Jan. 28—CHAMPAIGN — Luke Goode has turned his shot fake into a shot fake, sidestep three-pointer frequently this season. It’s a new wrinkle to the Illinois guard’s offensive repertoire, and he’s found success with it.
But when Indiana‘s Mackenzie Mgbako gave Goode a wide open lane to the basket midway through the second half, he couldn’t not take it. Shot fake, sidestep turned into shot fake, baseline rip drive.
“Luke’s got a tremendous shot fake, and we work a lot with shot fake, sidestep for a three,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. “Luke has quietly got a really hard to guard post game because he can fade away and shoot it and shoot it off balance. His dribble drive game is not what I’d call exceptional.
“It’s probably a little better than yours, but it was the right play at the right time. The seas parted, and he shot a layup.”
Goode admitted he probably caught Mgbako unaware with his decision to attack the basket. That’s not something that would pop up on any scouting report.
“I don’t usually do it, but I drove the ball and finished and looked over at (assistant coach) Tyler Underwood and had some choice words for him because he gets mad at me in practice any time I dribble the ball,” Goode said. “That was kind of a funny part in the game.”
Coleman Hawkins was quick to agree that Mgbako had to be surprised by Goode’s aggressive take to the rim.
“He just kind of moves a little slow,” Hawkins joked. “He’s a little stiff. No, actually, Luke can score at all levels. He has to make sacrifices and play within our offense, but I’ve played in open gyms with him and seen Luke score in multiple ways. I’m just messing with him.”
★ ★ ★
Illinois shot just 7 of 23 from three-point range in Saturday’s win against Indiana. Goode accounted for three of the makes — after missing his first three attempts from deep. Finishing 3 of 8 against the Hoosiers makes Goode 16 of 41 (39 percent) from three-point range this month.
“My worth on this team is being able to guard and rebound, but hit shots,” Goode said. “That’s really my worth. Every single day I put in shots before practice and make sure I get in my routine and do extra shots before shootaround. I mentally know now that I can take those shots. I prepare myself enough for moments like that and shots like that. If the first three don’t go in — if the first 10 don’t go in — I’m going to be ready to shoot those next shots.”
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Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn gave Illinois a much-needed spark off the bench in the second half. The freshman guard knocked down his only three-point attempt, which cut Indiana’s lead to 49-45 and helped flip the momentum back in the Illini’s favor at that point of the game.
Hawkins called Gibbs-Lawhorn “fearless.” Three different times in the span of a single answer about how the freshman guard played.
“He’s fearless,” Hawkins said. “He’s been waiting on his moment. That comes with being a freshman. He’s fearless, though. He went out there, got his opportunity and hit a big shot for us and gave us a boost. He’s fearless. Salute to him.”
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Gibbs-Lawhorn ultimately played just three minutes in the win against Indiana. But he had played just two minutes total in Illinois’ last five games with four DNPs in that stretch.
“He works hard every day,” Underwood said. “He’s the other team’s best player most days. Believe me, when we have him and Sencire (Harris) at the guard spots on the scout team, whew. Talk about freakishly athletic.
“It’s very hard to do what Dravyn has done and keep his confidence. He is an extremely positive young man. He is an extremely hard worker. He’s in there every day with (assistant coaches Chester Frazier and Tim Anderson) and our coaches working and getting his shots up. A day like (Saturday) goes a long way in terms of my confidence in what he does. Then he guarded the ball and guarded without fouling.”
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Malik Reneau scored a game-high 21 points for Indiana despite fouling out with roughly three minutes to play in Saturday’s game. That the Hoosiers’ sophomore shot 8 of 12 from the field didn’t faze Underwood. Limiting Indiana to 0 of 9 three-point shooting meant more to the Illinois coach.
“He got up 12 attempts,” Underwood said. “That’s it. Twelve. We’re really good with that. Where I didn’t think we did a very good job was when he did miss we gave up some second-chance opportunities. The game is imperfect. You’re going to give up something. These guys are really, really good players. So you play the percentages, play the odds, and that’s what our stuff is based on.”
Hawkins drew the defensive assignment on Reneau like he has against the rest of the big men in the Big Ten. Goode said the rest of the Illini could have done more to help Hawkins try and slow down Indiana’s leading scorer.
“I think we needed to come off our guys a little bit more,” Goode said. “One of the big things at halftime was coach keeps saying how Coleman is, every night, kind of overmatched in terms of weight. Just straight up weight. He’s giving up 30-40 pounds a night against bigger guys.
“We have to be better at helping him. You see the numbers that opposing bigs have, and you could tend to blame Coleman. It’s not him at all. It’s all the other guys. That’s what we’ve been talking about in the locker room and what we have to get figured out.”
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Terrence Shannon Jr. got to double-digit points for a third straight game. But he needed to make all six free throws he attempted in the final 63 seconds to finish with 12 points. Shannon was just 2 of 10 from the field, missing all four of his three-pointers, and 8 of 10 at the free-throw line. The reintegration process for the veteran guard, who missed six games while suspended after being charged with rape, continues slowly.
“The flow offensively, we’ve got to find,” Underwood said. “We have to have a great ‘dummy day’ the next day or two where he’s not holding the ball. Terrence is effective when he’s driving it. That sets up his three. He’s holding it too much. We’ve got to help him there, but I felt like, late, he was emotionally in the right place. That’s the most important thing. I thought he was tough. He wanted the ball, and he wanted to make free throws. That was good.”
Scott Richey
