Illinois started the season as the 23rd-best team, according to Associated Press. Although being ranked is a great achievement, last season they were in 11th position, and the year before they were in 8th.
Flash forward to now, and Illinois has dropped to 12th place in the Big Ten which contains 14 teams.
However, in their next match against the Nebraska Cornhuskers, Illinois is considered the favorite to win. The NCAAB odds are in their favor.
Looking through Daily College Basketball news, we can see that both teams are balancing their winnings and losses; but Illinois is statistically doing better having won 60% of their matches compared to 53%.
9 wins to their name, we cannot discount Illinois just yet! So who are the players swimming up steam?
Illinois’ Best Scoring Players
Scoring goals is the fastest way to beat your opponent. It doesn’t matter how poor your defense is if you can dunk more baskets than the other team.
Terrence Shannon Jr (Guard) knows this all too well, having scored an average of 17.6 points per game. As a guard, Shannon should be focusing on blocking his opponents and stealing the ball, but Shannon’s scoring potential is too great to be ignored.
The most lucrative points come from free throws, so finding a consistent free-throwing player is crucial to landing baskets.
The player with the highest free throw percentage is RJ Melendez (Guard) with 90.5%. Melendez has played in all 15 games so far and has attempted 21 free throws in that time. 19 of them landed, making him the most reliable free throw shooter on the team.
The only person to rival Melendez is Shannon. He has attempted 99 free throws this season so far, but only 76 of them landed – giving him a 76.8% total.
No matter which direction you look in, Terrence Shannon is in clear sight. We cannot pick anyone else as the best scorer for Illinois.
Illinois’ Best Defensive Player
Illinois has more steals than they do blocks, which shows their main tactic – attack, attack, attack.
In number place again is the king of the court, Terrence Shannon Jr (Guard). He has stolen the ball 17 times in his 15 games creating an average of 1.1 steals per game.
Coleman Hawkins (Forward), Matthew Mayer (Guard), RJ Melendez (Guard), and Sencire Harris (Guard) each have 15 steals to their name this season. These are high numbers in general, but because so many players have this high figure, we can see that Illinois has a fighting energy to their defense.
However, the player with the highest number of blocks per game is Dain Dainja (Forward). Dainja has a whopping 21 blocks to his name so far, creating an average of 1.4 per game. Hawkins and Mayer are close behind with 1.2 and 1 per game respectively.
This creates a team total of 5.90 blocks per game. So far their opponents have only achieved 2.5 against them. Although blocking isn’t their strong point, Illinois seems to be making a change for the better.
The best defensive player for Illinois has to be Coleman Hawkins. He has the second-highest blocking average, the second-highest steal average, and the highest number of rebounds on the team.
All the other defensive players are great at one task or another, but Hawkins is great at all three.
Illinois’ Best Assisting Player
Coleman Hawkins (Forward) has achieved the most assists in the season so far. From the 15 games played, he has assisted 52 times. That’s an average of 3.5 per game.
Terrence Shannon Jr (Guard) is only a notch behind with 48 assists to his name for an average of 3.2 per game.
Throughout this whole profile review, these two names keep popping up. This last segment will be the deciding factor between the two players. Hawkins currently has the lead with his assisting figures, however, looking at their turnovers may change the game.
Turnovers are the number of times the player loses the ball, and “hand it over” or “turns it over” to the opposition team.
Hawkins is, unfortunately, leading the group with 46 turnovers for an average of 3.1 per game.
Shannon isn’t doing much better as his 36 turnovers have resulted in an average of 2.4 per game.
But, the player with the worst ratio of assists to turnovers is Sencire Harris (Guard). His 0.9 assists and 0.5 turnovers have created a ratio of 1.8 assists per turnover.
Ignoring this outlier, Terrence Shannon Jr comes in second with a rate of 1.3, while Coleman is all the way in 5th with his 1.1.
This means the best assisting player in the Illinois team has to be Coleman Hawkins. He has the most assists and the least turnovers out of the top 5.
Summary
The Illinois team has a few stand-out players which are helping the team through the season. These are Colemon Hawkins, Terrence Shannon Jr and RJ Melendez. Without these three players, the team will not be doing as well as they are. If even one is benched for injury, we could see Illinois fall.
