26 Jan 2025; Champaign, Illinois, USA; Northwestern Wildcats Guard KJ Windham (24) Press Illinois who fights Illini guard Kylan Boswell (4) during the second half at State Farm Center. Mandatory Credit: Ron Johnson-Imagn Pictures Illinois coach Brad Underwood is high on his 18th ranked team.
“We can be a dominant team if we continue to grow and find ways,” Underwood said on Sunday after an 83-74 Big Ten Conference Hemromma over Northwestern. “It’s growing steps and part of our process.”
That process will take Fighting Illini (14-6, 6-4) on the road Thursday evening for another conference match, this time to fight Nebraska (12-8, 2-7) in Lincoln, NEB.
Illinois was never in danger Sunday, despite what the final result said. It led 43-21 at half-time and maintained the 22-point line until the last five minutes, when Wildcats went on a run to make the final margin more respectable.
What made the result more impressive was that Illini dominated in rebounding without a 7-foot-1 center Tomislav Ivisic, the team’s second leading goal scorer on average 13 points per game and top recurrence for 8.5 per match.
He missed his second straight game with Mononucleos, and his status for Thursday evening is not known.
Illinois carved out a 50-27 advantage on the glass towards the northwest and took 21 offensive returns. It helped the beginner forward Morez Johnson Jr., who was over-marked in the team’s loss of 91-70 against Maryland last Thursday, had 15 points, nine returns and three blocked shots.
Johnson is on average 6.6 returns in just 16.1 minutes per match this season.
“Rebounding is the key to our team,” Underwood said. “I thought Morez did a good job.”
Illini Lead Division I I Returns with an average of 42 per match. In addition to Ivisic and Johnson, three other players are on average at least 5.4 per match.
Kasparas Jakucionis leads the team in points of 15.9 ppg and in assists with 5.4.
While Illinois seems to be on a collision course with a top-four seed in the NCAA tournament, Cornhuskers have hit tough times. Sunday’s 83-55 setback on then no. 18 Wisconsin stretched its losing line to six matches and has those who do not have the conference tournament, which leaves the three lower teams in 18-law.
Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg praised his team’s defense when it was 12-2 and flipped with a place in the top 25, but that has not been the case recently. The team has allowed an average of 86 points to a game during their ski and gives up 17 3 points on Sunday.
“When you are on a line that we are right now,” said Hoiberg, “the human nature is to start questioning and separating a bit. But we have to find a way to stay together through this tough time and hopefully get this thing turned soon.
“Every time you lose it is frustrating like hell. We have some very good opportunities ahead of us and some difficult tasks.”
The good news for Cornhuskers is that after this game and a trip to No. 16 Oregon on Sunday, they will not play a ranked team during the last nine matches. But they still have to put together a winning line to revive their hope of serving a second straight NCAA -KAJ.
Brice Williams is the team’s leading goal scorer of 18.2 ppg, although he was held at 11 points on 4-AV-12 shooting from the field on Sunday.
Illini is constantly leading the series 23-8 and has won the last nine meetings.
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