It is the next morning, and the Illinois basketball disaster that took place on Wednesday night still has yet to wear off.
In true Illini fashion, we came out and laid an egg in what needed to be an easy win. A bottom-of-the-barrel Big Ten team in Penn State, a team that entered the game 12-14 overall and 6-9 in the Big Ten, was missing their best player. Their leading scorer was kicked off the team just days ago.
This should have been a blowout win for Illinois. The Nittany Lions shouldn't have had a prayer. But that isn't Illinois basketball. The Illini came out of the gates and let Penn State dominate. They looked like the better team all night long.
Despite a seven-point halftime lead, Illinois came out in the second half and looked even worse. While the lead somehow managed to increase to 14 points at one time, Penn State came roaring back. They finally took advantage of the Illini mistakes. Down the stretch, we were awful. This is how Penn State beat Illinois, 90-89.
Here are five painful observations from the Illinois basketball loss to Penn State
1. The Illinois defense continues to be an embarrassment
I mean, there is no other way to put it. I tweeted it out on Wednesday night, and I think it should be restated. Illinois sucks at defense.
If you didn’t do any other analysis, that statement would still hold true. Just watching the Illini, you can tell this team is not good at defense, and nothing will change in the next couple of weeks.
Where do I start? Illinois averages 4.5 steals per game this season, which ranks No. 346 out of 362 teams in DI college basketball. The shocking part is that we have been under five steals in each of the last four games, including in the game against Penn State when we had four steals.
Illinois somehow couldn’t figure out the backdoor cut. We were flatfooted ball-watching, and this enabled Penn State to go baseline and get easy layups quite often.
Coming into the game, Penn State was a below-average three-point shooting team. They averaged hitting 32.7% of three-pointers this season, which ranked No. 228 in the country. The Nittany Lions were 8-of-18, 44.4%, from three-point range against the Illini.
Illinois couldn’t keep up with any Penn State player. They would drive past us constantly. We couldn’t figure out their inbound pass under the basket either. Penn State ran the same inbound play at least three times on Wednesday night, and the result was an easy layup with a defender nowhere in sight.
The Illini have now given up at least 80 points in four out of the last five games. Throughout time, we have prided ourselves on having a great defense, even in the bad years. But what I see out there on the court is an embarrassment. Illinois has so much talent, and they don’t want to play defense.
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