2. Will the Illini keep Missouri off the free throw line?
Missouri has the talent to attack you from multiple areas on the court. In the previous slide, I talked about the three-point shooting and if Illinois can stop them. Missouri can also attack the basket.
This season, the Tigers have been tenacious around the rim. They can force their hand and, at worst, get to the free throw line. For the year, Missouri is shooting 29.5 free throws per game. That is good enough to rank No. 2 in the country.
So, one of the big questions for the game on Sunday is, can Illinois keep the Tigers from shooting so many free throws?
While the Tigers do shoot a lot from the charity stripe, they are also good at making them. The only weak point is big man Mark Mitchell, who has attempted the most on the team and is only making them at a clip of 59.4%.
The bad shooting by Mitchell has skewed the shooting numbers a bit. Missouri, as a team, is shooting only 71.4%, but its individual players are hitting at a high clip. Besides Mitchell, the other six out of the top seven scorers for the Tigers are all hitting at least 75% of their free throws. Three of those players are over 80%.