Basketball

Following a spectacular performance in win over Purdue, Illinois head coach Brad Underwood may argue with anybody that his most improved player is Tre White.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

CHAMPAIGN — Purdue head coach Matt Painter got introduced to the full Tre White experience from Illinois.

Following a 88-80 loss to the Illini, the Boilermakers 20-year head coach said he’d leave State Farm Center Friday night with one baffling thought.

“We just defensively couldn’t pick up the dive cut guy in our rotations,” Painter said shaking his head. “We just couldn’t take the dive guy. It drives me nuts.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUXe9eYel3A    

By IlliniGuys Staff March 7, 2025 (Cover photo courtesy […]

After surviving multiple significant injuries to key players, Illinois head coach Shauna Green is going to focus on body recovery before her team’s NCAA Tournament game.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

March 7, 2025

INDIANAPOLIS — In the week prior to being selected to the WBIT field, Shauna Green put her squad through some of the most grueling practices and intrasquad scrimmages of the season to get prepared for a postseason run.

Needless to say, the Illinois third-year head coach will not be doing that from now to when the NCAA Tournament bracket being revealed on the night of March 16 (7 p.m. CST on ESPN).

By Brad Sturdy - IlliniGuys Insider/Analyst & Co-Host, IlliniGuys Sports Spectacular

March 7, 2025

The Illini are solidly in the NCAA field but have a chance to move up at least a seed line, and possibly more next week. They have lost 5 in a row in this series and need this win to show how good they can be when healthy. The Illini dominated Michigan on Sunday, but the Boilers are coming off a beat down of Rutgers and appear to be gaining steam.

It should be a good one.

Setting the Stage
Illinois (19-11, 11-8 B1G) vs. #18 Purdue (21-9, 13-6 B1G)
Friday, March 7, 2025 // 7 p.m. CT // Champaign, Ill. // State Farm Center
TV: FOX – Jason Benetti (Play-by-Play) & Bill Raftery (Analyst)
Radio: Busey Bank Illini Sports Network – Brian Barnhart (Play-By-Play) & Deon Thomas National Radio: Compass Media Networks – Wayne Larrivee (Play-By-Play) & Danny Green

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys Director of Recruiting

March 7, 2025

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Lincoln Williams, the 6-foot-4, 180-pound junior shooting guard from Kankakee, is no stranger to Illinois fans in terms of recruiting. According to him, he has visited Champaign eight or nine times this season.

Illinois head coach Shauna Green will now have 10 days to evaluate why the final 10 minutes of games has been the achilles heel for this 2024-25 group in late February and March.

By Matt Stevens' - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

March 6, 2025

INDIANAPOLIS — Now it’s becoming a nasty trend.

The first game of the 2025 Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament served as a second straight game in which Illinois saw a disastrous fourth quarter lead to a loss.

Shauna Green’s mood turned drastically in the final 10 minutes of play as the Illinois head coach watched her squad get outscored by Nebraska 25-14 in the final quarter to pull off a 74-70 upset win and send the Illini home from Gainbridge Fieldhouse earlier than they obviously hoping to stay.

“This game just comes down to, again, the fourth quarter and really our last five minutes again,” Green said. “It's something that we've struggled with the last few games. Their best scoring run was in the fourth. That can't happen. We gave up whatever it was in the fourth, and then again, everything we've been talking about was finishing plays, getting those rebounds. It's why we lost really the Michigan game, and we did the same thing tonight.”

Two of the best centers in the Big Ten and all of women’s college basketball will face off as 7-seed Illinois draws 10-seed Nebraska in the second round of the league tournament tonight.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

March 6, 2025

INDIANAPOLIS — In her return to her home state for her final Big Ten Tournament, Kendall Bostic has drawn the other center in the conference receiving so much attention this season.

When the ball is tipped at 5:30 p.m. CST tonight on Big Ten Network, the Gainbridge Fieldhouse crowd will immediately see the league’s two best centers in the circle when Bostic and Nebraska’s Alexis Markowski are matched up one time. The duo represents two players selected to the league’s first team all conference selections by the league’s media contingent and rank No. 3 (Bostic’s 53) and No. 4 (Markowski’s 52) among active players in career double-double performances.

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys Director of Recruiting 

March 5, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – After almost three years under head coach Shauna Green, the Illinois women's basketball program appears to be in great hands. This past Sunday marked Senior Day, as the team bid farewell to a significant portion of its scoring. This year's graduating class includes Genesis Bryant, Makira Cook, Adalia McKenzie, Brynn Shoup-Hill, and Kendall Bostic, who all played special roles in resurrecting the Illinois women's program.

(From Illinois Sports Information Office) CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Following a […]

Mike Cagley, Co-Host Sports Spectacular and Big Sports Radio […]

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys Director of Recruiting

March 3, 2025

(Photo courtesy FIBA Basketball) 

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Late last week, talented shooting guard Dame Sarr, a 6-foot-5, 190-pound prospect from Italy, announced his top three schools: Illinois, Arizona, and Creighton.

IlliniGuys learned early Monday morning that Illinois has positioned itself well to land Sarr, but the Bluejays and Wildcats remain in strong contention.

For the first time in the 2024-25 season, Illinois saw a fourth-quarter lead evaporate thanks to a team with more depth, more energy and more poise in the final minutes.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

March 2, 2025

CHAMPAIGN — The final three and a half minutes of the last regular season home game produced the nightmare scenario that the Illinois women’s basketball program has been desperately trying to avoid.

With a 65-59 lead, Illinois simply ran out of energy, offense and the will to stop a Michigan run that felt like it would’ve continued to get worse if the clock hadn’t run up of time. Michigan turned a six-point deficit into a 78-69 win on the momentum of a 19-4 run to finish the spoiling of a Senior Day celebration and State Farm Center.

By IlliniGuys Staff March 2, 2025 (Cover photo courtesy […]

By IlliniGuys Staff March, 2, 2025 (Cover photo courtesy […]