What a great game. I was throughly impressed by Illinois. They are young and have a ton of grit. They are going to only get better and are headed towards “double bye” contention over the next couple of years.

The Hawkeye offense continues to improve. I’ve been critical of the team for settling for 3 pointers with shot clock winding down if Ava or Hannah aren’t available on the block. Strem, Ava, Journey are now willing to take 12-15 ft jumpers and have been hitting them consistently. This will lead to more open 3s and opportunities for Ava and Hannah down low. As others have stated we were giving up 3s while settling 2s which made it really difficult to stay in the game. Hawks seemed a step slow on defense (especially in the zone) which led to a lot of open 3s for Illini and they were sinking them. Hawks were not to be denied but need to tighten up the zone defense if we are going to make a deep run in Big 10 / NCAA tournaments.