No. 17 Illinois will play its second regular season game at home on Friday night against Florida Gulf Coast. The Illini are coming off a dominant season opener in which they obliterated Jackson State by 58. Friday’s buy-game is expected to be more of the same, but there are still some interesting tidbits to take note of ahead of the matchup.
Social media star at State Farm Center
Perhaps the most interesting part of Friday’s contest from a fan perspective will be social media sensation Brandon Dwyer. The Eagles graduate student guard has made a name for himself on TikTok and Instagram with basketball-focused content and his very popular “road to one point” series. Dwyer has amassed 1.3 million followers on TikTok and 542,000 followers on Instagram, making him a bona fide star in the online basketball community.
Ahead of this season, Dwyer had only seen eight minutes of action in just seven college basketball games, not scoring a single point. Now, after four years, Dwyer recently completed the challenge that made him an online celebrity. Dwyer finally scored his first collegiate points on Monday in the team’s season opener, racking up six points. The crowd erupted when he hit a three-pointer for his first bucket, and social media did too.
Florida Gulf Coast’s visit to Champaign will not be all that eventful from a basketball perspective, but if Dwyer takes the court, he’s sure to draw some buzz from the student section in the State Farm Center.
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Injury updates
Unfortunately for Illinois fans, multiple players are still out for Friday’s matchup. Sophomore guard Mihailo Petrović is still out with a tweaked hamstring, and freshman guard Brandon Lee will sit out again after injuring his ankle in practice on Sunday.
“Brandon’s got a really good lower sprain in his ankle,” said head coach Brad Underwood. “Pretty black and blue.”
For the second game in a row, junior wing Andrej Stojaković will attempt to make his Illini debut after recovering from a knee injury that he suffered at the start of team practices this fall. He was a game-time decision on Monday but could not go. It will be the same scenario on Friday for the Cal transfer, who is slowly making progress.
“(Stojaković) still hasn’t been through an entire practice,” Underwood said. “He’ll be a game-time decision. Everything is reactionary to the workload he does the day before.”
With the injuries to Illinois’ guards, it has opened up minutes in the backcourt for freshman Blake Fagbemi. Fagbemi, a 6-foot Naperville, Illinois, native, was expected to be one of the last players off the bench for Illinois ahead of the season. Now, he’s getting a major chance to prove himself on the big stage. He played 14 minutes on Monday and will likely continue seeing floor for extended minutes.
“He’s earned it; Blake’s a winner,” Underwood said. “He’s a scary athlete … He’s still learning the intricacies of the college game and how to utilize all of that. But he’s a great, great competitor. He knows his role. He doesn’t try to do too much. He’s maximizing his opportunity, and I’m not afraid to put him in a game because I know he’s going to compete at a really high level, he’s going to play really hard, and he’s going to do what he’s asked.”
Defense and rebounding adjustments
When Illinois took on Jackson State on Monday, the team effectively dealt with defending a lot of isolation plays on the perimeter, forcing quick shots and limiting opportunities to get into the paint. However, that will be different against Florida Gulf Coast, which runs a more intentional, set-based offense.
“Gulf Coast runs good stuff, they’re going to run some actions, they’re going to execute, they’re going to have a plan,” Underwood said. “The other night, it was a lot of isolation ball screens. I thought we did a nice job of guarding the ball. We better do that on Friday night, or their point guard (junior guard Rahmir Barno) will live in the paint.”
Underwood also stressed the importance of rebounding and effort on the glass going forward. Although the Illini had a plus-42 rebounding margin in their season opener, Underwood was not pleased with certain players’ performance, opting to pull them from the game at certain points if he didn’t like what he saw.
“We’ve got to have much more from (junior center Tomislav Ivišić) on the glass than what he gave us,” Underwood said. “His effort the other night was not up to his standard or ours. So yeah, come sit on the bench, we’ll find somebody that (will rebound). (Redshirt freshman forward) Jason Jakstys gets nine (rebounds) in 11 minutes. He does what he’s supposed to do, so we’ll reward that.”
These buy games are crucial for the Illini to get their ducks in a row. The competition level will skyrocket on Tuesday when No. 10 Texas Tech visits Champaign, so focusing on the fundamentals right now — rebounding, defensive intensity, shot selection and more — is key so that they come more naturally as the schedule gets tougher.
Tipoff
Game time is set for 7:30 pm CDT in Champaign. The game will be aired on Peacock.
