The Illinois men's basketball team played its final exhibition game of the season on Wednesday night at State Farm Center in Champaign, Ill., with seven players recording double-digit scoring nights en route to a 101-66 victory. 

The No. 3 Fighting Illini's offense has been the talk of the Big Ten heading into the season, with coach Brad Underwood's team praised by an opposing Big 12 coach. 

Illinois looked to be in midseason form against the Flames as they showed crisp ball movement and a team-first approach that seemed unstoppable at times. 

After the game, Illinois teammates Stefan Vaaks and Ethan Brown described their team's remixed approach on offense. 

Vaaks, Brown Dissect Offense After Win

Former Providence star and current Illinois backup scorer Stefan Vaaks joined freshman teammate and starting guard Ethan Brown at a postgame press conference, where they recapped key parts of the Illini's high-scoring effort. 

Vaaks said that the pace of the Illini's practices has made games easier. 

"In the practices we emphasize it a lot, our pace, I mean, our practices I think are way harder than some of the games. Of course, there's going to be harder games in November, December, January, whatever. But right now, our practices are really hard.

"And coming here, I feel like the guys feel like, easy for us, we can, hold the pace and all that stuff." 

Brown also spoke about the Illini's pass-first offensive approach. 

"Yeah, for sure, adding on to that, we preach, we don't want the ball sticking, we cut, we're just, makin' TB12s (a reference to former NFL superstar quarterback Tom Brady style passes) when we get into the paint, you know, draw two (defenders), not you, just find our open man, we're a pretty good shooting team, so we just hit a lot of shots," the Illinois freshman said in comments posted by Tristan Thomas of WCIA-3 Champaign. 

The Illini had 28 assists during the game, including four players with four or more. 

Team Approach Complements Illinois Shooting 

The Fighting Illini lost their top two assist men, Kylan Boswell (now with the Charlotte Hornets) and Keaton Wagler (now with the Los Angeles Clippers) from last year's team, putting the onus on passing heading into the team's opener against Fairleigh Dickinson on Nov. 2. 

The Fighting Illini have enough shooting to shoot their way to the top of the Big Ten, and college basketball, now the question of 'Who's going to get them the ball?' has come to the forefront. 

Vaaks, Brown, and freshman Quentin Coleman have all added an infusion of smart passing to a system in dire need of it. The Fighting Illini don't have a proven, established pass-first point guard heading into the season, but they could have something far better than that if they continue to pass the way they did against the Flames.