5 huge questions for the Illinois basketball team against Wisconsin

Illinois basketball hits the road on Saturday in hopes of coming out with a tough Big Ten away win.

This won't be an easy task. The Illini are going up against a solid Wisconsin team, and any game on the road in the Big Ten is difficult. Add to that, the Badgers want to lock in a good seed in the NCAA tournament, so beating Illinois would be a great win for their program.

Illinois needs to look good on Saturday. We need a nice confidence booster heading into the final couple of games and the Big Ten Tournament.

Here are five huge questions for the Illinois basketball team against Wisconsin

1. Can the Illinois offense continue to carry the team?

It has been no secret that the Illinois defense has been horrendous the past month or so. It has been shockingly bad, and I don’t think I have ever seen the Illini play this badly on defense in my lifetime.

Despite the insanely bad defense, the Illini have still been winning on the court. Illinois has given up at least 80 points in six out of the last seven games, and we have won five of those contests. That is kind of impressive.

So, will this last on Saturday? Can the Illinois offense continue to carry the team against Wisconsin?

The reason I ask is that Wisconsin plays a completely different style than Illinois. They are going to try to slow the game down as much as possible.

This season, the Badgers average 67.4 possessions per game, which ranks No. 326 out of 363 DI programs. Illinois averages 72.8 possessions per game, which ranks No. 75 in the nation.

With the slow play comes lower scores. The Badgers only give up 68.9 points per game. This is good enough to rank No. 79 in the country. So, Wisconsin is a slow playing team that holds their opponents to a low-scoring number.

That is the opposite of what Illinois wants to do every game. The Illini offense better be ready because we are going to give up points. We will need to counterbalance that with points on the offensive end. Wisconsin doesn’t give up many points, though. This will be an interesting matchup.