Illinois Fighting Illini Defeat in Championship Tournament
Need to lock in.
Just a few weeks ago, it felt like this Illini team was a surefire 2 seed and even potentially a 1 seed. They looked like a legitimate title contender and were well on their way to having one of the best regular seasons in program history. That quickly changed when the Illini finished the season losing their final five games against Quad I opponents.
You could argue the recent slump is due to the team’s inability to stop talented guards, or the fact that the offense seems to get complacent and settle for too many three-pointers instead of attacking the rim to get easy baskets and draw more fouls. Regardless, changes need to be made if this team still wants to make a deep NCAA Tournament run. When looking at how they may fix these issues, I do believe this team has the answers they need.
Kylan Boswell needs to stay out of foul trouble, as this team needs a lot of minutes from he and Andrej Stojakovic if they hope to have a chance at stopping talented guards. There will be plenty of opportunities to face off against some talented guards in this tournament, and that has been an extreme weakness for this team. Offensively, they need to play through Tomislav Ivisic in the post more during certain stretches.
He can get this team easy buckets down there, which is something this team has been missing. Aside from David Mirkovic when he has a mismatch, this team hasn’t hunted matchups in the post as much as they probably should be. What do you think this team needs to do differently to look like a contender again?