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    hhcmatt

    Game Day Essentials: Game #17 vs Illinois

      Nebraska Cornhuskers (9-7) vs Illinois Fighting Illini (10-5)

       

      Date: January 10th, 2023
      Time: 8:00 pm
      Arena: PBA

      Broadcast:  BTN

    Illinois Info

    70683592014.gif
    Head Coach: Brad Underwood

    Location: Champaign, IL 
    Conference: B1G
    Nickname: Fightin Illini

    MascotChief Illiniwek They got rid of Chief Illiniwek in 2007

    Line: Illinois by 3.5
    Typical Rotation Depth: 8+

    KenPom rank: 35

    A couple of Famous Alumni: Nick Anderson, Steven Bardo

    Other:  

    • 5 star PG Skyy Clark left the team last week. Was avg 7.0ppg in 24.4 min

     

    KenPom Analysis: With Clark leaving Illinois made some adjustments on offense to try and eliminate turnovers. The tricky part with the Illini offense is that when they miss 3pt shots they've been very good at grabbing offensive rebounds

    image.png

     

     

    Player to watch: F Coleman Hawkins

    It's not surprising that the mobile post player leads the team in rebounds; it's somewhat surprising that he leads the team in assists. While he can hurt you inside, it's his streaky 3pt shooting you worry about. Hawkins is shooting 33.9% for the year after hitting 6-9 vs Wisconsin

     

    Player to watch: F Terrence Shannon

    The Texas Tech transfer is a 3 level scorer, leading the Illini in scoring. Shannon draws all sorts of contact going to the rim and is likely to be the catalyst for Illinois trying to suck in the defense to find 3pt shooters

     

    Player to watch: C Dain Dainja

    Elite shot blocker and a bucket. Likely he's an auto-double when he touches the ball. Foul prone, will be a game of cat-and-mouse between Walker and Dainja about who sits first due to foul problems. Bad FT shooter

     

    KenPom most used lineup

      PG SG SF PF C Pct
    1
    0 Terrence Shannon
    6-6  225  Sr
    1 Sencire Harris
    6-4  160  Fr
    24 Matthew Mayer
    6-9  225  Sr
    33 Coleman Hawkins
    6-10  225  Jr
    42 Dain Dainja
    6-9  270  So
    10.8
     
    2
    3 Jayden Epps
    6-2  190  Fr
    15 RJ Melendez
    6-7  205  So
    0 Terrence Shannon
    6-6  225  Sr
    24 Matthew Mayer
    6-9  225  Sr
    33 Coleman Hawkins
    6-10  225  Jr
    7.3

     

    Others to watch

    • Matthew Mayer transferred in from Baylor and is capable of playing anywhere from SF to C
    • Fresham Guard Harris is a nice defender

     

    UNL Game Notes

     

    Probable starters for Nebraska
    5    Sam Griesel    G    6-7
    25  Emmanuel Bandoumel    G    6-4

    0   C.J. Wilcher    G    6-5

    4   Juwan Gary  F  6-6

    13  Derrick Walker    F    6-9

     

    Bench

    15   Blaise Keita C   6-11

    30  Keisei Tominaga    G    6-2

    32  Wilhelm Breidenbach    F    6-10

    10  Jamarques Lawrence - G  6-3

    12  Denim Dawson - F  6-6

    33  Oleg Kojenets    F    7-0
    12   Sam Hoiberg    G    6-0

    31  Cale Jacobsen  G  6-4

    35  Henry Burt  F  6-6

    24  Jeffrey Grace III  G  6-3

     

    Injured

    3   Quaran McPherson   G   6-3 - Out for the Year

     

     

    The Skinny: 

    Illinois is a talent team filled with a bunch of new players and freshman and thus is the type of team that has impressive wins over Texas and UCLA but has yet to record a win in a true away game. Look for the Illini to lean on their upperclassmen tonight.

     

    Brad Underwood knows Nebraska takes away the paint and will be content to shop around for 3pt shots most of the night. While Illinois will find success there, 2nd chance points likely determines the success of the Illini tonight. Nebraska will need to crash the boards all night vs this lengthy team.

     

    Illinois tends to run people off the 3pt line which is just fine with what Nebraska wants to do. 

     

    The team with composure and focus likely wins this one.  Leaning towards Illinois road woes continuing.

     

    Prediction: Nebraska 70 - Illinois 67




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