Illinois Basketball: 5 big questions for the Illini against Fairleigh Dickinson

2. How ugly does Fairleigh Dickinson’s three-point shooting get?

Sometimes the Illinois offense can go off the rails. On occasion, we can go on droughts when the three-point shot isn’t hitting and the legs are tired of going to the rim.

But no matter what the offense looks like, the Illinois defense is always coming through. This has been the case the entire 2023-24 season, and I think we can do some damage against Fairleigh Dickinson on Friday night.

I want to see if the Illini defense can shut the Knights down, particularly from three-point range. Can we make Fairleigh Dickinson’s three-point shooting extremely ugly?

Illinois is one of the best teams in the country when it comes to three-point shooting defense. We are only allowing opponents to shoot 28.3% from behind the three-point arc, which ranks No. 23 in the country.

On top of the Illini playing great three-point defense, the Knights aren’t good at shooting from long range. They aren’t shy about shooting, though. Fairleigh Dickinson shoots 25.0 three-point attempts per game which ranks No. 69 in the country. The bad part for them is the fact they are only hitting 30.9% of those three-pointers, which ranks No. 252 in the nation.

The Illini play great three-point defense and the Knights are terrible at shooting from distance. This is a recipe for the Orange and Blue to make Fairleigh Dickinson’s night extremely long from beyond the three-point arc.