5 massive questions for the Illinois basketball team against Iowa

2. Who on the Illinois basketball team is going to stop Payton Sandfort?

The Illini fell to Penn State and hasn’t looked great the past couple of weeks. On the other side of the spectrum, Iowa has been playing some of the best basketball of the season.

Iowa has won two games in a row and three out of the last four. Their last win was on the road in East Lansing against a Michigan State squad fighting for their NCAA tournament lives.

The Hawkeyes have talent on the team, and one of their best players is Payton Sandfort. He is a long wing who can put up a lot of points.

I am going to be keeping an eye out on which Illinois player or players will be covering the Hawkeyes’ ace. Will any Illini player be able to stop Sandfort?

Let’s start off with the Illinois defense. We have given up 80 or more points in four out of the past five games. The defense can’t guard anyone, and this has allowed some big-time scoring nights from some good players.

That doesn’t bode well for the Illini coming into a game against a good Iowa squad that boasts a player like Sandfort. He is kind of like Iowa’s Marcus Domask. Sandfort stands at 6-foot-7, can rebound well, and he is an electric scorer.

I believe this is going to be a Sandfort vs Domask game. It will be a fun matchup to watch. My worry is that Domask isn’t great defensively. But you know what, none of the Illinois players are either. Let’s see what the game plan ends up being against Sandfort.