Among the reasons No. 25 Illinois didn't live up to its potential last year? It finished last in the Big Ten and 340th out of Division I's 362 teams in 3-point shooting percentage.
So when the Illini missed 13 of their first 14 3-point tries in Monday's opener against Eastern Illinois, it felt like déjà vu all over again. Then junior Luke Goode and freshman Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn came off the bench to make 5 of 10 3-point tries as Illinois cashed 10 of its final 18 attempts to turn an early 9-point deficit into an 80-52 win.
Why bring up long-range successes and failures so early in the season? Because Illinois' non-conference home game Friday against Oakland figures to be all about the 3-pointers.
The Golden Grizzlies (0-1) nearly won their opener Monday night at Ohio State - a six-point second-half lead gradually turned into a 79-73 loss - and they did it with an overplaying zone that ran the Buckeyes off their spots and limited them to 28 percent shooting. Expect Oakland to play the same way tonight.
Meanwhile, the Golden Grizzlies lived up to their history by launching 35 of their 61 shots from 3-point range against Ohio State. Oakland hit 14 of them, which included Div. II graduate transfer Jack Gohlke going 6 of 18 from 3 and not taking a single shot inside the arc.
"This is the year 2023 and that's how you play the game," said Oakland coach Greg Kampe, who's in his 40th year at the school. "And that's how we've always played it. I think we've had a lot of success."
The Illini struggled mightily from 3-point range last year, which helped to explain why they settled for a No. 9 NCAA Tournament seed and a first-round loss. Things looked up during Illinois' exhibition win over top-ranked Kansas on Oct. 29 as returnees Terrence Shannon Jr. and Coleman Hawkins combined to drill 9 of 18 3s.
But against Eastern Illinois, Hawkins missed both of his tries and Shannon struggled early before finishing 3 of 7 on 3s.
"We're not going to have nights where Coleman has four or five 3s," said Illinois coach Brad Underwood. "People are going to do something different - take that away. Terrence is going to have games where he doesn't make 4 or 5 3s. So it's gotta come from different places."
Enter Goode and Gibbs-Lawhorn. Goode was supposed to be Illinois' top shooter last year, but he broke his foot in the preseason scrimmage against Kansas that cost him two-thirds of the season. He wound up appearing in just 10 games and hitting 8 of 19 3s in limited time.
Gibbs-Lawhorn, meanwhile, is a 6-foot-1 freshman who finished just outside the RSCI Top 100 recruits list. He barely saw the floor against Kansas on Oct. 29, but provided a huge spark against Eastern Illinois with a game-high 18 points in 20 minutes.
"Shooting. Scoring," said Underwood when asked what he liked of the Goode/Gibbs-Lawhorn combo playing at the same time. "I'm going to be careful with Dravyn in terms of how much I want to compliment him - because I don't want him to read it and actually think it's true. He's a gifted scorer. He can really score it at all levels. And Luke's a 40-plus percent 3-point shooter throughout his whole career. I'm excited for that.
"We always put freshmen on the scout team. (Gibbs-Lawhorn) has been literally unguardable. He makes everything."
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