4. Illinois takes a lot of mid-range jumpers
There are times when Illinois can put up a lot of points. Even with the loss to Alabama, the Illini still managed to hang 87 points on the Crimson Tide.
I would take 87 points in every game this season. That would likely lock up a top-five seed in the NCAA tournament. While that is a big number, I did notice that the Illini seem to take a lot of mid-range jumpers.
The three-point arc was a place Illinois players frequented in 2023-24. This rendition of the Orange and Blue has found that to be a nice home too, as we shot 30 three-point attempts against the Crimson Tide. The only issue I had was when we decided to go inside the three-point arc, Illinois wasn’t aggressive.
There would be a few times we drove to the basket to try to get points, but Illinois settled for the mid-range jumper quite often. That is a big reason why the Illini only shot 45.1% from the field on Wednesday.
Illinois’ two-point shooting against the Crimson Tide was below their season average. We shot 53.7% from two-point range, and that is well below the 57.1% we were averaging coming into the game.
I believe the Illini have numerous slashers who can take hits. When we aren’t shooting the three-point shot, I would like to see more drives to the hoop. We can’t keep settling from the mid-range.