Basketball

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

March 21, 2025

March Madness is finally here for the Illini. They will face a stiff challenge against 11 seeded Xavier, a team that beat Texas on Wednesday night and has won 8 of 9 down the stretch. Led by former Arizona coach Sean Miller, the Musketeers are one of the oldest teams in the country and will be a tough out on Friday night.

Setting the Stage

2025 NCAA Tournament // First Round // Midwest Region
6 Illinois (21-12, 12-8 B1G) vs. 11 Xavier (22-11, 13-7 Big East)
Friday, March 21 // 8:45 p.m. CT // Milwaukee, Wis. // Fiserv Forum
TV: CBS – Kevin Harlan, Dan Bonner & Stan Van Gundy (Analysts), Lauren Shehadi (Sideline) Radio: Busey Bank Illini Sports Network – Brian Barnhart (Play-By-Play), Deon Thomas National Radio: Westwood One – Noah Eagle (Play-By-Play), Tom Crean (Analyst)
Satellite Radio: SiriusXM – 210 / 203

Illinois first-year forward/center Morez Johnson says left wrist is “100 percent healthy and I’m ahead of the rehab schedule”.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

March 21, 2025

MILWAUKEE — When asked the question Thursday if his Illinois team can handle a frantic, up-and-down pace for their NCAA Tournament first-round game against 11-seed Xavier, Brad Underwood was defiant that his team can’t possibly be run off the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.

The Illini eight-year head coach doesn’t look at Xavier’s No. 9 national ranking in transition offense or their 17 fast break points they posted Wednesday night in their 86-80 victory over Texas in the First Four round as a dealbreaker for 6-seed Illinois.

“We run with everybody,” Underwood said. “Nobody does it better than them. Nobody does it better than (Xavier head coach Sean Miller) but we’ve seen Wisconsin. We’ve seen Iowa. What makes Xavier different is they’ll take the ball out of the net after you make and then push it.”

Underwood’s plan for the Illini’s NCAA Tournament opener on Friday (est. 8:45 p.m. CST, CBS) is to not slow down the pace of the game but to counter with the offensive pace of their own led by first-year point guard and projected 2025 NBA Draft lottery selection Kasparas Jakucionis, who is the first Illini player since Ayo Dosunmu to average at least 15.0 points, 5.5 rebounds and 4.5 assists in a season.

Illinois’ 2024 NCAA Tournament run to a regional final doesn’t likely happen without key reserve contributions and they arrive in March 2025 with a much more prepared bench.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

March 20, 2025

MILWAUKEE — If you’re forced to point to an advantage to the injuries and illness Illinois has been forced to endure in this 2024-25 season, it might very well show itself now.

At some point Friday night when No. 6 seed Illinois needs a lift off its bench, Illini head coach Brad Underwood will be able to point to multiple players that have seen their responsibilities and role increase as the player rotations became more and more jumbled throughout this season.

“These guys have all contributed, started at one point,” Underwood said on March 12. “Let’s not forget we had a stretch where we had seven different starting lineups in seven different games.”

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys Director of Recruiting

March 20, 2025

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Illinois has two outstanding high school recruits joining the program this summer. Keaton Wagler, a 6-foot-4, 175-pound shooting guard from Shawnee, Kansas, is one of the top players in the state and a rising talent nationally.

After spending most of his time during 2024 NCAA Tournament run recruiting his 2024-25 roster, Illinois head coach Brad Underwood is encouraged by new transfer portal window dates.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

March 20, 2025

MILWAUKEE — Unless he was doing a media conference, conducting an off-site practice session or coaching in a NCAA Tournament game, the sight of Illinois head coach Brad Underwood having a phone up to his ear last March was as common as breathing or sleeping.

Just about every day of Illinois’ run to the regional final of the 2024 NCAA Tournament, Underwood was on the phone in the corridors of CHI Health Center in Omaha, Neb. or TD Garden in Boston negotiating and recruiting players already in the transfer portal or speaking with third-party personnel representing players just about to enter the transfer portal.

The result following the 2024 Elite Eight appearance and Big Ten Tournament championship, Illinois arrived for the 2024-25 season with a dramatically different roster that included 10 new scholarship players, the return of just one rotation player – last year’s ninth-leading scorer Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn – and the return of just 2.9 percent of its minutes, 2.2 percent of its points, and two percent of its rebounds overall.

Xavier made 12 three-point shots from six different players on Wednesday night but Illinois is one of the most defensively efficient teams at running opponents off the three-point line.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

March 20, 2025

MILWAUKEE — Texas’ plan Wednesday night for Xavier’s offense seemed like a logical idea of running them off three-point line, force difficult two-point attempts and limit transition opportunities.

The result in Xavier’s 86-80 victory over the Longhorns in the NCAA Tournament play-in game in Dayton, Ohio was watching Sean Miller’s squad convert on 12 of 25 from beyond the three-point arc and earn 17 fast break points.

“Give those guys a lot of credit. They made 12 threes tonight,” Texas head coach Rodney Terry said.

After experiencing a play-in game assignment and a botched ESPN selection show broadcast two years ago, Illinois found its joy in seeing their name revealed in 2025.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

March 19, 2025

CHAMPAIGN — Nowhere in Shauna Green’s head coach office inside the Ubben Basketball Complex or home in Urbana will you see a single picture of the 2023 Selection Sunday moment.

It certainly wasn’t the most photogenic or video viral moment in Illinois women’s basketball history. After 20 years of waiting, the NCAA Tournament selection moment was a muddled, confusing and actually silent response from the University of Illinois women’s basketball team. Not only was Illinois put in a Wednesday night play-in game but the ESPN selection show special made a broadcast mistake that presented the entire Greensboro 1 region altogether after celebrating No. 1 and undefeated South Carolina’s pod in Columbia. Nobody in the Illinois program, which hadn’t seen a NCAA Tournament appearance for 20 years before that night inside State Farm Center, got the satisfaction of seeing its name individually revealed and even if ESPN had done the television broadcast in the correct order, it would’ve had to share the historic moment as a play-in participant with Mississippi State.

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

As the Illini prepare for the NCAA tourney the portal season is taking shape. The portal window opens up on March 24th and, although Illinois is not expected to need to fill as many spots this off season, the portal additions will be a key. But no matter the budget, there are potholes to avoid and player evaluation is a key. Here is a look at the potholes to avoid in the portal this spring

The Mid Major Glow Up

Sometimes you hit it big and you get a guy like Marcus Domask to become a star. Of course, even Domask started slowly because there is a curve.

By Kedric Prince - IlliniGuys Director of Recruiting

March 18, 2025

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – On paper, the Illinois women’s basketball program is adding one of the nation’s top players in guard Destiny Jackson.

The 5-foot-7 standout from Whitney Young is glowing with confidence. Ranked No. 25 in the HoopGurlz Recruiting Rankings – espnW 100, Jackson is ready to make her mark at Illinois.

As the silly season in women’s college basketball begins this March, Illinois associate head Calamity McEntire should be considered for some high major openings in the sport.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

CHAMPAIGN — Illinois’ return to NCAA Tournament play for the second time in three season following a 20-year absence also symbolizes the return of associate head coach Calamity McEntire to a former employer.

In between a five-year run with then-Dayton head coach Shauna Green and rejoining Green was she was hired to run the operation at Illinois in March 2022, McEntire spent the 2021-22 season as an assistant coach on Vic Schaefer’s coaching staff at the University of Texas. For that one year, McEntire’s impact was immediately felt as the Longhorns posted a 29-7 overall record that included the Big 12 Conference Tournament championship en route to a regional final appearance in the 2022 NCAA Tournament. Texas reached as high as No. 6 in the national rankings and the program’s 29 victories marked its most in six seasons, while the team’s championship run was the first for the program since 2003.

Illinois has three scholarship players on its active roster with NCAA Tournament participation experience as they prepare for a first round game against a highly-seasoned Xavier or Texas.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

CHAMPAIGN — In a sequence of back-to-back questions from local media, Illinois guard Kylan Boswell described the ideal and likely realistic way to handle NCAA Tournament nerves.

As the player on this Illini team with the most postseason playing experience in March, Boswell echoed the perfect talking points on Sunday in his local media session on the Ubben Basketball Complex practice floor that the next game will be “just another game” and “being dialed in to our scouting report will be huge”.

At this point two years ago, Illinois center Kendall Bostic remembers suffering a severe right leg injury that hampered her ability to play effectively in the NCAA Tournament Play-In Game loss.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

CHAMPAIGN — It’s hard to imagine anybody on the Illinois women’s basketball roster currently thankful for being healthy right now but even in Shauna Green’s injury-ravaged team that idea does exist.

Two years ago, Kendall Bostic distinctly remembers being essentially unable to put consistent weight on her right leg 48 hours before the Illini were slated to compete in a NCAA Tournament play-in game against Mississippi State.

Illinois enters the 2025 NCAA Tournament following a lopsided 23-point loss to Maryland but have already proven they can rebound with a winning stretch after blowout losses.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

CHAMPAIGN — The sad reality of the situation for Illinois is they need to find a quick reset following a 23-point loss to a Maryland team that was ahead by as much 36 in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals.

The good news for this same Illinois squad is they’ve recently proved they have the capabilities of doing exactly that.

By IlliniGuys Staff March 16, 2025 CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The […]

By IlliniGuys Staff March 16, 2025 CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The […]