By IlliniGuys Staff

January 30, 2025

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn continued his hot play with 15 points off the bench at Nebraska. The sophomore guard is averaging 11 points per game since Christmas. (Photo courtesy Courtney Bay/Illinois Athletics)

LINCOLN, Neb. - Three weeks ago, Illinois starting guard Kylan Boswell was seen walking around the State Farm Center court burning a stick of sage around the court's perimeter during pregame warmups.

But it's a stench of a different kind that has lingered over this program ever since.

Their star player has missed a game with injury, their most valuable player has missed three games with an illness, and the Illini team has lost four of six games to go from a possible Final Four contender to the middle of the pack in the Big Ten.

The latest stinker came Thursday night in an 80-72 overtime stunner at Nebraska, a team that came in reeking of a six-game losing streak but never trailed in this game as they let their favored visitors give them the victory. 18th ranked Illinois committing a season-high 17 turnovers, many of them unforced errors.

"Just throwing (the ball) to them, dribbling it off our foot", Illinois coach Brad Underwood lamented on his postgame radio show. "I mean, just junior high stuff. Mentally, we weren't very sharp."

It was the third game in a row without starting center Tomislav Ivisic and, judging by the Illini's play, he might be the most important player on the roster. He's a rim-protector defensively and excellent passer on the offensive end. Despite not having their leading rebounder in uniform as he battles his way back from a bout with mono, Illinois still grabbed a season-high 58 rebounds.

But they continue to fall short when their shots aren't falling. Illinois shot just 36 percent from the field and 24 percent from the three-point arc. The Illini are winless when they fail to shoot 40 percent and 28 percent, respectively.

Those numbers were even worse in the first half, as Illinois missed 14 of its first 15 shots from outside the arc as they settled for 28 percent from the field and just 17 percent from long range to go into the locker room trailing 40-31 without recording a single assist.

When they finally found their range in the second half, they developed butter fingers as they turned the ball over eight times in the first ten minutes of the half as Illinois fell behind by as much as 10 points.

That's when the Illini bench came to the rescue. Freshman Will Riley scored seven straight points, then Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn poured in eight points down the stretch, including a three-pointer with 46 seconds left to tie the game at 70. Riley had a chance to win it at the buzzer, but his three-point attempt from the corner bounced away and Illinois was headed for its second overtime game of the season.

Whatever the Illini had in them to fuel the late comeback wasn't there in the extra period, as they could only muster a pair of Kasparas Jakucionis layups in a 2-for-12 shooting effort as the Cornhuskers pulled away to end their slide and improve to 3-2 over ranked teams this season.

The poor offensive effort has Underwood considering a change before his Illini take the court against Ohio State on Sunday.

"I've gotta do something with the starting lineup", Underwood said. "We're -32 (on the plus/minus chart) since Tomi's been out. We've gotta make some tweaks there."

Jakucionis finished with a team-high 18 points and pulled down 13 rebounds to get his fourth double-double of the season and his second in as many games. But he also committed a game-high six turnovers. Illinois is 0-4 when he commits six turnovers or more.

The Illini did get 34 points off its bench, as Riley finished with 16 and Gibbs-Lawhorn 15. Tre White grabbed a season-high 13 rebounds.

Brice Williams led Nebraska with 27 points, his seventh game with 25 points or more this season.

Illinois returns home for a Sunday date with an Ohio State team (12pm CT, CBS) that's already routed a Top 10 Kentucky team in New York and put together a second-half rally to win at Purdue.

Here's to lighting some fresh incense or perhaps call up "Jobu" from 'Major League'.

Anything to clear the air and find that team that had won five straight before stumbling into this fog that they find themselves in now.