3 Takeaways From Illinois' Basketball's Win Over Indiana

For an Illinois team featuring six freshmen and sophomores in the rotation and nine players in their first year with the program, consistency is probably an unreasonable expectation. Then again, sandwiching a 10-point home loss to an average Big Ten opponent between 25-point-plus massacres of conference foes – Penn State and Indiana – is taking up-and-down to an extreme.
By now, we know what the No. 19 Illini (13-4, 5-2 Big Ten) are capable of at their best, but potential won't win games in March. The return of lead guard Kasparas Jakucionis, who missed two games because of a forearm injury, and the similar return to health of Illinois' rebounding and defensive efforts against the Hoosiers was the latest example of the Illini putting their best foot forward. Now they just have to keep it moving – one foot in front of the other – through Big Ten play and into the NCAA Tournament.
Here's what else we took away on the Illini from Tuesday's 94-69 win in Bloomington:
1. Illinois is at its best playing Connect Five
It's both the ultimate cliche and an immutable basketball fact: good teams become great when they play 5-on-5 rather than 1-on-5. The Illini showed both extremes against Indiana, opening the scoring spigot when they played as a unit and (only occasionally) stagnating when the ball got sticky.
The Illini have no fewer than seven players on the roster capable of creating their own offense, but even in the case of Jakucionis, each of them is a degree of magnitude more effective when others on the floor are also an immediate threat. Coach Brad Underwood calls it "connectivity," and it doesn't necessarily preclude isolations. But it does require body and ball movement, seeking out favorable matchups and, ideally, probing for opportunities with good spacing and forcing defensive rotations before settling, say, on a contested pull-up jumper 10 seconds into the shot clock. As Illinois mostly demonstrated in the first half against the Hoosiers, it has too much collective talent not to use it to amplify each individual one.
With authority. pic.twitter.com/ILD4IWczHK
— Illinois Men's Basketball (@IlliniMBB) January 16, 2025
2. A little goes a long way
How's this for another cliche? Great teams take care of the "little" things. It's a pat way of saying that controlling the boring, mundane and dirty-work details – stuff like preparation, decision-making, defensive and rebounding effort, and, yes, offensive "connectivity" – wins ball games. Illinois showed it in Bloomington by threatening the century mark despite shooting 40.0 percent from the floor and only a decent 34.3 percent on threes.
Turns out good things happen when you dominate the boards (51-37 advantage for the Illini), hit your free throws (Illinois: 23-for-26, 88.5 percent), take care of possessions (only six turnovers) and suffocate your opponent's perimeter shooting (4-for-18, 22.2 percent on threes for Indiana). The Illini are built to beat the competition in these areas, and they just may be unbeatable when they take care of all the little things.
3. The big(ger) man walks away
Young men sometimes do dumb, impulsive things – especially in the heat of competition and especially when that competition isn't going so well for them. So although no one should go too far in vilifying Hoosiers guard and former Illini Luke Goode, it should be acknowledged that he directed multiple dangerous, non-basketball actions toward Illinois' Tomislav Ivisic on Tuesday before the big man finally had enough.
After the second incident, Ivisic gave Goode an earful during a dead ball, but the 7-footer didn't square up or throw hands, and he also avoided responding with force after being shoved by not one but two Hoosiers. When asked about the near-scuffle after the game, Jakucionis grinned and told WCIA's Glenn Kinley and other media, "No one wants Tomi against you, you know? Everybody wants Tomi on your side." To be clear: These Illini are not soft. But they do seem aware of a bigger purpose that shouldn't be forgotten while putting a 25-point beating on a speed bump of a Big Ten opponent.