Illinois Basketball: 3 takeaways from Illini victory over Jackson State

Luke Goode Will Get the Most PT of the Freshmen

One of the bigger question marks entering the season for the Illini was surrounding what roles the freshmen would play on this team. Luke Goode, RJ Melendez, and Brandin Podziemski all came into the program as high-rated recruits but joined a crowded roster. With all the returning talent at Illinois, earning consistent and meaningful playing time as freshmen will be an uphill battle for all of them this season.

Despite this, there will be times that all their numbers will be called upon albeit in small sample sizes before they earn the trust of Coach Underwood. So far it seems to me like Goode has done the most to earn the trust of Underwood so far and it has shown in his minutes and confidence.

Goode is a 6’7”, 200 lb. shooting guard out of Fort Wayne, Indiana. His biggest strength is without a doubt his jump shot where he can be deadly from deep. On a team featuring Kofi Cockburn and Andre Curbelo, both of whom will garner a ton of attention, Underwood can easily plug in Goode into one of the corners as a spot-up shooting threat. He also has looked the most Big Ten ready physically of the freshmen which should help on the defensive end.

In the game against Jackson State, Goode logged 17 minutes and made the most of them by hitting 2 out of his 3 three-point attempts and grabbing four rebounds. Even though Jackson State’s offense isn’t of Big Ten caliber, he still looked capable of defending at the collegiate level when he was out there. If Goode can maintain that level of play when the competition gets tougher and the other players return, I think he could carve out a nice rotation spot for himself.