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No. 19 Illinois has back-to-back road games this week, beginning Tuesday at Indiana (6 p.m. CT, Peacock).
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Illinois closes a stretch of five games in 13 days across four cities and three time zones vs. the Hoosiers. The Illini are 3-1 during that run, including a pair of road wins at #9 Oregon (109-77) and at Washington (81-77).
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Illinois has won two of its last three games at Indiana, with Coach Brad Underwood's Illini posting consecutive wins in 2021 and 2022 before a one-possession loss in its most recent trip to Bloomington in 2023.
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Illinois is No. 9 in the latest NCAA NET rankings, ranking first among Big Ten teams. The Illini are tied for fifth nationally with four Quad 1 wins.
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Tuesday's contest at Indiana, which ranks 60th in the NET rankings, is the first of four Quad 1 matchups in the Illini's next five games to close out the month of January.
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Illinois is a combined 4-2 in road and neutral games away from State Farm Center this season, with a 2-1 mark in true road contests.
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Illinois is looking to win three consecutive Big Ten road games for the first time since victories at Nebraska, at Minnesota, and at Wisconsin in January 2023.
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Three of Illinois' last four wins have come by 30+ points. The Illini defeated Chicago State, 117-64 (+53), at home on Dec. 29, recorded an historic 109-77 (+32) victory at No. 9 Oregon on Jan. 2, and earned a 91-52 (+39) home win over Penn State on Jan. 8.
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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.
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Underwood has recorded 155 wins at Illinois, ranking fourth on the program's all-time coaching wins list.
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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.
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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).
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Seven different Illini players have recorded a 20-point game this season.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Over the last eight games, Kylan Boswell is averaging 13.4 points (107), 6.0 rebounds (48), and 4.9 assists (39).
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Over his last five games, Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn is averaging 10.3 points per game while shooting 55.6% (25-45) from the field.
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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.
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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.
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Illinois is 3-2 against ranked teams this season, with wins over No. 19 Arkansas, No. 20 Wisconsin, and No. 9 Oregon. The Illini's three top-25 victories are tied for fifth most in the nation.
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In their 109-77 win at #9 Oregon, Illinois became the first Big Ten team since Feb. 9, 1989, to record 100+ points in a Top-10 road win (No. 10 Michigan defeated No. 8 Iowa, 108-107).
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Illinois' 32-point road win over Oregon was the largest margin of victory ever by a road team over an AP Top-10 opponent, and the largest road win in Illinois program history against any top-25 opponent.
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The 109 points scored vs. the Ducks are the second-most any team has ever scored in a regulation road game against a top-10 opponent, trailing only Kansas State's 116 at Texas in 2023. Illinois' 109 points are also the most ever scored by a road team at Oregon.
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Six Illini scored in double figures at Oregon, including sophomores Jake Davis (12) and Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn (11), who scored all 23 of their combined points in the first half to help the Illini build a 45-38 lead at the break. It marked Davis' first double-digit effort as an Illini and just the fourth in two seasons for Gibbs-Lawhorn.
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Junior guard Kylan Boswell recorded the seventh triple-double in Illinois history and fifth of the Underwood era against Chicago State, tallying 18 points, career-high 10 rebounds, and career-high 10 assists.
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Point guard Kasparas Jakucionis scored 20+ points in six straight games from Nov. 25-Dec. 22, shattering the Illini freshman record for consecutive 20-point games (previous record was two).
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Jakucionis became the fourth Big Ten freshman since 1996-97 with at least six-straight 20-point games, and the first to do so since Indiana's Eric Gordon had seven in a row in 2007.
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While his 20-point game streak was snapped with a 14-point outing vs. Chicago State, Jakucionis is still averaging 19.9 points (179) over his last nine games, knocking down an average of 2.8 threes per game (25) on 46.3% from 3-point range (25-54) along with 89.9% from the foul line (44-49).
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Tomislav Ivisic scored a career-and game-high 23-points vs. Chicago State, leading the team in scoring for the third time this seasons (second to Kasparas Jakucionis' seven).
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Ivisic is the No. 4 rebounder in the Big Ten at 8.6 rpg, trailing Michigan's Danny Wolf (10.2), Indiana's Oumar Ballo (9.8), and Maryland's Julian Reese (8.8). Ivisic has led the Illini rebounding effort in 10 of 16 games.
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Ivisic has recorded six double-doubles through 16 games, ranking fifth in the Big Ten, tied for 30th in the NCAA overall, and tied for first among power conference underclassmen with Duke's Cooper Flagg.
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Only 14 games into his college career, Jakucionis already has six 20-point games, just two away from equaling the Illini all-time record for 20-point games by a freshman. Cory Bradford (1998-99) set the current Illini mark with eight, followed by Ayo Dosunmu (2018-19) and Kiwane Garris (1993-94) at seven each.
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Jakucionis is the fifth freshman of the Underwood era to record at least five total 20-point games in his rookie season, joining Dosunmu (7 in 2018-19), Trent Frazier (5 in 2017-18), Giorgi Bezhanishvili (5 in 2018-19), and Kofi Cockburn (5 in 2019-20).
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Freshman F Morez Johnson Jr. recorded his second double-double of the season Illinois' Jan. 8 win over Penn State, recording a career-high 20 points and pulling down a game-high 11 rebounds.
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Through 16 games, Johnson has recorded 19 total blocks, tied for eighth in the Illini freshman record book, and one behind Nnanna Egwu who posted 20 rejections in 2011-12. Johnson is on pace to finish his freshman season third among Illini freshmen all-time behind only Deon Thomas (54 in 1990-91) and Kofi Cockburn (44 in 2019-20).
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Illinois currently ranks No. 12 in KenPom adjusted defensive efficiency (92.7), its highest ranking since also reaching seventh during the 2021 season, and the second-best number of the Underwood era (88.9 in 2021).
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Illinois is eighth nationally in effective field goal percentage defense (.430), ranking 10th in both 2-point defense (.434) and 3-point defense (.281). Illinois joins Florida (7th in 2-point defense, 3rd in 3-point defense) and San Diego State (ninth in 2-point defense, 6th in 3-point defense) as the only programs to rank in the top 10 in both categories.
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According to KenPom, the Illini rank 16th nationally, and sixth among Power Conference programs, with a 3-point attempt rate (3-point attempts/total field goal attempts) of 32.6%.
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Illinois leads the Big Ten in seven statistical categories, with the following NCAA rankings: defensive rebounds per game (1st in NCAA; 32.0), rebound margin (2nd, 12.3), total rebounds per game (3rd; 45.1), 3-point attempts per game (7th, 31.5), 3-point percentage defense (13th; .281), field goal percentage defense (15th; .385), and offensive rebounds per game (42nd; 13.1).
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The Illini's scoring average of 86.9 ppg is the team's highest in 59 years since the 1965-66 team averaged 87.4 points per game, and is on pace for the No. 4 mark in program history.
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Illinois' scoring margin of +19.7 points per game is on pace for No. 2 in the Illini record book, behind the 1942-43 team, which outscored opponents by 20.6 points per game. The team's top mark since 1960 is +15.9 set in 2004-05.
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Illinois ranks third nationally in rebounding at 45.1 boards per game, on pace for the program's best average in 53 seasons, since posting 48.0 rebounds per contest in 1971-72. The Orange and Blue have outrebounded their opponents in 14 of 16 games this season.
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Illinois is the winningest team in the Big Ten since 2019-20, registering 73 wins in league play. And when including the conference tournament, the Illini have a league-best 79 wins during this time span. The Illini won the 2024 Big Ten Tournament championship as the #2 seed, captured the regular season championship in 2022, and led the conference in wins while adding a B1G Tournament crown in 2021.
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Head coach Brad Underwood has also led Illinois to the Big Ten's best road record since the start of the 2019-20 season. During that span, the Illini are 31-22 (.585) in conference road matchups, and have finished .500 or better in four of the last five seasons.
