Coming off of a big win in New York over Maryland, the Illini got off to a good start and led at the half against Minnesota 39-37. They would extend the lead to 47-42 in the second half before the Gophers would get hot and pull away for an 86-75 win over the Fighting Illini.

After struggling in Champaign two weeks ago, Minnesota was ready for this one, hitting 50 percent from the floor and making six second-half 3-pointers to get the win.

Amir Coffey had 18 points and Jordan Murphy 16 to lead five Gopher players in double figures. Trent Frazier did everything he could, scoring 30 points on 10-14 shooting, but it wasn’t enough for Illinois. Tevian Jones (10) and Adres Feliz (11) also were in double figures.

1 - No D in Minnesota - The Illinois defense was sliced and diced by the Minnesota offense for 86 points in 69 possessions. Illinois only forced nine turnovers and without any threat of a shot blocker, Minnesota got into the paint and finished at will. The Gophers also got 11 offensive rebounds, 36 percent of their misses. They used their bigs to initiate the offense using back screens to get either an opening or a mismatch and Illinois couldn’t deny catches and speed up the Gophers. It led to breakdowns and some missed communications, and lots of Minnesota dunks and layups.

2 - Too emotional - Illinois got involved in a physical game against a bigger and more physical team. Then, when a couple of calls went against them they got flustered and let it affect how they played. Giorgi was noticeably upset about a couple of travel calls as he was getting hipped and kneed in the post. Was he correct? Probably, but once you lose your composure as a player it is difficult to recover. That’s what a young team does on the road many times.

3 - No stops, no transition - Illinois is much better in transition, but once they led 47-42 they failed to get stops and failed to get transition opportunities. Ayo Dosunmu was clearly on the scouting report in transition, as he got very few looks in space and struggled to get going in the half court. When Illinois gets limited production from Ayo and Giorgi, it makes for a long day.

*Aaron Jordan and DaMonte Williams combined to score five points and shoot 1-10 from the floor. Jordan rebounds well and teams respect him as a shooter which gives floor spacing, but Williams is left open and either doesn’t shoot or misses.

*Another good outing from Andres Feliz with 11 points in 20 minutes. He hit a 3, but more importantly he constantly puts pressure on the defense.

*It was interesting that Samba Kane didn’t get an opportunity against the Minnesota front line. Kane had some nice minutes last time against Minnesota and at Iowa, but really hasn’t played since.

*Tevian Jones missed all of his 3-point attempts, but may have shown more in this game than he did last weekend. He made a couple of mistakes and responded with defensive plays and showed off some ability to get to the rim off the dribble as well.

*Kipper Nichols only played four minutes, and I actually think he should have played more. It may have been nice to have he and Jones on the floor for stretches to match up a bit better with the size of Minnesota.

*Illinois tried to use a triangle and 2 and some 3-2 zone, but both were ineffective as they allowed Minnesota to get into the middle of the zone and score easily.

*The Illini have a very winnable game on Saturday at home against a reeling Nebraska squad, so they have to put this one behind them quickly and get ready to play.