Illinois Basketball battling an Identity Crisis in February

After Kasparas Jakucionis returned from a left forearm injury against Indiana, Illinois basketball fans were at the peak of hope and happiness. They finally had their star guard back after missing him for two games and went on to absolutely drub the Indiana Hoosiers at Assembly Hall 94-69. At that time, the Illini stood at 13-4 and looked to be far ahead of schedule in terms of their on-court growth and chemistry. Analysts were locking Jakucionis into a top-five NBA draft pick and locking Illinois basketball into national championship contenders.

Little did we realize that from that point on, the Illini would hit road bump after road bump and run into an identity crisis with eight games left on the schedule.

Who is this team?

Even with all of their pieces back, the question arises. Who is this team? What is this team’s identity?  Last year, we knew that the plan was to get Terrence Shannon Jr. out in transition or downhill to create open looks on the perimeter. If the game slowed down, they went to Marcus Domask in the post to expose a defensive mismatch and get easy buckets. This team does not have a calling card. They hope to shoot many three-point shots, but they don’t have great shooters. In fact, in a recent graphic posted by Ant Wright,  there was not one single Illini in the top 20 of the Big Ten in Catch and shoot 3-point percentage.

Per BartTorvik.com, the Illini are 310th in the country in three-point percentage and 27th in two-point field goal percentage.

Top 20 Catch and Shoot 3p% Rankings

Minimum of 20 attempts for both guarded and unguarded to qualify for each list pic.twitter.com/Ss9LbUOXte

— ᗩᑎT ᗯᖇIGᕼT (@itsAntWright) February 6, 2025

Why so many 3’s?

Against Rutgers, Illinois basketball shot 6-28 from the three, while shooting 21-37 from inside the arc. In a crushing overtime loss vs Nebraska, they shot 10-42 from three while going 16 for 31 from inside the arc. Brad Underwood continues to encourage his team to take threes, but something has to change. They cannot hang their identity on something that they are bad at. Brad Underwood has shown a willingness to adjust, and he continues to do so at the beginning of January. However, this time, his team has fallen into a rut rather late into the season.

On top of that, injuries and illness continues to pile up which prevent adequate practice time and continuity. Illinois basketball is in a very precarious situation. They will hopefully find their way into the NCAA tournament, but it seems that they have dug themselves too deep of a hole to gain a favorable seed if they arrive at the Big Dance.

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