The Illini look to tally another win in a Friday night matchup with Kansas City at the State Farm Center
Brad Underwood’s squad is 1-0 heading into tonight’s matchup with the Roos of Kansas City. They come into this game with a lot of good energy after their rightfully easy victory over Eastern Illinois. As for the Roos, they’re 0-2 after a Wednesday night loss at LSU, where former Illini Adam Miller dropped 18 points. This will be a bit of a step up for the Illini, as Kansas City is better than Eastern Illinois, but that doesn’t change the expectations for this team.
Projected Starting Lineups
- Kansas City
- G Shemarri Allen (6-foot-4) (19 pts at LSU)
- G RayQuawndis Mitchell (6-foot-5) (15 pts. 6 reb, 5 ast at LSU)
- F Allen David Mukeba (6-foot-7) (Colby CC transfer)
- F Precious C. Idiaru (6-foot-9) (Freshman)
- F Jeff Ngandu (6-foot-9) (Freshman)
The Roos’ guard play is solid, as both Allen and Mitchell played well against LSU. Their downfall could be their frontcourt, the lack of experience should allow both Coleman Hawkins and Dain Dainja to feast. Despite their lack of experience, they’re tough and can be hard to play against. Two other notable stats against LSU for them – 4-for-25 from three and 11 offensive rebounds.
- Illinois
- G Skyy Clark
- G RJ Melendez
- G Terrence Shannon Jr.
- F Matthew Mayer
- F Coleman Hawkins
I’m not expecting Underwood to make any changes to the lineup unless they were to swap Mayer out for Dainja or Ty Rodgers. Mayer is still dealing with a back injury from before the season and struggled defensively in the season opener. Regardless, I’m expecting the same lineup and a similar rotation strategy from the Illini in this game.
The Analytics Between the Two Teams
As per usual, these numbers come from KenPom and Haslametrics.
- KenPom
- Adjusted Offensive Efficiency – ILL 39th, Kansas City 264th
- Adjusted Defensive Efficiency – ILL 27th, Kansas City 297th
- Adjusted Tempo – ILL 59th, Kansas City 142nd
- Haslametrics
- All-Play Percentage – ILL 33rd, Kansas City 271st
- Offensive Efficiency – ILL 37th, Kansas City 276th
- Defensive Efficiency – ILL 31st, Kansas City 249th
Once again, the Illini have a huge advantage in the analytics department, as they should. I’m a bit surprised to see the Kansas City defense ranked so poorly, but that shouldn’t stop them from being tough on the Illini offense in some spots. If Illinois can get out and run the floor, they have a major advantage in that aspect of the game. They need to execute better, which will allow them to score more points than LSU did against Kansas City.
Players to Watch & Prediction
- Players to Watch
- Kansas City – F Allen David Mukeba
- Mukeba struggled against LSU with 7 points and a 3-for-11 showing from the field. He also had four turnovers, the important part for him in this game tonight will be how he defends Shannon Jr. or Mayer, those will be difficult matchups for him. They need to rely on him to have success defensively since the line of defense behind him are two freshmen.
- Illinois – F Coleman Hawkins
- Hawkins has been known to light up the box score against lesser Division I opponents. He did so against Eastern Illinois with 23 points and a surprising 5-for-8 from three. He has every opportunity tonight to do the same, I don’t expect him to be that efficient from three again, but he should have good numbers.
- Kansas City – F Allen David Mukeba
- Predictions
- Illinois wins 82-55
Maybe I’m overly confident in the Illini to dominate this game, but I have a good feeling about this matchup for them. They hung with LSU and lost by 11, but Illinois is at a different level than LSU in terms of talent. Shoutout to former Illini head coach Bruce Weber, who will be on the call as a color analyst on the Big Ten Network for tonight’s game. They will also have former players of last season’s team to celebrate the regular season Big Ten championship.
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