The Illinois men’s basketball team wasn’t able to turn things around against Indiana on Sunday, but Rayvonte Rice was. In the midst of a six-game losing streak, it’s easy to focus on the negatives. While head coach John Groce knows his team needs to improve, he did point out some positives when speaking with the media Monday.

One was getting the Illini’s leading scorer back on track. After a trio of subpar games and a scoreless outing at Ohio State on Thursday, Rice put in 20 of Illinois’ 46 points against the Hoosiers. It was his highest total since scorching the same Hoosiers squad for 29 points in an 83-80 overtime victory on Dec. 31.

“I thought (Rice) did a great job yesterday,” Groce said. “It was a big step from what he was Thursday at Ohio State. He needs some help. I don’t think there’s anything else he can do. We need some other guys to be more consistent with their scoring and their shot-making.”

Rice’s 0-for-8 performance against the Buckeyes was the first scoreless outing of his collegiate career, including his two seasons at Drake — a span of 85 games. It was only the second time this season he failed to score double-figures. 

Groce knows his players better than anyone, and he is right, it can’t just be Rice scoring. He said the Illini need everyone to be hitting on all cylinders if they’re going to compete in the Big Ten.

While Rice didn’t score against Ohio State, Joseph Bertrand picked up the slack with 19. With Rice’s performance Sunday, it was Bertrand who faded, finishing with only two points on 1-for-11 shooting.

It’s been a consistent theme through the losing streak. One player might be clicking — Rice, Bertrand or Tracy Abrams — but the Illini can’t seem to get everyone to play well on the same day.

“The margin for error is small,” Groce said. “Players make plays, we’ve got to make a few more of them.”

Putting the ball in the basket is an easy concept, but it isn’t always easy to do. Illinois simply has not made shots when it needed to. During the six-game losing streak, the Illini have scored 70 points just once — in a 95-70 loss to Wisconsin on Jan. 8.

Their problems Sunday had nothing to do with shot selection — players just didn’t execute when they were open.

“We’ve got to shoot the ball better than we’re shooting it now,” Groce said. “I thought we had some pretty good looks. Some of them will snap out of it.”

Illinois is shooting 36.2 percent from the field through eight conference games, ahead of only Northwestern.

Illini catch a breather

Monday was the first of five days off for Illinois, the longest such stretch the Illini will see for nearly a month. It’s a much-needed breather with eight Big Ten games down and 10 still to go.

Illinois had four days off between games against Michigan State on Jan. 18 and Ohio State on Thursday. Groce said those days were used to get back to “old-school, fall-type practices” last week and it wouldn’t be surprising if that’s how the Illini handle the idle stretch this week.

In addition to practice time, it’s an opportunity to let banged-up bodies recover. Rice appears to have recuperated from a strained adductor muscle in his hip suffered Jan. 12 at Northwestern, but Sunday, it was Abrams who was held to just 13 minutes of play because of persistent back spasms.

It’s unclear yet whether Abrams will be 100 percent healthy by Saturday’s matchup with No. 15 Iowa. The Illini face the Hawkeyes on Saturday and then follow it up with No. 14 Wisconsin on Tuesday.

Sean can be reached at [email protected] and @sean_hammond.