Baseline defense was non-existent. I do not know if the defender was supposed to allow his man to beat him to the baseline because that is where the backside help is supposed to be, but it sure appeared that way last night considering every single big man got beat baseline, even Sergio. If the strategy is to take away the middle that is fine, but then the help-side defense needs to rotate better to stop the baseline drive, which happened way too much last night. The Illini out rebounded AIA 37-24. Robert Archibald led the Illini with seven rebounds.
Shooting seems to have improved over last season.
All in all it was a good first game effort from the Fighting Illini. I hope to see effort like this throughout the rest of the year, but there are still some things that can be worked on like getting the ball to the post and baseline defense before the season starts. Nick Smith did not play, so a red shirt this season is looking more and more likely. Jerrance Howard 2. Brett Melton 3.