After a painfully slow start in its exhibition opener on Sunday against the University of Illinois at Springfield (UIS), Illinois basketball found their stride late in the second half and never looked back.
Everyone expected that Illinois would win its exhibition game against a Division II school – that isn’t the story. Rather, the story of this game is that all four of the Illini’s top performers were newcomers.
In what makes this a somewhat odd story, these newcomers weren’t all freshmen. Rather they were a mix of freshmen and fifth year senior transfers.