No. 17 Illinois (13-6, 5-4) will take on Northwestern (12-7, 3-5) on Sunday for the second time this season. This time, the in-state rivals will battle in Champaign for a matinee matchup.
What happened last time?
Last time, Illinois took on Northwestern in Evanston for its Big Ten opener. The game went to overtime, but when the final buzzer sounded, the Wildcats led by four to secure the win.
Illinois shot the ball poorly, including graduate student forward Ben Humrichous going 1-9 from deep. Freshman guard Kasparas Jakučionis had a rough first half but lit up after halftime. Jakučionis finished with 20 points on 6-10 shooting from beyond the three-point line.
Yet, Jakučionis’ production was not enough to stop the Wildcats. They had seven fewer turnovers than the Illini and won the battle on the offensive glass. Northwestern junior forward Nick Martinelli led the charge, scoring 27 points and outplaying Humrichous’ lack of strong defense in overtime.
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Ivišić out with mono for second straight game
Head coach Brad Underwood revealed to the media on Saturday that sophomore center Tomislav Ivišić has been diagnosed with mono and will not play in Sunday’s rematch against Northwestern. He had a double-double against the Wildcats in December.
“(Ivišić) has got mono,” Underwood said. “He’s not contagious, he’s beyond that. He was really sick in the Michigan State game and then was diagnosed after.”
Sophomore forward Carey Booth, who has barely played all year, ended up playing 13 minutes against Maryland on Thursday with Ivišić out. He will get more minutes against Northwestern as well, while freshman forward Morez Johnson Jr. will make his second career start.
“(Booth) is a really good shooter that hasn’t had the opportunities to get going,” Underwood said. “The opportunities are going to be there for him. He’ll knock those down; I don’t doubt that. But we’ve got to have more than one rebound (from Booth) than he had the other day, and that was on a free throw. That’s where he’s got to continue to continue to really help us and do it on both ends.”
Booth, Johnson and Humrichous need to show a strong fight to slow down Martinelli, who averages 19.9 points this season.
Keys to the game
Get on the boards. Simply put, the Illini need to grab offensive rebounds to beat the Wildcats. Illinois is one of the best rebounding teams in the Big Ten, but it did not show against Maryland without Ivišić. Offensive rebounding was also a focus after the Illini’s first loss to the Wildcats and should be a main point of change from December’s game to this one.
“Obviously, we lost the rebound battle against Maryland, and coach Underwood’s big thing is the rebounds, and that’s definitely a big emphasis after a game that we lose because we don’t win the rebounding battle,” said sophomore forward Jake Davis.
Illinois must also find its way out of its shooting slump. The team shot 21.4% from three in their loss to Maryland and 20.8% in their close loss to Michigan State. This team was built to shoot, but in their last two games, the Illini have not lived up to the hype. Humrichous and freshman forward Will Riley will also have a chance at redemption for their 1-15 combined three-point shooting performance against the Wildcats in December.
Underwood is not worried about the shots falling. But at some point, Illinois has to figure out how to make shots fall. Missed shots have left a rough impact in close games and cost the Illini victories.
“Obviously not having (Ivišić), who’s a guy who can really stretch it — we’ve seen him make five or six (three-pointers) in a game — not having him changes things a little bit,” Underwood said. “I don’t worry about the three-point shooting. You can worry about it for me.”
Tip-off
The Illini will begin their second game against the Wildcats this season on Sunday at 2 p.m. The game will be aired on the Big Ten Network.
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