Addition by Subtraction

Here is a quickie about the Illinois Men's Basketball Team.  A bit of a puzzle is that Kylan Boswell has a broken hand and has not played the last several games.  He was one of if not the best players on the team.  Certainly, he was the best defensive player.  He could really lock down the other team's best offensive player.  Yet Illinois seems to be playing better in his absence. 

One reason, little noted, is that we've gotten taller, having Jake Davis, who really is a forward, take the slot that Boswell had.  Davis is listed as 6-6 while Boswell is listed as 6-2.  Davis is not much of a ballhandler, but Mirkovic is and he is doing much more of that than he was before Boswell was hurt.  This is important because, as my prior post focus was on Keaton Wagler, while Wagler is now the team's star and media darling, the performance burden needs to be shared.  If it's all on the shoulders of one kid, he will wear down eventually. 

Another point that hasn't been noted much at all is that in the Big Ten they don't press much, except near the end of the game when the team that is behind might press to generate a turnover.  But good teams in other conferences do press and the question is whether Illinois can handle it well or not.  Illinois' big guys are reasonably good passers, with Tomislav Ivisic elite, as Brad Underwood likes to say, so maybe we can break the press by getting it into a big who can then pass the ball over the defense.  Against Nebraska in the half court, it seemed we had many very high passes over the defense from one side of the court to the other.

But if the ball goes into Wagler and he is then trapped, might that result in a turnover?  It happened against Nebraska and fortunately we got fouls called on them in that instance.  But if this was done earlier in the game, it might have gone differently.

Teams that press a lot need to be deep at guard, so they can rotate in fresh players who can keep up the intensity.  It seems to me that apart from just having a totally off night, which is surely possible, this is how Illinois might get beat.  It wouldn't be by trying to match us in rebounding.  It would be by forcing us into many more turnovers than is our norm.  

There are still 9 games left in the regular Big Ten season, with a few very tough games remaining, and then there will be the Big Ten Tournament.  At around that time Boswell should be ready to return to the lineup.  It seems reasonable to expect him to be not quite on his game at first.  At that point, might there be subtraction by addition?