IU basketball game day essentials: Indiana back home to face No. 19 Illinois

Game Day Essentials:

Indiana (13-4, 4-2) vs. No. 19 Illinois (12-4, 4-2)

• Tip Time:  7 p.m. Eastern, Tuesday
• Location: Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall (17,222), Bloomington, Ind.
• Television: Peacock (Noah Eagle, Robbie Hummel)
• Radio: IU Radio Network (Don Fischer, Errek Suhr, John Herrick)
• Stream: Peacock
• Point Spread:  Illinois is a 3.5-point favorite
• KenPom Projected Score:  Illinois 79  Indiana 75
• History: Indiana leads, 96-92.
• Last Meeting: ILL 70, IU 62 on Jan. 27, 2024, in Champaign
• Tickets (via our StubHub affiliate link)

Illinois’ Brad Underwood

Brad Underwood is in his eighth season as head coach of the Illinois men’s basketball program. Throughout his career, he has an overall record of 264-118.

Underwood began his head coaching career at the junior college level at Dodge City CC. In five seasons, he compiled a 62-60 record. After a stint as an assistant at Western Illinois, he spent three seasons at Daytona Beach CC, where he won two regular-season conference championships.

Underwood got his first Division 1 head coaching job at Stephen F. Austin and had a very successful three seasons. The Lumberjacks won both the conference regular season and tournament championships. Underwood coached SFA to a 53-1 record in the Southland conference in those seasons, and appeared in the NCAA Tournament in all three.

Following SFA, Underwood joined Oklahoma State as their head coach for one season in 2016-17. The Cowboys went 20-13 that year, and appeared in the NCAA Tournament.

Underwood was hired as Illinois’ next head coach in the Spring of 2017. In eight seasons, Underwood has compiled a 155-91 overall record with a 84-59 record in the Big Ten. He’s appeared in four NCAA Tournaments, and has won two Big Ten Tournaments. His best season in his stint was in 2020-21, where the Illini went 24-7 and finished second in the Big Ten.

Illinois’ results and roster

Illinois’ game notes (via Illinois Athletics)

NOTES

• Brad Underwood has led the Illini program to Top-25 rankings in six consecutive seasons. Illinois has been ranked for six weeks this season. The team is currently No. 19, and has been ranked as high as 13th.
• Underwood has recorded 155 wins at Illinois, ranking fourth on the program’s all-time coaching wins list.
• Following the 2024 Elite Eight appearance and Big Ten Tournament Championship, Illinois has a dramatically different roster this season. The program returns just one rotation player – last year’s ninth leading scorer Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn – and returns just 2.9% of its minutes, 2.2% of its points, and 2.0% of its rebounds overall.
• Newcomers to the Illini roster have accounted for 91.7% of the team’s scoring so far (1,275 of 1,390 total points), with UI freshmen accounting for 39.0% of those points (497).
• Seven different Illini players have recorded a 20-point game this season.
• Four of the Illinois’ top scorers and rebounders are all in their first year of collegiate basketball. Freshman G Kasparas Jakucionis ranks first in scoring (16.4 ppg) and third in rebounding (5.6 rpg). Sophomore C Tomislav Ivisic nearly averages 12.8 points (second on team) and a team-leading 8.6 rebounds. Freshman F Will Riley is the Illini’s No. 5 scorer at 10.9 points per game. And Freshman F Morez Johnson Jr. ranks second on the team at 6.6 rebounds per game with a team-most 41 offensive boards.
• At 16.4 points per game, Jakucionis is on pace to break the Illini freshman scoring average record of 15.9 ppg set by Kiwane Garris 31 years ago.
• Ben Humrichous has led the Illini in scoring in each of the team’s last two games – 21 vs. Penn State and 15 vs. USC – with a combined eight 3-pointers. Humrichous is averaging 15.3 points and 5.3 rebounds over the last four contests, while knocking down 13 3-pointers on .448 shooting from beyond the arc.
• Tre White is averaging 17.0 points and 7.3 rebounds over the last four games. He has scored in double figures in seven of the last eight games, averaging 15.5 points and 6.0 rebounds over that eight-game stretch.
• Over the last eight games, Kylan Boswell is averaging 13.4 points (107), 6.0 rebounds (48), and 4.9 assists (39).
• Over his last five games, Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn is averaging 10.3 points per game while shooting 55.6% (25 45) from the field.
• Morez Johnson Jr. is averaging 7.8 points (45) and 7.2 rebounds (43) over the last six games. Johnson also has recorded eight blocks during that stretch.
• Three Illini scored 20+ points vs. Penn State – Ben Humrichous (21), Morez Johnson Jr. (20) and Tre White (20). It marked just the third time in the last 35 seasons that Illinois had a game featuring a trio of 20-point scorers.

JAKUCIONIS PRODUCING AT ELITE LEVEL

• Freshman Kasparas Jakucionis is the second Fighting Illini, alongside Ayo Dosunmu, and one of only of 12 Power Conference players to average 16+ points, 5.5+ rebounds, and 5.0+ assists since the 2009-10 season.
• Jakucionis joins Markellle Fultz and D’Angelo Russell, who were taken No. 1 and No. 2 overall in their respective NBA Drafts, as the only players among that elite group to do so in their freshman seasons.
• Jakucionis ranks tied for third in the NCAA this season with three games of 20+ points, 6+ rebounds, and 5+ assists, trailing only Northwestern senior Brooks Barnhizer and Auburn fifth-year senior Johni Broome (4 each), and tied with FDU sophomore Terrence Brown, Princeton junior Xaivian Lee, Marquette senior Kameron Jones, and Purdue junior Braden Smith.

Illinois’ KenPom notable numbers:

(out of 364 teams)

Tempo – No. 14 (Offense No. 73 / Defense No. 16)

Offensive Efficiency – No. 23

• Illinois is shooting a 53.5% effective field goal percentage on the season, good for No. 82. As a team, they shoot 33.1% on 3s (No. 193) and 57.1% on 2s (No. 36).
• They shoot a very high rate of 3s at a 48.7% rate of all shots (No. 20). They account for 36 percent of their total point distribution (No. 72).
• They take care of the ball well with a 16.1% turnover percentage (No. 88).
• Illinois also rebounds well on the offensive glass at a 36.2% rate (No. 26).

Defensive Efficiency – No. 10

• Illinois is holding opponents to a 43% effective field goal percentage on the year (No. 8). Teams are shooting 28.1% on 3s (No. 9) and 43.4% from 2s (No. 10).
• They limit assists to a 39.8% rate (No. 10), and don’t allow many attempts from beyond the arc (31.9% rate of all shots, No. 16).
• Illinois isn’t forcing many turnovers on their defensive possessions. They have a 14.8% forced turnover rate on the year (No. 329).
• Opponents don’t get many offensive rebounds (23.4% rate, No. 5).

OG’s Pick

Win/Loss Record: 12-3

Here’s a matchup I am interested in watching.

I think the end result is really going to depend on Kasparas Jakucionis’ availability. He’s missed the last two games due to a forearm injury, and his status remains uncertain. He’s had an exceptional year up to this point and leads Illinois in scoring.

Still, that’s not to say Illinois can’t play without him. They’re a team that produces from long range, and we saw how that can burn the Hoosiers in the second half against Iowa. Illinois has a productive bench unit as well, something that Indiana hasn’t really shown consistently.

Indiana is slated to lose the next eight matchups, according to KenPom. This is one of their remaining chances to prove they belong in any type of postseason consideration. Unfortunately for them, I don’t think they take advantage.

PICK: Illinois 74 – Indiana 67

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