The Kasparas Jakucionis Expierence

Kasparas Jakucionis is one of the top players in the country and that is not up for debate. However, it has been a roller coaster ride of a freshman year for KJ through 10 games. The Illinois basketball team had a tough loss on Saturday to the number one team in the country 66-64. Jakucionis had his finger prints all over this game through the bad and the good.

Kasparas Jakucionis has a lot on his plate

Jakucionis was the main reason the Illini were even in this game against the number-one team in the country. The freshman guard struggled to score in the first half outside of the free throw line, shooting ten free throws at the half. In the second half, he got it going hitting two massive stepback three-point shots, while also getting some shots to go near the rim. At the end of the game, Jakucionis finished with 22 points which was his fifth straight game of over 20 points for the freshman.

That was the peak of the roller coaster unfortunately for KJ in this one. He ended up turning the ball over seven times and shot just 5-15 from the floor. It also seemed like he had a turnover at some tough times when the Illini needed him the most. The one that sticks out to me is on the inbound pass out of a timeout with under three minutes to go. It was a lazy pass that ended up leading to a bucket on the other end. KJ had a tough end of the game and this tweet below from Derek Piper sums it up best.

Illini took a 3-point lead with 2:44 left… Gainey hit a three to tie it back up. After that, Illinois’ possessions went as such:

Missed shot by Jakucionis
Turnover by Jakucionis
1 of 2 FTs by Kylan, off reb but turnover by Jakucionis
1 of 2 FTs by Jakucionis

Tough one.

— Derek Piper (@DPiper247) December 15, 2024

Not All on Kasparas Jakucionis

Underwood asked by @DPiper247 if late-game execution issues are on youth or a new team, and he puts the blame back on himself.

“You got to execute on both sides of it, and they did a better job of it than we did.” https://t.co/6UGwHvCLGD

— Jeremy Werner (@JWerner247) December 15, 2024

As mentioned above, KJ has a lot on his plate. Brad Underwood has just given him the keys of the offense and has allowed him to just go. That makes a lot of sense and it’s hard to pick apart the Illini offense when it ranks in the top-30 in offensive rating according to KenPom.com. But at times I would like to see Brad Underwood draw something up to get an easy shot for someone else. At times it feels like he relies on his guys to hit a lot of tough shots, which a lot of the time they do.

I think there is a lot to learn from in this loss for Kasparas Jakucionis and Brad Underwood. Brad Underwood is a tremendous coach and I have no doubt in my mind he will grow from this. The same thing can be said for the 18 year old freshman as he will undoubtedly continue to get better and not have so many lapses.

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