CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The Illini are gearing up for their second of three exhibition contests, as they look to fine-tune their team before the regular season rolls around.
Last Saturday, Illinois took down the Cincinnati Bearcats on the road. Friday night, they’ll play host to a Baylor Bears team coming off of an exhibition win over No. 1 Florida.
Despite the fact that both games are exhibitions, there are different things to gain from each one, and Illini head coach Brad Underwood is approaching them in different ways.
One thing during Friday’s game that will look different from last weekend will be the lineups, even though you can still expect to see a lot of guys get on the floor.
“It’s with the mindset that we’re going to play a lot of people anyway, so it wasn’t that far off,” Underwood said. “I think I’ll look at more combinations than I will just random substitutions and getting guys in the game.”
Underwood went on to mention that it’s “fun” for him to toy with different lineups and see what sticks.
While there wasn’t much for the Illini to scout on Cincinnati due to the fact that it was the team’s first action, things will look a little different in terms of preparation.
Ahead of Friday night’s exhibition against Baylor, Underwood said that the team will get its first chance to do some scouting and see where they’re at in terms of making adjustments to counter what other teams do best.
“We’ll pay a little more attention to it, see if we can get dialed in,” Underwood said. “There’s tape out there so we’ll get a look at what thei tendencies are and see if we can adjust and make those strategic decisions during the game.”
Baylor is a team that plays through its backcourt, headlined by Kayden and Dylan Mingo, their two star guards.
Both brothers are comfortable with the ball in their hands and are multi-faceted players, something Underwood was quick to point out.
“This is a very, very good guard backcourt, they can shoot it, they drive it,” Underwood said.
The Illini have experience going up against Kayden, the older of the two, last season when he was playing for Penn State.
He notched 16 points, five assists and four steals in the contest as a freshman, as the Nittany Lions kept things close against an Illini team that ultimately made it to the Final Four.
Dylan on the other hand is entering his first season of college basketball, as he committed to Baylor as a five-star prospect and top-five recruit nationally.
But, early on in a season, playing team defense comes with its challenges.
“The hardest thing to do is build defensive chemistry, it’s a side of the floor where you have to have elite communication,” Underwood said.
So, these exhibition reps can become invaluable in helping a team get off to an early start.
The Illini look ahead to their next chance at working on defensive communication and building off a triple-digit scoring performance.
Tipoff against Baylor is set for 7 p.m. on Big Ten Plus.