College Basketball

Illinois Basketball: Three Focuses for the Illini Against Wisconsin

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 2:53 p.m. ET

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Fansided, Rees Woodcock/FanSided via Writing Illini

The Illinois basketball team takes on the Wisconsin Badgers tonight in hopes of getting their season back on track.

There is no question that Illinois needs to win this game because if they lose and fall to 13-10 on the season, things will look mighty bleak.

One big bonus for the Illini is that the game is at home tonight.  They have been terrible on the road so maybe the home-court advantage will get them over the hump.

Here are my three focuses for Illinois to knock off Wisconsin.

The first focus is to slow the ball down and keep the game close from the start.

Illinois has been terrible in losses with letting their opponent get out to a big lead.  The Illini then try to make a valiant comeback that falls short.

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If the Illini want any chance at an upset they will need to be within ten points at halftime.

Focus No. 2 should be to make Maverick Morgan a centerpiece on offense.

Morgan has been the most improved player by far this season and I can make an argument he is the second best player on the team.

Illinois needs to continue to find Morgan inside because he is a scoring threat.  This will also help with preventing a game killing drought as well.

Morgan has averaged 12 points per game in Big Ten play and without him really playing well the Illini have no shot.  They need him on point early on in the game.

The final focus is for this Illinois basketball team to play some sort of defense.

It is embarrassing watching this team and how little they play defense.  Just in the last game, Penn State shot 49.1-percent from the field and 50-percent from the three-point line.

Illinois shouldn’t have been in that game but they caught fire in the second half.  If they play defense like that against Wisconsin, this game could end up being a blowout.

The Illini have a tough task at hand tonight against the Badgers, but they need this victory.  If they can win tonight the season would still be alive.

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