Kipper Nichols was so efficient in the first half for Illinois, he even banked in a shot on a three-point play.
The forward transfer hit all five of his first half shots, scoring 13 of his game-high 16 points against Minnesota on Saturday.
He was the only Illini player who showed a hot hand in the 68-59 loss at State Farm Center, finishing 6 of 8 off the bench while top scorers Malcolm Hill hit only 5 of 18 shots and Jalen Coleman Lands missed on all 10 of his attempts.
Those two combined for a 0-for-15 disappointment on 3-point shots, and the Illini hit only 4 of 22 3-pointers. Nichols made all three of his 3-point attempts.
"A lot of it is just his motor and his competitive toughness and athleticism and body making plays," Groce said of Nichols who only became eligible on Dec. 17. "He’s a pretty tough dude. In terms of knowing what he’s doing he’s way better than he was when he started but we still have some work to do there."
After his strong first half, fans called out to Groce from the stands to put Nichols back in the game when he didn’t start after halftime. Nichols entered 3 minutes, 15 seconds into the second half and was the fourth player to sub in.
"Obviously we’re trying to play certain groups together based on what we have," Groce said. "We threw him out at the three (position) quite a bit. He doesn’t know that position quite as well. He’s working on it very hard. We played him out of position a little bit today just to get him on the floor more. We’ll look at it. Maybe we could have got him in a minute earlier or whatever. A lot of it is based on combinations of guys we’re trying to play together."
Photos from the Illinois-Minnesota college basketball game on Saturday, Feb. 4, 2017, in Champaign.
Nichols played 23 minutes total, 11 in the second half.
Minnesota coach Richard Pitino was asked about the decision to not play Nichols more. He didn’t bite.
"I think John is a terrific coach," Pitino said simply.
Nichols, who also had six rebounds, said he could have played better despite his career high points.
"I was just trying to take what the game gave me tonight," he said. "We just have to do better."
sryan@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @sryantribune
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
