5 big questions for the Illinois basketball team against Iowa

5. Will the Illini try to lean on the three-point shot?

Illinois has been known to do some overcorrecting after games. Sometimes we struggle in one area on the court, and then in the next game, we overcorrect and put our focus on another area of the court.

This past Tuesday, Illinois fell to a tough Purdue squad. In this game, the Boilermakers had a monster in the paint in Zach Edey, but Illinois only took 16 three-point attempts. That is a fairly low number of shots from the perimeter. I think an overcorrection is coming.

So, I am going to be watching to see what happens from behind the three-point arc on Sunday. Will Illinois try to lean on the three-point shot and take a large number of three-pointers?

I believe we are likely to see a ton of three-point attempts from the Illini. While we are playing for NCAA tournament seeding, this game isn’t huge for anything else. We already have the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament, so there could be a lot of settling for shots against Iowa.

The Illini also saw success from behind the three-point arc against Iowa in the first game between the two teams. Illinois was 10-of-27 from three-point range in February. That is 11 more three-point attempts than we took on Tuesday against Purdue.

My prediction is Illinois jacks up a lot of three-pointers against the Hawkeyes. This could be a wild game. I imagine most of those three-point attempts won’t go in, and there will be some droughts. Illinois will then go on scoring runs to get back in the game or take the lead. An overcorrection from 16 three-point attempts against Purdue is coming on Sunday.