Illinois Basketball: 5 big questions for the Illini against Michigan

3. Does Quincy Guerrier wake up?

Kind of piggybacking off the end of the previous slide, Quincy Guerrier has been amazing for the Illinois basketball team this season. Brad Underwood did a great job snagging him out of the transfer portal.

Guerrier has been even more special since Illinois became a man down a few weeks back. He has taken more of a leadership role, and when he doesn’t play well, the Illini feel it as a team.

That is why I want to see if Guerrier wakes up on Thursday night. Illinois needs him to play well to win games. Can Guerrier look like the player we have been used to for the majority of the season against Michigan?

I am going to be honest, I was pretty disappointed with how Guerrier looked against Maryland. He finished the loss with seven points, five rebounds, and one block on 2-of-10 shooting from the field and 1-of-4 from three-point range.

Guerrier wasn’t super active as he usually is on the court. This killed the Illini in developing any flow on the offensive end of the court.

In addition to that, Guerrier wasn’t able to convert when he did get bursts of energy. He did a great job getting to the rim with the ball, but he missed at least three layups against the Terrapins.

Coming into the Maryland game, Guerrier had seven straight double-digit scoring contests. The worst he had shot in that stretch was 33.3% as well. Illinois needs Guerrier to be on his game on Thursday night. If we can get the usual Guerrier, then I don’t think we will have a problem with Michigan.