On Nov. 23, Illinois went into halftime leading Kansas State by three points. Andre Curbelo was having a good game, scoring six points and dishing out seven assists. In the second half, though, the sophomore point guard played just three minutes and was seen clearly struggling in his time on the court. The Illini won the game by eight despite no help from their crafty guard in the latter half of the game.

Andre Curbelo has not seen the court since.

Illinois has now played five games without Curbelo, which has resulted in a 4-1 record, the only loss being to then-No. 11 and now-No. 8 undefeated Arizona at State Farm Center last week. We’ll get to that game in a little, but let’s start with how Curbelo has been missed in other games.

In its first game back after the Thanksgiving tournament in Kansas City, Illinois faced University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, which, putting it plain and simple, isn’t very good. The Vaqueros lost to the Arizona Wildcats by over 50 and barely beat no-name schools. The Illini were short-handed, as they were also missing Trent Frazier and Jacob Grandison. 

The two teams went back and forth all game, and Illinois ultimately won by eight behind 38 from Kofi Cockburn and 30 from Alfonso Plummer.

Frazier and Grandison returned and came off the bench for Illinois’ next game, a 10-point home win over Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish had been playing just OK, but they did recently beat a top-10 Kentucky team. The Illini were once again led by Cockburn and Plummer, scoring 28 and 21, respectively. 

Moving on to conference play now, the Illini faced Rutgers at home to begin their Big Ten games and dominated the Scarlet Knights, winning by 35 points. Plummer led the way with 24, and Coleman Hawkins was able to shut down Rutgers’ star forward Ron Harper Jr., who led his team to a win over top-ranked Purdue the next game in which he finished with 30 points. Good win there for the Illini.

Illinois was then faced with the task of playing in Iowa City, home of the Iowa Hawkeyes. Head coach Brad Underwood had never won at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, so the team seemed prepared against a high-scoring Iowa team that barely lost to Purdue the game before.

It was a game of runs, but Illinois played very well on both sides of the ball and came out with a four-point win, led by Plummer and Grandison with 21, Frazier with 18 and Cockburn with 17. But, the Illini struggled mightily with a press thrown at them by Fran McCaffery and his Hawkeyes, which caused all kinds of turnovers. 

The Iowa game was almost a warm-up for their next contest, as the tall and athletic Arizona Wildcats also like to press. And they did.

The Arizona press bothered the Illini at multiple points of the game, but Illinois hung around. They took a double-digit lead in the first half and led the Wildcats by four at halftime. Frazier had arguably the game of his career and scored 27, while Plummer played well, too, and added 25, but Illinois played soft, committed 16 turnovers and couldn’t hang on, losing by four.

There’s a quick recap of the games played so far without Curbelo, so now on to how they missed him. 

I should mention that Underwood and crew have been the opposite of transparent as to why Curbelo has been missing time. He had been dealing with an issue related to a concussion he got in the preseason, but since the media was aware of the concussion when he missed the first game of the season, it seems odd that Underwood is keeping quiet when asked about the missed time right now. All we know is that there is no time table for Curbelo’s return.

Regardless, let’s get back to where Illinois has missed him as there have been a few areas.

Let’s start with the reason the Iowa game was as close as it was and a reason Illinois couldn’t get past Arizona: the press.

Anyone that’s watched Curbelo knows how good of a ball handler and passer he is, which are the two elements needed to break pressure from another team. Illinois typically does get good passing from its guards, but no one does it like Curbelo, and no one is even close to handling the ball the way he does.

The passing turnovers, 10-second violations and confusion that the press against both teams caused the Illini would almost surely have been cut down tremendously with Curbelo in the game, because let’s face it, he is an Illini for those skills exactly.

If Illinois faces pressure again, which I’m sure it will, Underwood will have the boys as prepared as they can be. But, with Curbelo on the floor, there would be less confusion and more time to work on other things to improve the team.

Next, Curbelo has never been known for his elite scoring abilities, but he has a natural skill of being able to get to the basket, which no guard has been doing consistently for Illinois.

Underwood’s plan, especially without Curbelo, is to get the ball into Cockburn and have him read the defense. If opposing teams double or triple team him, he kicks it out to a shooter, since he’s often surrounded by four of them. If not, he takes it in himself. There’s a couple of problems with this.

First, it forces the Illini to live and die by the 3-point shot. Luckily, they have good shooters, but this won’t last forever. Against Arizona, Frazier played as well as he could, and Plummer continued his streak of 20+ points, but let’s be honest. It’s not gonna last.

I love both Frazier and Plummer, and they’ll continue to play well, but it isn’t fair to expect them to carry the guards every single game and, in Plummer’s case, score 20+ points all the time. People will start to figure him out, and his high-difficulty shots won’t always fall.

Curbelo isn’t the best shooter in the world, but he does find different ways to score and can help the team if/when they’re unable to consistently put up 80 points per game.

Next, the problem with the Illini’s plan is that Cockburn doesn’t always make the right reads. He’s gotten a lot better over the past two seasons about making a proper read and passing, and up until the Arizona game, he was playing like a National Player of the Year candidate. But that doesn’t make him perfect. His career high in assists is still only two, by the way. 

He still turns the ball over at times and, especially against Arizona, got his shot blocked on multiple occasions, and the game was just moving a bit too fast against big defenders for him at times. It happens, and he’s been great otherwise, but it’s something to consider.

With Curbelo in the game, a couple of problems would be solved. First, just getting the ball into Cockburn.

When Curbelo played earlier this season, he did have a pretty major turnover problem, especially against Marquette. But Illini fans forget that he also had this problem while coming off the bench early in the 2020-21 season, and it got better over time.

Illinois players have found ways to get Cockburn the ball, but sometimes it takes a few tries. Curbelo doesn’t struggle with that.

Third, Curbelo can facilitate better than any guard on the team, which can help get shooters, and Cockburn, open better without having to play inside and out every possession. He could get a shot up near the rim, drive down and pass to Cockburn or kick out to a shooter if he draws another defender. He’s got skill.

So, Curbelo can help with press, facilitate the offense and help get people open. Not to mention if Frazier were to get into foul trouble, they need another ball handler, but there’s one more reason everyone misses Curbelo.

He’s fun!

He’s one of the most exciting players at Illinois since the 2005 Final Four team. He makes flashy passes, throws oops like the best of ‘em, can find his way to the rim for a wide-open layup in the most unique ways and is fun to talk to in postgame pressers. 

Illinois’ guards have been able to score thus far in the season at a high level, but like I said, it’s unrealistic to think it’ll be that good every game. They’ll surely get pressed again, which almost no one in the country could help more with. And he’s so much fun to watch.

During the Big Ten tournament run last year, Curbelo was playing the best ball of his young career. Let’s not forget that that’s when Illinois looked its best all season, as Curbelo helped tremendously in the team’s efforts to a Big Ten Championship and to a 1-seed in the NCAA tournament.

When he returns, Illinois is gonna benefit, and I’m sure we’ll see them struggle in different ways before he returns, whenever that may be. We know we’ll see him on the sideline, probably just oddly as usual, cheering his team on like a fan. But we’d much rather see him on the court. 

Get well soon, Curbelo, cause your teammates, coaches and fans really miss you.

@JPietsch14

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