5 massive observations from the Illinois basketball win over Ohio State

4. It was just one of those games for Marcus Domask

Sometimes basketball just happens. You wake up and have an off day. Things just don’t go right, and the hoop seems to have a lid on it for you. That was the case with Marcus Domask on Friday night.

Domask is without a doubt a great player. He is incredible on the basketball court with his ability to score from the perimeter and with his back to the basket. He is a Swiss Army Knife, and Illinois is lucky to have him on the team.

But this was a stinker of a game for Domask. He finished the Ohio State game with seven points, four assists, and two rebounds while going 3-of-16 from the floor and 1-of-5 from three-point range. He also had four turnovers on the night.

This was technically Domask’s second-worst game of the season. He had a worst shooting percentage in the loss earlier this season to Tennessee. But this was by far the worst time to have one of the worst games of the season.

Basketball is a tough sport, though. Bad games do happen. This was one of those weird games. On multiple occasions, Domask was able to get to the rim. He missed two layups where the ball looked to be going in the hoop, but it hit the inside of the rim and popped out.

When Domask would back his man down, he did his patented fadeaway jumper, but that shot was just a few inches too short all night long. All around, he just couldn’t get much to go against the Buckeyes.

The silver lining to Domask having a bad game is the fact Illinois won and he got the bad game out of the way. He doesn’t have back-to-back bad games, which excites me for the Nebraska matchup on Saturday. Look for Domask to put up a big number against the Cornhuskers.