5 keys for Illinois basketball to beat the Tennessee Volunteers

Illinois basketball has played some big games already, but on Saturday, the biggest matchup of the season strolls into Champaign.

The Illini welcome in the No. 1 ranked Tennessee Volunteers. This is a great Vols program that has been given a jolt from the transfer portal.

Tennessee is undefeated this season, but Illinois is also coming off a big win over a ranked Wisconsin team just days ago. This victory helped boost morale, and the confidence is at an all-time high that we can knock off the top team in the land. It is going to take a few key things for Illinois to beat Tennessee, though.

Here are five keys for Illinois basketball to beat the Tennessee Volunteers

1. Avoid the scoring droughts

If there is any program that knows scoring droughts, it is Illinois. We got to experience the biggest of all scoring droughts last season against UConn.

This season, while the roster is nearly completely different, Illinois still has scoring drought stretches that absolutely kill us. The biggest example of a scoring drought this season came two games ago.

Northwestern was on the ropes. The Illini were up by 10, 46-36, with just over 10 minutes to go in the game. It looked like this game was going to be a victory.

Illinois didn’t score for the next nearly five minutes. This allowed the Wildcats to cut the lead to two points. The rough play continued throughout the rest of the game, which resulted in an overtime loss.

The droughts for the Illini usually consist of a lack of moment on offense. We stand around and watch whoever has the ball, mainly Kasparas Jakucionis, and then hope he does something spectacular.

Illinois has the tools to break these droughts too. We have the guards who can get in the paint and cause chaos. When the scoring stops, get Kylan Boswell or Tre White going downhill to the hoop. While the shot might not go in, they can at least get to the free throw line for points.

I noticed that Illinois can go away from Tomislav Ivisic. He can break droughts too. His ability to score at all levels is such a threat.

If Illinois can just avoid the massive five-minute droughts against Tennessee, then we will be in this game until the end.