For the past several seasons, Illinois has had “as high of a ceiling” as virtually any program in the nation.
The full height of that ceiling was on display in St. Louis last night. Not just offensively, but defensively as well.
The historic whooping of rival Missouri showed the Illinois fanbase the true potential of this year’s roster, which felt much needed after a disappointing loss to Nebraska at home a week prior.
On offense, Illinois looked like the juggernaut that we’ve grown accustomed to seeing
over the past half-decade or so. 91 points, 15 made threes, 20 assists, and full control over the rebounding battle helped keep the Illini in control over the Tigers all night.
Keaton Wagler continued his sensational freshman campaign, posting 22 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 assists. Tomislav Ivisic and Andrej Stojakovic combined for 30 points and 5 made threes. Star senior Kylan Boswell was relatively quiet, but the rest of the Illini supporting cast stepped up. That’s the beauty of a deep and absurdly talented roster.
We could talk at length about how special Illinois is on the offensive side of the ball. They look dominant as a full unit and have a number of stars that can give you an Earth-shattering individual performance on any given night. There’s a reason they’re ranked second in offensive efficiency on KenPom, Bart Torvik, and Haslametrics. The offense is simply that good.
The Illini defense on the other hand…hasn’t always fit the bill. Despite a solid defensive efficiency rating on metric sites like KenPom, I think it’s fair to say that the Illinois defense hadn’t passed the eye test until Monday night in St. Louis.
Camryn Crocker’s group did hold Tennessee to 62 points in Nashville, but it surrendered 23 offensive rebounds and gave the Volunteers more than enough opportunities to put up points. The team’s defensive performance against Tennessee wasn’t even in the same stratosphere as their effort against Missouri.
Missouri scored just 48 points. The Tigers shot 29% from the field and 27% from beyond the arc. They recorded 10 turnovers compared to just 6 assists. Illinois won the rebounding battle by 19. Missouri had 8 shots sent back at them.
That’s dominance.
You’d be a fool to expect Illinois to look like that every single outing. Illinois does have some great individual defenders in Kylan Boswell and Zvonimir Ivisic and the majority of the rotation can at least hold their own individually. The overall team defense hasn’t been up to par this year though.
JT Toppin went for 35 against the Illini. Labaron Philon had 24. Bruce Thornton put up 34. Pryce Sandfort posted a career-high 32. For a few minutes it looked like Missouri’s Anthony Robinson II was well on his way to a great scoring night, but Illinois eventually put him in check.
Letting a player go for a career-high isn’t necessarily the worst strategy in the world. It’s unlikely that one guy can beat your entire team, especially with the offensive firepower that Illinois possesses this season. When Illinois fans complain about an opposing player going nuclear, I think it has more to do with the frustration that comes from the self-inflicted mistakes that Illinois players have been making defensively rather than the agony that results from someone making a tough shot.
Everyone knows that the Illini defense can be better. Simple miscommunications, blown switches, and basic scouting report errors seem to have plagued the defensive unit in critical moments early on this season. That can be fixed. It definitely looked a whole lot better against Missouri.
Illinois has made an interesting adjustment on the defensive end this year. In Brad Underwood’s first eight years at the helm, Illinois ranked top-100 in the nation in defensive 3PA/FGA rate. They ranked top-40 each of the last six years and top-10 each of the last two years. They rank 177th so far this season.
Instead of defending the three-point line like their lives depend on it, Illinois has let opponents launch away. 35.9% of opponents’ points have come from threes this season, compared to just 27.0% last season.
Missouri launched 22 threes on Monday night, making just six. When they tried to drive the ball, Zvonimir Ivisic wreaked havoc in the paint. Illinois got some great defensive performances individually as well. Keaton Wagler stuck out to me personally.
With a handful of new players and a huge schematic adjustment like Illinois made this offseason, there were bound to be some growing pains as a defensive unit. A dominant performance against Missouri was a step in the right direction.
In order to win games late in March, a team needs both a great offense and a great defense. We know that Illinois has at least one of the two. In St. Louis, we saw a glimpse of the other begin to emerge.
