How Illinois Basketball can beat the Xavier Musketeers

Illinois basketball takes on the Xavier Musketeers on Friday night. It is certainly an interesting matchup, especially considering how the Illini have looked the past month and a half. For starters, they lost three games in a row in embarrassing fashion, then went on to take four straight games. However, the last game that they played left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth as they got completely destroyed by the Maryland Terrapins. The Illini looked helpless in that game and left fans worried about which team would show up in March Madness. Illinicast host, Austin Burklund, sat down with Paul Fritschner of the Sean Miller Podcast to discuss the exciting Friday night matchup. Ultimately, Paul gave great insight into what Illinois basketball needs to do to advance to the round of 32.

Dominate the glass and limit the three

Xavier is ninth overall in three-point field goal percentage. Of course, they have arguably the best shooter in the country in Ryan Conwell. The Illini will have to make sure that Conwell does not get in the early going, and I fully expect Kylan Boswell to start on him early. Their other star player is forward Zach Freemantle. Freemantle is a skilled power forward who has difficulty guarding in the post. If Illinois basketball wants to win, they need to attack Freemantle and get him into foul trouble. He will be tasked with guarding Morez Johnson Jr. and Tomislav Ivisic. If they can get Freemantle into early foul trouble, that will certainly bode well for the Illini. Lastly, the most athletic prospect at Xavier is sophomore guard, Dailyn Swain. Swain shoots 17.4 percent from the three, so letting him shoot and “doinking” him will definitely be a play.

For Paul’s prediction, he thinks that Xavier will beat Illinois. 

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