Illinois basketball is starting to rack up disappointing losses this season, as Rutgers was too much to handle on Wednesday night.
The Illini were going up against a Scarlet Knights team that has two top 10 picks in the 2025 NBA Draft. With that being said, Rutgers was only 11-11 entering the game. They were a very beatable team, but Illinois just didn’t have the juice.
Bad shooting and shot selection got Illinois into a double-digit hole within the first 10 minutes of the game. Rutgers’ lead would balloon to 17 points at one time, but the Illini had a little fight to end the first half and made it an eight-point deficit.
Rutgers continued to play well, though. While Illinois took the lead multiple times in the second half, the Scarlet Knights had too much firepower. Led by phenom Dylan Harper, Rutgers would suffocate the Illini with big shot after big shot until the final score read 82-73 in favor of the Scarlet Knights.
Here are five sad observations from the Illinois basketball loss to the Rutgers Scarlet Knights
1. Three-point shooting buried Illinois
Losses always hurt, and with losses come analyzing why Illinois didn’t come out on top. The Illini looked below average on Wednesday night, and I believe a lot of it had to do with three-point shooting.
Illinois could have beaten Rutgers if it wasn’t for the dreaded start. For the game, the Illini shot 6-of-28, 21.4%, from three-point range. That is a horrible number, but the second half actually improved that number greatly.
In the first half, Illinois was just chucking up three-point attempts. The team was just 2-of-17, 11.8%, from three-point range. This is why we got into such a deep hole, as high as 17 points, early on in the game.
I know I have harped on this before, but Illinois isn’t a good three-point shooting team. We have our moments, but overall, I don’t know if I have seen a worse Illini three-point shooting squad. The hardest part of this poor shooting is that most of the Illini players think they’re Steph Curry-level when they aren’t even Seth Curry.
Illinois is now shooting 30.7% from three-point range this season, which ranks No. 314 out of 364 teams in DI basketball. The last time an Illini team shot worse than 30.7% in a season was in 2011-12. That was the season we got off to a hot start and lost 12 out of the final 14 games and Bruce Weber got fired.
2. Will Riley is playing with an incredible confidence
Just a few weeks ago, I was sitting here disappointed in Will Riley. As a fan, I thought Illinois was getting a five-star player who was going to change the game.
Sadly, the first couple of months of the Riley experience were not good. He looked lost on the court, and he wasn’t sure how to break out of the funk.
From January 1 through January 26, Riley played in eight games and averaged just 6.4 points per game. He was also just 4-of-21, 19%, from three-point range. Things were pretty bleak.
Illinois needed an answer with so many injuries and illnesses. I believe Brad Underwood gave the green light to Riley, and since then, he has flourished.
Riley has played with incredible confidence in the last three games. He has been Illinois’ best player, and I think there should be conversations about putting him in the starting lineup.
On Wednesday night, Riley continued his tear. He had 18 points, six assists, and three rebounds. Riley was 6-of-16 from the field and 2-of-5 from three-point range. He hit some big shots, and Rutgers had such a hard time stopping him from getting to the basket and finishing.
Over the past three games, Riley has been a changed player. He finally had a chance to shine and hasn’t disappointed. In this three-game span, Riley is averaging 19.3 points per game and is 7-of-16, 43.8%, from three-point range. He has been incredible for the Illini, and while it was a tough loss, let’s give Riley some credit for turning a corner.
3. Illinois can’t seem to stay healthy
It has been a weird season for the Illinois basketball program. It all started with nearly every player from the Elite 8 squad departing the team.
Ty Rodgers ended up redshirting, which made things even more complicated. Finally, the season got here and everything seemed to be going well. That was until the health issues started to arise.
Kasparas Jakucionis went down with a left arm injury. That was the start of the decline of the Illini. We then dropped the USC game, and he would return for the contest against Indiana.
Illinois then had to deal with Tomislav Ivisic having mono. The big man had the illness in the loss to Michigan State. He then had to sit out multiple games after that as he was getting better.
The Illini had a nice comeback win over Ohio State on Sunday. This was Ivisic’s first game back, and Illinois started to click. Wednesday rolled around, and Illinois dealt with health issues once again.
Fans got the news that Illinois would be missing a key piece in Tre White. He is dealing with an illness, so he wasn’t going to play. That wasn’t the only blow to Illinois’ health on Wednesday.
Illinois was fighting and had a chance to clip Rutgers, but in the game, Ivisic once again had issues. He came down with a rebound and twisted his ankle. The big man tried to give it another go, but he didn’t have it in him.
The 2024-25 campaign had and still has so much promise, but Illinois can’t stay healthy. If we can get everyone on the court at the same time, then we could go deep in March. But that seems like a big ask at this point.
4. If Kasparas Jakucionis can’t get right, Illinois is doomed
In the last slide, I talked about health issues. Kasparas Jakucionis is one of the players who has had some issues this season staying on the court.
Back in early January, Jakucionis hurt his left arm and was out for a few games. He was missed greatly, as the USC contest was a wake-up call on how badly Illinois needed this kid on the court.
The star guard made his return in the Indiana game, and everything seemed to go fine. He dropped 21 points that night and shot 3-of-7 from three-point range in the 25-point thumping we put on the Hoosiers.
I think it is pretty clear that not everything is fine with Jakucionis, though. He was only able to give Illinois seven points, two rebounds, two assists on 2-of-8 shooting from the field against Rutgers on Wednesday.
Since returning from injury, Jakucionis’ three-point shooting has been awful. He is just 7-of-35, 20%, from three-point range in the seven games since his return.
Jakucionis just doesn’t have the same spark he had pre-injury. He isn’t as quick and isn’t able to create the same space. I think defenses got better against him, and he isn’t as consistent with his shot due to the injury.
One thing is for certain, if Jakucionis doesn’t get right, Illinois has no chance come March. This kid is a special player who can carry a team. He was our ace. Without Jakucionis playing like Jakucionis, Illinois is just average. He needs to be on his game the rest of the way out.
5. The Illini couldn’t find a usual spark
Coming into the game on Wednesday night, Illinois managed to beat a hungry Ohio State team. It wasn’t an easy win, though.
In the victory over the Buckeyes, the Illini were down by 11 points in the second half. We needed some type of spark in that game, and the spark was found.
Tomislav Ivisic took over and started the scoring. Illinois got contributions from Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn and Morez Johnson Jr. Will Riley was showing his full repertoire of skills. And Kylan Boswell was extremely aggressive and played downhill.
Illinois needed all of that to take down Rutgers. We needed a nice team effort down the stretch to get over the hump. That never happened, though. The Illini couldn’t find the necessary spark.
Riley doesn’t deserve any blame. While he had some trouble defensively, he was electric on the offensive side of the court. He produced for Illinois.
Ivisic’s injury was brutal for Illinois. He was huge down the stretch against Ohio State, and he would have been big against the likes of Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey.
Illinois didn’t get much else from anyone. Ben Humrichous was a nice surprise with his 10 points in the second half. Johnson had seven points, five of which came from the charity stripe.
Boswell and Gibbs-Lawhorn didn’t do much for the Illini. They had a combined eight points and were 0-of-3 from three-point range in the second half.
Illinois needed a great team effort or someone to take the reins against Rutgers. That spark never occurred, and the Illini weren’t able to beat the Scarlet Knights. This was a disappointing loss, and it has me worried moving forward.