Illinois Basketball: Illini Searching for Answers After Loss of Rayvonte Rice

Coming into this season, the Illinois Fighting Illini basketball team had high expectations. It had a lot of experience returning from a 20-win squad in 2014, including one of the better players in the conference in Rayvonte Rice.

The Illini were also adding what they thought would be some much-needed scoring punch with the addition of transfers Aaron Cosby and Ahmad Starks.

They were going to have strong senior leadership from the likes of Rice, Tracy Abrams and Nnanna Egwu as well.

Those plans quickly took a hit last September when Abrams tore his ACL and was lost for the entire season. Despite this setback, the belief was that Illinois would still be okay because it had enough depth at the point guard position with Starks and sophomore Jaylon Tate.

Early in the season, this certainly looked to be the case as the Illini came out of the gates strong—albeit against some pretty weak competition—as they were scoring close to 100 points per game en route to a 6-0 start.

Then came losses to Miami, Villanova and Oregon in three of their next four games and a buzzer-beater win against a bad Missouri team in the annual Braggin' Rights game.

At this point, the concern among fans had started to set in. And the question was, how will this team survive the Big Ten schedule?

Those concerns then became reality as the Illini dropped their conference opener to a very average Michigan team on the road after leading by double figures in the second half. That was followed by a loss in Columbus to a ranked Ohio State team, a game in which the Illini again carried a lead in the second half only to see the wheels come off, resulting in a lopsided victory for the Buckeyes.

All of this happened with Rice in the lineup and leading the team in scoring (17.2 points per game) and rebounding (6.9 boards per game).

Then even more bad news hit Illini Nation. One day prior to taking on the ninth-ranked Maryland Terrapins for the conference home opener, the team announced that Rice would be out indefinitely due to a broken hand suffered the previous day in practice.

Tough news for Rice and even tougher news for the Illini and their fans. Where would they possibly go from here? Who was going to pick up the slack without Rice in the lineup?

Somehow, the Illini displayed enough fortitude to slip by a talented Maryland team at home with big help from sophomore Malcolm Hill, who put up 28 points in the victory last Wednesday. He carried the team that night, but is it realistic to expect this from him consistently? Probably not.

The team is certainly going to need more from guys like Kendrick Nunn, Egwu, Starks and Cosby.

However, getting more production from that group may be a lot to ask. Nunn certainly is capable and will hopefully become more aggressive offensively, as he has the talent to be very productive.

Egwu is certainly a stalwart defensively (1.8 blocks per game) but still lacks punch on the offensive end (7.6 PPG) or on the glass (5.6 RPG).

That brings us to Starks and Cosby, both of whom were expected to bring offense to this Illinois team with their shooting ability. So far, that has not been the case. Actually they've both been huge disappointments to this point in the season.

Starks is shooting 28 percent from three and 32 percent overall while Cosby is at 31 percent from three and a dismal 28 percent overall. Even more astounding is that, through four Big Ten games, the dynamic duo is shooting a combined 19.7 percent (12 for 61) from the floor.

Not really what head coach John Groce and his staff had in mind when bringing these two aboard as transfers.

When asked about the struggles of the two guards following Sunday night's 53-43 loss at Nebraska, a game in which Illinois shot 27 percent from the field and 20 percent from behind the arc, Groce told reporters, "They know they need to play better and be more efficient, it's not because they're not trying."

Unfortunately, trying hard does not always translate to good results. In fact, the Illini as a team have played hard—especially on the defensive end—but they are seemingly lost on offense.

Through four conference games, the Illini are ahead of only Rutgers in points per game with 58.2 while giving up 65 points per game.

Needless to say, that's not going to get them to NCAA tournament.

Illinois now sits at 1-3 in the Big Ten (11-6 overall) heading into Wednesday night's matchup with Northwestern in Evanston, and this now becomes a very big game for the Illini. Coming home 2-3 to play Indiana on Sunday looks a lot better than 1-4 and would give them a chance to even up their conference record with a win over the Hoosiers.

The question is, can they find enough offense consistently until Rice comes back?

Hill has shown he can score, but where else do they go on offense? Nunn is going to have to assert himself more offensively, and like it or not, Starks and Cosby will have to make some shots to help this team.

Egwu will play hard every night, but he can only give them so much offensively. Guys like Tate, Maverick Morgan, Leron Black and possibly even Austin Colbert are going to have to step up.

Groce has started to experiment with different rotations offensively in search of guys, or groups of guys, that can give him something offensively. It's time for some of them to show that they can play with the big boys.

It's times like these when you learn a lot about a team's character and its will to win. This is when you learn how tough and how resilient the players are. Will they continue to evolve or will they crumble?

Illinois fans are about to find out.