Illini Men's Basketball Open 2025 Year With Trip To Pacific Northwest

This starts a stretch for Illinois with four of its next six games on the road. Illinois is 0-1 in true road games this season, and 2-2 away from home.

Illinois is looking for its first road win over a top-10 team since beating No. 7 Ohio State on March 6, 2021.

Illinois is 2-2 against ranked teams this season, with wins over No. 19 Arkansas and No. 20 Wisconsin.

Illinois leads the Big Ten in the latest NCAA NET rankings at No. 11, one spot of ahead of Oregon.

Brad Underwood has led the Illini program to Top-25 rankings in six consecutive seasons. Illinois has been ranked for four weeks so far this year, currently at No. 22.

With Sunday's win over Chicago State, Underwood recorded his 152nd victory at Illinois, moving into sole possession of fourth place on the school's all-time coaching wins list.

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.

Over the last four games, Boswell is averaging 15.8 points (63), 7.5 rebounds (30), and 5.5 assists (22).

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).

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.

While his 20-point game streak was snapped with a 14-point outing vs. Chicago State, Jakucionis is still averaging 20.7 points (145) over the last seven games, knocking down an average of 3.0 threes per game (21) on 47.7% from 3-point range (21-44) along with 88.4% from the foul line (38-43).• Tomislav Ivisic is coming off a career-and game-high 23-point performance vs. Chicago State, ending a streak of six games in a row by Jakucionis as Illinois' leading scorer.

Ivisic has recorded six double-doubles through 12 games, ranking second in the Big Ten behind Northwestern's Brooks Barnhizer for most in the Big Ten this season and tied for 15th in the NCAA.

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

Newcomers to the Illini roster have accounted for 92.4% of the team's scoring so far (958 of 1,037 total points), with UI freshmen accounting for 39.5% of those points (410).

Illinois' top three scorers and rebounders are all in their first year of collegiate basketball. Freshman G Kasparas Jakucionis ranks first in scoring (16.3 ppg) and third in rebounding (5.6 rpg).

Sophomore C Tomislav Ivisic nearly averages a double-double at 14.7 points and team-leading 9.3 rebounds per game. Freshman F Will Riley is the Illini's No. 3 scorer at 12.6 points per game. And Freshman F Morez Johnson Jr. ranks second on the team at 6.5 rebounds per game.

Only 12 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.

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).

Jakucionis enters 2025 on pace to break the Illini freshman scoring average record of 15.9 ppg set by Kiwane Garris 31 years ago.

Freshman Morez Johnson Jr. is averaging 8.5 points (17) and 8.0 rebounds over the last two games.

Tomislav Ivisic is the No. 2 rebounder in the Big Ten at 9.3 rpg, trailing only Michigan's Danny Wolf (10.2).

Illinois currently ranks 13th in KenPom adjusted defensive efficiency (94.3), its highest ranking since the 2021 season (7th) and second-best ranking of the Underwood era.

Illinois stands fourth nationally in effective field goal percentage defense (.418), ranking fourth in 3-point defense (.269) and ninth in 2-point defense (.425).

Illinois leads the Big Ten in nine statistical categories, with the following NCAA rankings: defensive rebounds per game (1st; 32.3), total rebounds per game (2nd, 45.4), rebound margin (5th, 12.4), 3-point attempts per game (6th in NCAA, 32.2), 3-point percentage defense (7th; .269), field goal percentage defense (8th; .372), 3-pointers made per game (17th; 10.8), free throw attempts per game (18th, 25.3), and offensive rebounds per game (52nd, 13.1).

According to KenPom, the Illini rank eighth nationally, and third among Power Conference programs, with a 3-point attempt rate (3-point attempts/total field goal attempts) of 51.0%.

The Illini's scoring average of 86.4 ppg is the team's highest since the 1989 Flyin' Illini also averaged 86.4 ppg en route to a Final Four appearance.

Illinois' scoring margin of +20.8 points per game is on pace for the top mark in program history, surpassing the 1942-43 Illini, which outscored opponents by 20.6 points per game. The team's top mark since 1960 is +15.9 set in 2004-05.

Illinois ranks second nationally in rebounding at 45.4 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 11 of 12 games this season.

Illinois is the winningest team in the Big Ten since 2019-20, registering a 70-32 (.686) mark in league play. And when including the conference tournament, the Illini have a league-best 76 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.

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 29-22 (.569) in conference road matchups, and have finished .500 or better in four of the last five seasons.