Back into practice mode Monday for the Illini basketball team.

And there’s plenty to practice.

Illinois’ 0-2 headache of a trip to Las Vegas exposed several flaws that need to be fixed.

1.) Unless your name is Derrick Rose or Carmelo Anthony, freshmen are still going to play like freshmen from time to time. Let’s not get carried away with anything that happened in Las Vegas. These are two very good, very talented players. But between them they were 6 for 26 shooting the ball and they were a little lost defensively. They’ll improve, but the growing pains won’t disappear overnight.

2.) The three junior starters need to be pretty consistent and they were not. Mike Davis disappeared in the first game against Utah. He had been playing great, then went 1-for-6 and finished with two points and five rebounds. That’s a major letdown from a guy who could arguably be Illinois’ best player. Then against Bradley Demetri McCamey struggled with 10 points and five turnovers. And his defense was weak.

3.) No one could stop dribble-penetration. That’s why Jeff Jordan played 19 minutes against Utah and 25 minutes against Bradley. When Bruce Weber assessed his options, Jordan was doing the best job of at least offering some defensive resistance. That has to improve and until it does, expect opponents to use it as a strategy against the Illini. After falling behind 32-16 at halftime, Utah decided to attack Illinois by going one-on-one and driving the ball inside. Illinois could not stop the Utes, who made 16 of 23 shots in the second half, an alarming 69.6 percent.

4.) Who starts, who subs? When Paul struggled in the Utah game, Weber turned to Alex Legion against Bradley. I understand the move, but I’m inclined to believe he might have to accept the fact that Paul is going to make some mistakes and just leave him in the lineup. As long as Paul’s effort is good, I’d rather invest in his freshman growth. Off the bench, Dominique Keller and Billy Cole are bringing positive energy and making some plays. Jordan appears to have the backup point guard spot locked up and Richard Semrau looks like he’ll get a few minutes backing up in the post. That leaves the others on the outside looking in and it leaves Legion in a weird spot, a shooter who appears only briefly and in special situations.

5.) Every rebound is precious. There’s no reason why D.J. Richardson and Brandon Paul can’t chase down five rebounds a game, each. And it seems like there already have been a lot of rebounds that went into the hands of Mike Tisdale, only to squirt back out again the minute he was bumped. Those rebounds are critical.

I already had the Clemson game penciled in as a loss, so I’ll head there Wednesday expecting to see just that. Anything different will be a pleasant surprise.

But after that, there’s plenty of time and talent to put together a nice run leading toward the Missouri game on Dec. 23. The trip to Las Vegas gave Illinois plenty of things to work on. Let’s see which of them they can fix.