 assists against UCLA.
As a team, we use the pass effectively. Getting out of UCLA’s presses with the pass was huge. The Illinois coaching staff clearly worked on that, and it was executed flawlessly. Illinois knew where to go with the ball, and this led to multiple open buckets at the other end.
Team chemistry has also helped when it comes to passing the basketball. Illinois’ players are getting comfortable, and they know where they will be the vast majority of the time.
There were multiple possessions when the ball would fly around the court, and it would end up hitting an open cutter to the basket for an easy two points.
Illinois also doesn’t let the ball go stagnant too often in games. With some teams in the past, we would get too complacent and not move around. That doesn’t happen with this squad. The ball and players are always moving, and this helps with spacing.
I think there were four or five times on Tuesday night that I uttered, “Wow” to Illinois’ passing ability. It was a spectacular show, and this type of basketball is winning basketball.
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.