Maryland basketball found a shooting stroke in win vs. Illinois

The Maryland men's basketball team put an emphatic hurting on Illinois Thursday, 81-55.

This is how Maryland did in the "four factors" of team efficiency: effective field goal percentage (eFG%), turnover percentage (TOV%), offensive rebounding percentage (ORB%) and free throw tries per field goal attempt (FTA/FGA).

Shooting

Maryland: 68.5 eFG%
Illinois: 43 eFG% 
National average: 49.9 eFG%

The Terps had their second-best shooting output against a Big Ten team, only dwarfed by the 72 percent effective shooting performance they put forward against Ohio State in a 100-point romp in January. Illinois was brutal from the field, outside of 10-for-13 big man Maverick Morgan.

Turnovers

Maryland: 22.2 TOV%
Illinois: 15.9 TOV%
National average: 18.2 TOV%

This wasn't the most encouraging part of the evening for the Terps, who had seven turnovers in both the first and second halves and only forced 10 against the Illini. (Granted, ball security is one of Illinois' relatively few strengths.)

Rebounding

Maryland: 33.3 ORB%
Illinois: 22.9 ORB%
National average: 29.8 ORB%

After the Terps' worst rebounding game in literally 15 years last weekend, they did what they had to do in this department. It wasn't great or anything, but the Terps held up OK. It's a step forward. Melo Trimble and Jake Layman led the team with eight and seven boards, respectively.

Foul shots

Maryland: 0.185 FTA/FGA
Illinois: 0.123 FTA/FGA
National average: 0.367 FTA/FGA

Officials basically didn't call fouls in this game. Maryland was 7-of-10 at the line, and Illinois was 6-of-7. Lopsided games are reasonably expected to be called more loosely than close ones, so perhaps that had something to do with it. Even Maryland's 10-foul shot output was aided by a two-shot technical in the first half on Illinois coach John Groce.