Illinois basketball turned Black Friday into Ugly Friday with a bad showing against UConn.
This was a measuring stick game to see where the Illini are as a program. We had a chance to take on the No. 5 team in the country, and the Huskies looked like they should be ranked that high.
UConn came out swinging against the Illini. They were hitting shot after shot, and Illinois struggled to get anything going offensively. At one time, the Illini were down by 14 points in the first half. By the end of the first half, we were in an 11-point hole.
The second half started poorly, too. The deficit reached as many as 21 points with less than 10 minutes to go in the game. Illinois stormed back and narrowed it to a single-digit deficit late, but it was too little too late. UConn ended up beating Illinois, 74-61.
Here are five painful observations from the Illinois basketball loss to UConn
1. Illinois needs to pull back David Mirkovic three-point privileges
I was enamored by the play of David Mirkovic early on this season. Some would say, I overreact.
Mirkovic was looking great to begin his time with the Illini. He was torching teams for the first four games, but when the good teams arrive, this kid seems to run into a brick wall.
This happened once again on Friday. Illinois took on a good UConn squad, and Mirkovic had another bad game. He finished the contest with eight points, eight rebounds, and two assists while shooting 3-of-10 from the floor.
The struggles are understandable, as these are good teams Illinois is playing. But there is having off games, and then there is taking ill-advised shots. He had some moments when he shouldn’t have been taking shots.
Mirkovic was open on some of his three-point attempts, but I think it is time to pull his three-point privileges. He was hitting those shots earlier this season, but when the teams get better, his shooting suffers.
Illinois has played against three power-four programs this season. Mirkovic is shooting 3-of-15, 20%, from three-point range in those games. Let’s pull back his shooting from deep, as only a couple of three-pointers per game should be his maximum.
2. Illinois got aggressive a little too late
The first half was a bit of a disaster for the Illini. UConn came out punching, and Illinois acted like we could keep up by shooting the Huskies out of the gym.
That didn’t work out so well, though. Illinois got behind quickly with that mentality. Instead of taking the game to UConn, we decided to get conservative and try to drop bombs from three-point range in the first half and make this more of a perimeter game.
Illinois finished the first half down 11 points, and we only got to the free throw line for three attempts. When you shoot 38.2% from the field, the free throw line needs to be your friend to get points in some form.
In the second half, everything changed. While the Illini managed to get into a bigger hole at one point, the program started to get more aggressive. We still shot poorly, going 23.1% from the field, but players started to be more aggressive toward the basket.
Illinois had 15 free throw attempts in the final 20 minutes of action, and this aggression helped close the gap to a seven-point game late in the contest. Sadly, this aggression was a little too late. Illinois only lost the second half by two points. If we had this aggression for the entire game, the result might have been different.
3. The Illini didn’t get the production needed from Andrej Stojakovic
This offseason was supposed to land Illinois a closer. We needed someone who could be our go-to guy and get a bucket to help cut off momentum from the other team.
Andrej Stojakovic was going to be one of those big additions. He was a big-time scorer from Cal, and he has the ability and pedigree to really do some damage. On Friday, Stojakovic was nowhere to be found.
In 24 minutes of action, the talented guard had his worst game of the season. He was 1-of-7 from the field and only had three points and two rebounds.
Illinois has zero chance to do anything good this season with Stojakovic playing like that. If he scores under 10 points in a game, we are probably going to struggle. Scoring just three points is unacceptable and will get us quite a few losses this season.
It was a weird game for Stojakovic, too. He couldn’t get in a groove whatsoever. His shot seemed off, and there was no aggression coming from him. It is like his body was there, but his mind was left back in Champaign. We have to have both present if we want to succeed in 2025-26.
4. UConn offensive rebounds killed the Illini
I think it is pretty clear that UConn has a great team and a great coach. When those two things come together, you can be on a run that the Huskies have been on the past half-decade.
With that being said, Illinois can’t allow UConn to have second chances. They are too good to allow them to get another chance at scoring the basketball, and that is what happened on Friday.
This season, the Huskies have not been a good offensive rebounding squad. They average 9.0 offensive rebounds per game, which ranks No. 197 in the nation. Illinois should have been able to clean up on the glass.
Instead, UConn had one of their best offensive rebounding games of the season. They pulled down a total of 43 rebounds, and 14 of those rebounds were offensive. That was 14 second chances they got at scoring.
The frustrating part was that the Huskies would score on those second-chance opportunities quite often. One of the biggest offensive rebounds was at the end of the game when Illinois was down just seven points. We had a chance to pull down the board and score at the other end. Instead, UConn goes over the back, dishes it out, and they score on a four-point play.
Offensive rebounds were a massive issue for the Illini. We let a below-average offensive rebounding team look like one of the best in the country.
5. Illinois still had great fight despite taking early punches
I am not going to lie, it was a disappointing showing by the Illini on Friday. I wanted to see this team compete with the best competition and at least have a shot at the end.
That really didn’t end up being the case, though. Illinois got it back to seven points at the end of the game, but it was too little too late for the Orange and Blue.
Even with the loss and being down over 20 points at one time, I was pleased with how the Illini responded to adversity. We didn’t fold up shop and let UConn steamroll over us, as we did during the Duke game at Madison Square Garden last season.
Illinois, with multiple freshmen in the mix, found a way to claw back. We found a way to keep this game somewhat respectable. This was only game No. 8, and multiple Illinois players are just starting to get their feet underneath them.
I think this was a great learning experience for many of the players. There are a lot of players on the roster who haven’t competed like this at this high a level. Now, we are starting to realize what it takes to be competitive with such talented programs.
It is a painful loss, no doubt about that. I was hoping this was going to be a tone-setter for the Illini. But at least we saw a fight out of them. They were trying to navigate these rough waters throughout the game, and they at least stayed afloat.