Illinois’ Lackluster Performance ends in OT Loss
By Jeff Mayfield

[December 31, 2018]  Sometimes it is hard to be a fan. This is one of those times. The Illinois Illini showed up Saturday afternoon seemingly unready to play and a lackluster effort resulted in an ugly OT loss to the Florida Atlantic Owls, 73-71.

For the day Illinois barely shot 32% from the field including a woeful 24% from 3-point range. The last 3 missed free throws proved to be Illinois’ undoing! But that’s only part of the story.

Missed lay-ups and missed shots from short range were much more troublesome. Also, losing the rebound battle 51-38 did not help matters. When you add unforced turnovers to the mix, especially bad and weak passes you concoct a recipe for losing a winnable game on your home floor.

So, instead of ramping up the intensity and taking care of business, the Illini sink deeper into the abyss, just in time for Big Ten play to resume. I’m normally an optimist by nature, but the Illini have a lot of work to do if they are going to be ready for the competition to take a very noticeable rise in quality opponents.

It was good to see Ayo Dosunmu lead the way with 21 points and Aaron Jordan somehow fought his way to 20, but most of the other Illini were AWOL on the day. If this team is going to be competitive, that can’t happen. Illinois will always have to have 4-5 guys around double figures. I say that because they will have to make up offensively for what they lack defensively.

This loss hurt in many ways, but there’s no time to cry about it. Illinois must next travel to Indiana and Northwestern. Hopefully the ball will start bouncing in a winning way!

[By JEFF MAYFIELD]

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