No. 25 Illinois (3-1) returns home on Saturday to take on Maryland Eastern Shore (2-5) after losing its first game of the season to No. 8 Alabama on Wednesday. Maryland Eastern Shore is a return to a low-major level opponent for Illinois ahead of next week’s Thanksgiving Day matchup with No. 20 Arkansas.
The opponent: Maryland Eastern Shore
Maryland Eastern Shore is the type of low-major opponent that should be a relatively easy contender for Illinois before it gets into a consistently tough slate of games. The Hawks have lost all five games on the road this season, with their two wins coming at home over Penn State Schuylkill and Gallaudet University.
The Illini have not played the Hawks since Dec. 11, 2003, when they won easily, 85-43. The teams have yet to face off during the Brad Underwood head coaching era at Illinois.
Leading the Hawks this season is junior guard Ketron Shaw, ranked in the top 25 scorers across all Division I men’s basketball. Shaw has averaged 23.4 points per game on 51.4% shooting so far this year, and he will be the main defensive focus for Illinois.
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“Offensively really good, got one of the top scorers in the country,” Underwood said about the Hawks. “He’s (Shaw’s) a high-volume guy. He’s big. I really like this team’s offensive ability.”
Improvements Illinois needs to prioritize
In a game that Illinois should win relatively easily, the Illini have multiple areas of their game they need to improve and gain more confidence in before taking on higher-level opponents.
The Illini struggled with their interior defense in the loss to the Crimson Tide, being outscored by 12 points in the paint. Alabama driving to the rim or feeding its big men kept working due to Illinois’ lack of physicality and seemingly lackluster defensive effort.
“We gave up 12 points off of middle drives out of the corner,” Underwood said. “That is a fundamental mistake for us. That’s a mistake that we’ve worked on since June is not allowing that. Those are things that we can actually get better on quickly.”
A tough, high-effort defensive performance on Saturday will be needed for Illinois, especially against Maryland Eastern Shore’s Shaw, who loves to score closer to the basket. Ninety-five of his 107 field goal attempts this season have come from inside the three-point line.
“They’ll get into some post-ups with their guards,” Underwood said.
Junior guard Kylan Boswell has shown lockdown on-ball defense on the perimeter this season, but Shaw will find a way to get inside, so the Illini’s interior defense and big men will need to be strong. Whoever is assigned to guard Shaw, likely Boswell, will also need to stay in front of him on drives to slow his attempts to get downhill.
Free throws will also be important for Illinois. This year’s Illini roster has not shot free throws well, averaging 68.7%. A strong shooting game from the charity stripe will help boost the Illini’s confidence in their free throws.
Freshman forward Will Riley especially needs to bounce back from a poor free throw shooting performance against Alabama, where he went 3-7 from the line. Overall, the Illini missed 11 free throws against the Crimson Tide, close to the 13-point margin they lost by.
“We could have won the game off just free throws,” said freshman forward Morez Johnson Jr. “We preach about free throws a lot. Free throws win games, he (Underwood) says.”
Intensity, energy are a focus
Illinois looked slow and low energy against Alabama on Wednesday, outscored by 14 in the first half. The first half was detrimental to the Illini in their 13-point loss, especially after they won the second half against the Crimson Tide by one point. Johnson recognized that and said that is a main focus for the team heading into Saturday’s game.
“Not coming out flat, making sure we hit the other team first — I want us to focus on that,” Johnson said. “Coming out with energy, being excited to play.”
Underwood could be heard audibly yelling at his players about energy during Friday morning practice. He was unhappy with his team’s lack of effort at points during their loss to Alabama and wants to fix that immediately.
“Watching us not run back (on defense) and them (Alabama) sprint, we can correct that, and I’ll get that corrected,” Underwood said. “Our culture’s always been built on playing to our standard. We challenged them, and we’ve got to play to our standards.”
The Illini will face the Hawks at 3 p.m. at State Farm Center, and the game will be streamed on Big Ten Plus.
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