Three Fighting Illini to inhibit for Indiana basketball on Thursday night

2. Matthew Mayer – Senior Forward – #24

2022-23 stats: 18 GP, 23.0 MIN, 11.1 PPG, 4.8 REB, 1.4 BLK, 1.9 3PM, 37.4 3P%

Coming into this year, I was ever-so confused by Mayer’s decision to transfer from Baylor to Illinois. And as the season began, it seemed like my thoughts were rightfully so.

Mayer began his senior campaign in Champaign averaging just 5.6 points and 4.5 rebounds, and shooting only 32.0 percent from the field and 24.1 percent from three-point range. Despite the lackluster performance, the Illini had started the season 6-2 overall with a huge win over No. 8 UCLA.

Since those first eight games, Mayer has been on a tear and has been impacting the games in more ways than one, but mostly with his outside shot. In his last 10 games, Mayer has reached double digits scoring in nine of those games and is averaging 15.4 points and 2.7 made threes per game on 43.5 percent from deep.

If the Hoosiers don’t game plan for shooters like Matthew Mayer, it’s going to be a long night in Champaign and we could see another outing as we saw against Penn State last week.