Hello, Illini Nation: Shooting Matters | Content

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Welcome to “Good Morning, Illini Nation,” your daily dose of college basketball news from Illini Beat writer and AP Top 25 voter Scott Richey. He will offer insight into Brad Underwood's team and college basketball in general each morning:

A few things stand out about how Illinois has rebuilt its roster this offseason. And don’t be offended by the word “rebuild.” When you only bring back two players and add nine newcomers, it's a rebuild. A different connotation for a program that has had several successful seasons, but this roster turnover rate means this is a rebuild.

The Illini's approach this spring was clear. The size of the post was essential. The filming too. And Illinois was able to combine the two with virtually every addition it made.

“We knew exactly how we wanted to address our needs in the portal,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. “We weren't just acquiring talent and then trying to understand it. We had such an efficient offense (in 2023-24). We made the changes with the “swag ball”, taller perimeter players and having a 5 player who could really play in space and shoot the basketball.

“Filming was a priority. We felt like as the season went on we didn't shoot enough threes. I think we shot 38 percent on our three-point attempts. We would like this figure to reach 42 to 44 percent in the future.”

Illinois attempted 908 three-pointers last season. This represented 38.5 percent of his total field goal attempts. The Illini made 35 percent of those three-pointers. With only the return of Ty Rodgers (did not attempt a three) and Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn (shooting 22 percent from three), the responsibility for making shots will fall on the newcomers.

While Tre White and Carey Booth were 30 percent three-point shooters last season at Louisville and Notre Dame, respectively, the other three incoming transfers knocked down shots from the perimeter at a higher rate.

Kylan Boswell was a career 38 percent three-point shooter in two seasons at Arizona. Ben Humrichous made 41 percent of his three-pointers last season in Evansville. Jake Davis made 39 percent of his shots from beyond the arc as a freshman at Mercer.

Add in freshmen Kasparas Jakucionis and Tomislav Ivisic, who are both capable of shooting three-pointers, and you could see Illinois going deep in 2024-25.

Scott Richey is a reporter who covers college basketball at the News-Gazette. His email is [email protected], and you can follow him on Twitter (@srrichey).