4. Will the Illinois guards eat up Ace Baldwin Jr.?
Size-wise, Penn State has some big bodies. They don’t have a dominating paint presence, but their lineup is fairly big. They will be able to match up against Illinois quite well.
The one player who doesn’t have the size is now their leader, Ace Baldwin Jr. He is averaging 14.0 points, 5.3 assists, 2.8 steals, and 2.2 rebounds per game. He will now step into the No. 1 guard role, as Kanye Clary is no longer on the team.
So, will Illinois be able to stop Baldwin? I will take it a step further. Can Illinois’ guards eat Baldwin up?
While Baldwin is a great player who can score at a high clip and distribute well, he hasn’t gone up against a team like Illinois size-wise. The Illini have big guards we can throw at him all night long.
I think the Illini guards will give Baldwin problems when he is trying to score the ball. We are long and athletic, and he is going to have trouble shooting over us and getting clean looks.
I am also curious to see who Baldwin guards. If he is on Marcus Domask, I believe he will struggle. Domask will be able to back Baldwin down all night long and score at will. The same goes for Ty Rodgers. Rodgers will be able to slash and get into the lane. He then can use his big frame to score at the basket.
Illinois has the horses to give Penn State some serious trouble. Let’s see if we can use our size to take this game to the Nittany Lions.