Illinois Basketball News: Braggin’ Rights Opponent beats No.1 Kansas

The Missouri Tigers just made a massive statement in the news on their home floor. The Tigers beat the number-one-ranked, Kansas Jayhawks, 76-67 behind a 28-point performance from senior Tamar Bates. The Tigers turned the Jayhawks over 22 times and held the Kansas bench to just six points. Mizzou will play Illinois basketball in just two weeks time as the annual Braggin’ Rights game will be on a Sunday as opposed to the usual Friday evening. Last year, Illinois basketball completely dominated the game and beat Missouri rather easily. The Tigers went on to have a historically bad season as they failed to win a single SEC conference game. However, third-year coach Dennis Gates is a very good coach and he obviously has Missouri back on track.

Another stern test

The Tigers are noticeably older this year. Their backcourt consists of two physical veterans who used to play in the Big Ten, Tony Perkins and Tamar Bates. Their frontcourt includes former McDonalds All-American, Mark Mitchell, and fifth-year transfer, Josh Gray. A weakness of the Tigers would be their lack of depth coming off the bench, however, their physicality and experience should definitely cause worry for the young, flashier Illinois basketball team. Through the first eight games, the Illini are certainly relying heavily on finesse and perimeter firepower.

As we saw in the loss vs Northwestern, turnovers and inability to get easy baskets down the stretch can pose a problem for Illinois. They better be ready to go come Braggin’ Rights time.

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