Jason Jakstys says he’s beginning a light lifting program after suffering ‘scary’ blood clot in shoulder.

March 26, 2026

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

HOUSTON — Don’t tell Illinois guard Andrej Stojakovic this regional semifinal inside Houston’s Toyota Center is a de-facto road game for his team.

During the first portions of stretching before Illinois’ practice session on the playing floor, the Illini third-year wing walked out to the midcourt and to both baselines with this disposition that he was looking for something.

“I went to midcourt and the logo said ‘March Madness’ and it didn’t have the Houston Cougar on it,” Stojakovic said. “I went to the baseline and no Houston Cougars logo. No black and red. Turns out Rice is the host of this thing, not Houston. It’s a neutral site game.”

The trip from Houston’s basketball facility to their team hotel in the city’s downtown was just over three miles and took just over 20 minutes on Tuesday only because Cougars head coach Kelvin Sampson elected to leave during rush hour traffic. It’s believed by University of Houston officials to be the shortest trip ever made by a participating school for the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.

Asked about the impact of trying to knock off Houston in the NCAA Tournament less than 20 minutes away from the center’s Houston’s campus, Illinois head coach Brad Underwood had a very simple response.

“I couldn't care less. And I'm going to sound really kind of selfish here. I'm an old (junior college) ball coach. I drove 16-passenger vans. I drove from Dodge City, Kansas, to Mesa, Arizona, for a basketball game, for a tournament, in a bus. If you had told me back then that I'm getting to coach basketball in the Sweet 16 and play Houston in Houston, I would sign up for it, I would crawl to get there.”

Illinois tied the school record for Big Ten road wins this season with an 8-2 record. Underwood's 2020-21 squad also won eight Big Ten road games but that was during the coronavirus pandemic safety protocols of no fans in the stands. Over the last seven seasons, Underwood has led the Illini to a league-most 42 Big Ten road wins.

“If we want to beat them, no matter where we play them, we would have to play great. Guess what? We're going to have to do that tomorrow,” Underwood said. “And I think they're going to have to play well if they want a chance to beat us. So I don't pay too much attention to it. We've won on the road. We've been pretty successful doing that. I'm just grateful for the opportunity and, you know, playing Houston's a challenge enough, it doesn't matter where.”

Sampson is one of only 15 coaches in NCAA history to lead four or more schools to the NCAA Tournament and is one of only 17 coaches to lead multiple schools to the Final Four, downplayed the home court situation as well because his Cougars program defeated Purdue in Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium in the regional semifinal of the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

“They had 20,000 Purdue fans. Then the next game we played Tennessee. They had 20,000 Tennessee fans. We won both. So it’s hard to say if it’ll make an impact,” said Sampson.

Sampson referenced his two-year period as the Indiana head coach to cite how he anticipates Illini fans will likely travel to Houston for the game on Thursday night (9:05 p.m. CST, TBS).

“I do know that having coached in the Big Ten for two years that the Big Ten travels well. I would expect there to be a lot of Illinois fans here. They have a tremendous program, terrific fan base, but so does Nebraska. We just witnessed that in Oklahoma City. I mean they took that place over. I think (the city of) Houston got four great basketball programs, four great fan bases.”

Jason Jakstys Optimistic About Full Recovery Following Blood Clot Issue That Ended His Season

Jason Jakstys finds himself in the role of cheerleader on the Illinois bench after suffering one of the more scary medical issues a human can experience - a blood clot.

While going through a lifting routine in late January, Jakstys felt a weird pain in his left shoulder and the Illini training and medical staff waited 24 hours to re-evaluate what they thought was a muscle injury.

“They told me it was a rare longshot for it to be a blood clot but they wanted to take all the precautions,” Jakstys said. “Then the veins in my arm started to bulge out. My shoulder and arm had spots of purple and my entire left arm felt numb. I was pretty scared initially.”

Jakstys played limited minutes in just nine games this season. He averaged 1.3 points and 1.9 rebounds and had a career-high nine boards in his Illini debut on Nov. 3. The 6-foot-10 center from Yorkville, Ill., said he has a medical appointment next week to see if he can begin to increase his physical contact.

“I’m encouraged by the idea that I’m okay and I’ll be able to get back to full strength because I felt like I was making real progress in practice this season,” Jakstys said.

Jakstys’ father, Thomas, is a family medicine physician in Yorkville so Jason Jakstys felt instantly comfortable with the medical side of his blood clot issue.

“I’ve seen how serious it can be but also how people can return to normal physical health in a short amount of time,” Jakstys said. “So, yeah, there wasn’t a ‘Oh my God, I’m going to die’ thought in my head but I wanted to hear that I can still play basketball at a high level.”

Jakstys will obviously be on the bench Thursday night (9:05 p.m. CST, TBS) when Illinois faces Houston for a spot in the regional final of the 2026 NCAA Tournament but he’s already focused on getting ready for the 2026-27 season.

“He’s doing a lot on his own and it’s something you just don’t mess with at all,” Underwood said Wednesday afternoon. “To have a rib removed, forces him to be off the court right now and he’s honestly trying to gain the weight back that he lost during this period. He’s focusing on specific movements with our training staff and he’ll continue with that until he gets officially cleared to be back on the court.”

Big Ten Revival in Houston

Welcome to the Big Ten South here in Houston as the opening act before the Illinois-Houston regional semifinal game is a Big Ten Conference game that was just seen earlier this month near the end of the regular season in Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska. The two teams split the regular-season series with Iowa winning 57-52 in Iowa City and the Huskers recording an 84-75 overtime home win earlier this month.

The Iowa-Nebraska regional semifinal contest on Thursday night (6:30 p.m., TBS) was obviously not an anticipated matchup when the NCAA Tournament bracket was revealed on March 15, but 10 days after Selection Sunday, at least one Big Ten institution will be playing Saturday night for a trip to a Final Four.

“Yeah, I think the Big Ten this year in particular, there's a lot of really good skilled players in the league like in both size with skill,” Iowa head coach Ben McCollum said Wednesday. “You look at your Purdues, some of those program, some of the Michigan State, some of those programs that have guys in their program for multiple years at a time, they have some experience. That's a big deal in post-season play. I do think sometimes (the grind of a 20-game Big Ten schedule) can hurt you too. You get exposed a lot and if you get exposed too much you eventually it can break you. Fortunately we've got a really tough team and so it didn't break us when we got exposed quite often. It just sharpened us up a little bit and got us ready for the postseason.”

By knocking off No. 1 seed and defending national champion Florida last weekend, Iowa (23-12) has advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time in 27 years and for the ninth time in program history, ending a drought dating back to 1999. Iowa became the ninth No. 9 seed all-time to knock off a No. 1 seed and the first since 2018.

McCollum joins Tom Davis as the only two Iowa head coaches to guide the program to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament in their first season but McCollum was a senior in high school when Iowa last made the Sweet 16 in 1999.

“With just how much both fan bases and teams care about the rivalry and just how big it is and both games (this season) we were pretty were super intense and at a high level,” Iowa forward Cam Manyawu said Wednesday. “I’m really just excited to play in a rivalry game in this type of environment.”

The Huskers are making their second NCAA appearance in three years after making just one NCAA trip from 1999 to 2023. Nebraska (28-6) has reached the Sweet 16 for the first time in school history after wins over Troy and Vanderbilt. Prior to this year, NU was winless in eight previous NCAA appearances.

The Big Ten Conference put six teams into the regional semifinal round and posted a 13-3 record over the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament.

“How (the Big Ten regular season schedule) prepares you for this moment playing against that quality of opponent night-in and night-out. I'm just really happy for the league,” Nebraska head coach Fred Hoiberg said. “It's been a fun ride. It's a grind to get through it. But it's going to be fun to see hopefully multiple teams in the Final Four.”