Illini take on Mastodons at State Farm Center

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Illinois head coach John Groce instructs his team during the exibition game against Northwood at State Farm Center on Sunday. Groce returns just three scholarship players in his second season.

The Illinois basketball team ate Thanksgiving dinner sometime after practice Thursday, and now it’s back to business against Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne on Friday night.

For the five freshmen, it might have been the first time eating Thanksgiving dinner away from home.

“We’ll all eat dinner as a family (Thursday),” head coach John Groce said. “For our freshman it will be probably the first time that they’ve eaten Thanksgiving dinner away from their family. They’re going to have to be pretty mature heading into Friday’s game, from a mindset perspective.”

Following a big road win at UNLV on Tuesday, and coming on a holiday weekend, Friday’s matchup with IPFW is the perfect trap game. The Mastodons (an extinct mammal species related to the elephant, for anyone curious) come into State Farm Center boasting a 6-2 record.

Their only loses came by one point apiece to Dayton and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Both losses came without leading scorer Luis Jacobo. The preseason Summit League Player of the Year candidate is averaging 14.6 points and 5.8 rebounds per game after missing three games with an injury.

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Friday’s game will be the second in IPFW’s Illinois road trip after beating Eastern Illinois 71-65 on Wednesday night.

“They’re talented. They’ve got guys that can shoot the ball,” Groce said. “They’re older, they execute well. Very similar to when we played Valpo, in terms of execution. Watching them late (Tuesday) night and early (Wednesday) morning, I really admire the way they play.”

Groce said IPFW has impressed him most with its execution in the half court. He said his Illini are going to have to be on their p’s and q’s.

Valparaiso played a similar brand of basketball. Illinois beat the Crusaders 64-52 on Nov. 13 in a game that wasn’t pretty by any means, but was a W for Illinois.

The Mastodons don’t have the size of Valpo (which has three players 6-foot-10 or taller), but they have solid upperclassman leadership with four seniors and juniors.

Friday could be one of the poorer showings by Illini fans, with students on break and the game coming the day after Thanksgiving. If so, it will be that much harder for Groce and Co. to keep the energy up.

“I mentioned to the older guys, we’ve got to have a level of maturity approaching the next game,” Groce said. “The way college basketball is, anybody can beat anybody on a given night. I know they feel good about their team because they’re older and Jacobo is back.”

They will have to be in the right mindset, as Groce said. Illini fans remember the near letdown against Gardner-Webb the Sunday after Thanksgiving last year after Illinois won the Maui Invitational. It took a Tyler Griffey buzzer-beating three to outlast the Running Bulldogs.

And this year the Illini have less time to let their Thanksgiving dinner settle before taking the court Friday.

Sean can be reached at [email protected] and @sean_hammond.