3 Illinois basketball stats that need to improve before the NCAA tournament

3. Points allowed

I remember the days when Illinois was good defensively. We were one of the feared teams when it came to stopping the opponent from putting the ball in the bucket.

These days weren’t that long ago. In fact, Illinois was a great defensive team into the new year. On January 2, the Illini closed up a game against Northwestern where we only gave up 66 points. The Wildcats had no answers for Illinois.

After that game, the Illini were giving up just 65.5 points per game on the season, which ranked No. 39 in the nation. That was the last time Illinois had consistently good defense, though. The bottom started to drop out after that blowout win.

In the 11 games since that Northwestern win, Illinois has allowed opponents to score an average of 76.0 points per game. This includes giving up 83 points to Purdue, 96 points to Northwestern, 84 points to Nebraska, and 88 points to Michigan State. We are 1-3 in those games.

After the game on Tuesday night, Illinois is now giving up 70.3 points per game. This is still a solid number, as we rank No. 116 in the country. But the Illini are a better defensive team than that.

Illinois needs to start shifting gears and playing lockdown defense again before the NCAA tournament starts. If we give up 80 or more points against an NCAA tournament team, we are probably heading home.

Three-point defense is a big reason why Illinois gives up points. In the four games mentioned above where we allowed at least 80 points, those teams shot above 42% from three-point range. If the Illini can play well defensively on the perimeter, then we can win a lot of games.