#32 KASPARAS JAKUCIONIS Illinois Fighting Illini vs SIU Edwardsville Cougars NCAA basketball BIG10 Tournament game highlights | Game 2 of the 2024-25 season. Kasparas Jakucionis stats: 12 PTS / 1 STL / 13 AST / 8 REB. Kasparas Jakucionis, is a Lithuanian born basketball player, currently playing at the university of Illinois Fighting Illini NCAA. Prior to his move to NCAA, he was part of Euroleague's FC Barcelona basketball team squad.
I know what you mean, namely that these first two official games look really good. But I'm still concerned about road games, when stats indicate that, on the average, teams shoot a lower percentage on 3s than on their home courts. (BTW, another measurable problem in the Ole Miss exhibition was the 22 TOs, so that needs to continue to be lower too.) Regarding the shot selection, I would also like IL to work on their 2-pt offense, for times, when our 3-pt shots aren't going in (especially on the road against aggressive perimeter defenses, like Ole Miss has). I want to see that we can: beat pick-and-roll defenders for easy buckets by Ivisic and Johnson by rolling to the basket, have good shooters (like Riley, Humrichous, and White) cut backdoor and beat overplaying defenders for high-percentage 2s or FTs, and enable drives from our quickest/best guards (KJ, KB, and DGL) for layups/dunks, pull-ups, and FTs). Finally, I want to see rebound baskets by all our best offensive rebounders, for when perimeter defenders stay in position, on our best shooters, or when we have short open 2s and dunks. Illinois has a great 3-pt-shooting offense, which really is the way to go when we get good looks from 3 and the 3s are going in. But we should improve our 2-pt offense (including in the next game against Oakland, as the last game before Alabama) to work on ways to score when very good teams (like AL and Big Ten teams) try to take our 3-pt shots away from us, or when our 3-pt shots are not dropping for whatever reason. We'll need to be great at 2s too in order to win tough BT games on the road.
#32 KASPARAS JAKUCIONIS Illinois Fighting Illini vs SIU Edwardsville Cougars NCAA basketball BIG10 Tournament game highlights | Game 2 of the 2024-25 season. Kasparas Jakucionis stats: 12 PTS / 1 STL / 13 AST / 8 REB. Kasparas Jakucionis, is a Lithuanian born basketball player, currently playing at the university of Illinois Fighting Illini NCAA. Prior to his move to NCAA, he was part of Euroleague's FC Barcelona basketball team squad.
This guys going to be something...
Kj is a star in the making
Someone get my man Bardo a pronunciation sheet
It’s obvious to me now, that Underwood threw that Ole Miss exhibition.
I know what you mean, namely that these first two official games look really good. But I'm still concerned about road games, when stats indicate that, on the average, teams shoot a lower percentage on 3s than on their home courts. (BTW, another measurable problem in the Ole Miss exhibition was the 22 TOs, so that needs to continue to be lower too.)
Regarding the shot selection, I would also like IL to work on their 2-pt offense, for times, when our 3-pt shots aren't going in (especially on the road against aggressive perimeter defenses, like Ole Miss has). I want to see that we can: beat pick-and-roll defenders for easy buckets by Ivisic and Johnson by rolling to the basket, have good shooters (like Riley, Humrichous, and White) cut backdoor and beat overplaying defenders for high-percentage 2s or FTs, and enable drives from our quickest/best guards (KJ, KB, and DGL) for layups/dunks, pull-ups, and FTs). Finally, I want to see rebound baskets by all our best offensive rebounders, for when perimeter defenders stay in position, on our best shooters, or when we have short open 2s and dunks.
Illinois has a great 3-pt-shooting offense, which really is the way to go when we get good looks from 3 and the 3s are going in. But we should improve our 2-pt offense (including in the next game against Oakland, as the last game before Alabama) to work on ways to score when very good teams (like AL and Big Ten teams) try to take our 3-pt shots away from us, or when our 3-pt shots are not dropping for whatever reason. We'll need to be great at 2s too in order to win tough BT games on the road.