Illinois managed to win both of its exhibition games. Now, beat writer SCOTT RICHEY shares his five takeaways heading into Friday’s regular-season opener against Southeast Missouri State:
Age before beauty
Forgive Tracy Abrams if he had a little rust to shake off. Going 31 months and 67 games in between starts was bound to slow the sixth-year point guard down a bit — regardless of how he looked this offseason. He shook off some of that rust against Washington University (a couple forced shots) before settling into a rhythm and finding his teammates in position to score.