Murray State at Illinois preview
WBB: The Racers will look for back-to-back wins as they travel to Champaign
Murray State will try to snap out of their shooting woes when they head to Big Ten country to take on the Fighting Illini of Illinois Tuesday morning. Here’s what you need to know:
Murray State (2-1 overall) at Illinois (2-1 overall) — 11:00am CT at the State Farm Center in Champaign, Illinois
Bart Torvik national rankings: Murray State #83; Illinois #67
Series history: 3rd meeting (Illinois leads series 2-0, winning the last meeting, 84-52, December 11, 2018)
You can watch the game on the Big Ten+ streaming service ($14.79 for a monthly pass)
Jeremy Rose will have the radio call on WNBS 1340 AM and GoRacers.com, with the pregame showing starting at 10:30am
Murray State Scouting Report
The Racers are coming off shooting 50 free throws in Saturday’s home win over Saint Louis. It will be a big ask today to repeat that performance considering the Illini have only allowed their three opponents to shoot a combined 54 freebies this year.
The story of the young season has been the Racers inability to make shots. Through three games, Murray State is knocking down just 21.9% (16-for-73) from three-point range. That is on pace to be the worst three-point shooting season in program history. It’s obviously early and those numbers should most certainly turn around, but Murray State Head Coach Rechelle Turner is doing her best to try to help her team quickly navigate through this rough patch.
“We haven’t handled it very well,” Turner chuckled. “That’s just the truth. Kids have been disappointed. You’ve seen some bad body language, you’ve seen a little bit of pouting, and we’re working through that. I understand that everyone wants to pull from the great that last year was, especially at the end, when everything was going in and everything was going right, but this is a whole new team, a whole different situation. Nothing is the same. We’re talking a lot about fighting through the hard and we’re talking about, ‘Just keep shooting, just keep playing.’
“Halli (Poock) is a great example of that,” Turner continued. “(Saturday against Saint Louis), I literally had to tell her, ‘If you look over here one more time and say, ‘I can’t make a shot’, I’m probably going to have to do something that makes you not be able to speak again.’ Just stop doing it — stop doing it!’ Fortunately, she kind of got her head out of her tail and just kept shooting and did what she did. She was able to get to the free throw line and help put the game away, and made the big shot and some really great plays down the stretch. It’s a learning lesson for all of us. We cannot sit in the past, we have to move on to the next play. We still have to play with that perfect effort. That was one thing (against SLU), I thought we played hard. I thought we got after it. They were physical, they were mouthy. It was a tough situation, but we played hard and we fought through it. I think even though it didn’t look good and the execution wasn’t perfect by any means, the perfect effort was there, and that’s just what I’m trying to instill in these kids. You are not going to make every shot. They’re going to start falling, but you’re still not going to make every shot. So what are we going to do, and who are we going to be when it’s hard and we’re still trying to find that identity a little bit.”
While they did a lot of their damage at the free throw line, Poock and Sharnecce Currie-Jelks both scored a season-high 28 points against Saint Louis.
The Racers currently lead the country in free throw shooting, making 91.7% of their shots from the line this season.
Illinois Scouting Report
The Illini are coming off their first defeat of the season last Friday, losing 64-59 at unbeaten Oregon State.
Their two wins this year are over Southeast Missouri State, 91-67, and Illinois State, 75-65.
Illinois is led offensively by sophomore Berry Wallace. The 6’1 forward is averaging 24.3 points (7th in the country) and 8.0 rebounds per game this season. She’s been very consistent in her output so far, scoring 27, 22 and 24 points in each of the three games, while shooting 56.8% from the field. Wallace has also shown enough range from the outside to keep defenses honest, as she’s made 4-of-9 three-point attempts this year.
The Illini are only attempting 13.7 three-point shots per game this season. They’re one of only 23 teams in the country to have taken 13.7 or fewer triples per game this year. The Racers will need to be prepared to defend the interior against the bigger team from the Big Ten.
“They’re really, really good at the mid-range jumper, and they’re good in the post,” Turner said. “They’re just going to cause you some some different problems that we don’t normally see on a regular basis. When you play a Power-4 team, they’re going to be a little bit bigger, stronger and faster than you. But I will continue to say this, Tuesday is as much about us as it is about anybody else. The schedule is not friendly to a team that’s trying to grow and learn and develop roles and develop shifts and those type of things. I think these next four games going into Christmas break will be a big test for us. It’s going to kind of show us who we are and what we are and how we are going to handle the hard. We’re going to try to do what we can to slow them down, but I’ve never been more serious when I say it is as much about us as anybody else at this point.”
I’ll have a ‘Ride Home’ podcast posted later today.