Illinois Basketball: Three Takeaways from win over Oakland

The Illinois basketball team improved to 3-0 after defeating Oakland 66-54. It was an ugly contest, but in a way, it was good to see that this Illini team could win ugly. It was a much-needed test for the Illini before they take on the #2 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide next week. The Illini were led by Tomislav Ivisic who finished with 20 points going 9-14 floor and grabbing six rebounds in the process and was a huge reason for the win. Now let’s dive into the rest of the top takeaways.

Kasparas Jakucionis Struggled Against Zone Defense

#illini Brad Underwood on Kasparas Jakucionis’ turnover issues: “You can tell he’s from Europe. They don’t play zone.”

He played a little sped up. That’s on me. He’s got to go through it. He’s resilient and tough.

— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) November 14, 2024

The Illinois basketball offense looked out of sorts for a lot of this game. That had a lot to do with Kasparas Jakucionis struggling against the zone defense Oakland was playing.  Jakucionis had a season-high five turnovers compared to just three assists. It just looked like he never got comfortable and I think that’s what Brad Underwood was alluding to above. We have seen Jakucionis be able to play at his pace the first two games of the season and seemingly get to wherever he wanted to on the court. That was not the case Wednesday night against Oakland.

Tomislav Ivisic Can be a Hub of the Offense

Wholesome #Illini content:

Kylan Boswell calls Tomi one of the top bigs in the nation… Ivisic can’t help but smile and whisper ‘Thank you’ between questions. pic.twitter.com/ZaRSEDpsli

— Glenn Kinley (@glenn_kinley) November 14, 2024

With Jakucionis struggling, the offense had to be run through someone else. Ivisic was that guy last night because you can attack a zone from the free-throw line. Ivisic once again showed incredible passing ability from the free-throw line and post. But on top of that, he showed incredible touch from around the free-throw line making a multitude of different shots and floaters. He showed me last night, that he can have the offense run through him when other things go south. I did not expect that to be the case, especially at this point in his technically Sophomore season.

Some dogs

One thing that this Illinois basketball team is going to lack at times this season is going to be on the defensive end. Both Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn and Kylan Boswell are going to be huge proponents of their defense. The way they were attacking the ball against Oakland last night was terrific. They really disrupted the Oakland defense all night long helping the defense hold Oakland to just 37% shooting from the floor and forcing 18 turnovers. Their two roles were in question heading into this season, but now I feel like their roles are pretty defined.

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