Illinois Basketball: 4 Thoughts Before Nebraska

After an 0-3 start to the Big Ten conference season, Illinois needed to come together quickly in order to put themselves in position to achieve their offseason goals. With six wins in their last seven games, they are starting to round into form in time to give themselves a chance at regular season glory. However, after a tough road win on Saturday, and a matchup at Iowa looming on the weekend, the Illini cannot overlook a tricky Nebraska team.

1. No Rest for the Wicked

Nebraska has a number of interesting players. As seen in the first matchup, the Illini have answers to the questions Fred Hoiberg’s team asks on a night-to-night basis. Dain Dainja held Derrick Walker to his worst game of the year, with just 5 points. Terrence Shannon Jr and Ty Rodgers bothered Sam Griesel, Nebraska’s 6’7″ primary ball handler, forcing four of their 17 turnovers. Shutting off those two made for a long night for the Cornhuskers, finishing with a season-low 50 points. This will be their second straight road game, and their third game in six days. The Illini need to use their home court advantage to full effect, and not give Nebraska anything to play for.

2. Every Day Guys

Since Brad Underwood took over the program, it’s been impossible to get away from the ‘Every Day Guys’ slogan around the program. It emphasizes the blue-collar mentality that Underwood wants his teams to play with, never taking a day off. Games like this are the ones that applies to most. The team has been mostly locked in (besides Indiana) since their loss against Northwestern and has gotten both good wins and avoided any more truly bad losses. However, each day brings a new challenge, and this is one of the first games in a while where there isn’t a super obvious motivation going in. With things really starting to gel, focusing on good habits for the bigger games to come is vital.

3. Tale of the Tape

In the first matchup, the Illini were solid both defensively (as mentioned above) and offensively. They shot it better, had more rebounds, and made more threes while keeping Nebraska from getting loose from three. It was a complete domination worthy of the gaudy scoreline differential. I’m not sure how else to put it than nothing has changed besides probably Jayden Epps in the starting lineup (he played 27 minutes in Lincoln). This is both a talent and matchup mismatch in one direction. Illinois cannot throw away metrics boosting opportunities like this.

4. Big Z

Minutes have been hard to come by for Zacharie Perrin so far this year. This was mostly expected, as the 18-year-old from France enrolled mid-season after not being able to get in on time before the year. As such, an already fringe piece was behind the already steep learning curve. His only time on the floor so far was in the closing moments of that loss to Indiana.  If the main characters follow the intended script, Zach can get out there and show his stuff.

With a win Illinois would go to 7-4 in conference. It would also put them ten games over .500 for the first time all season. It’s weird to say this about Nebraska at home, but if they want to catch Purdue for the Big Ten title, this is a must win.