Illinois coach Brad Underwood is high on his 18th-ranked team.
“We can be a dominant team if we keep growing and finding ways,” Underwood said Sunday after an 83-74 Big Ten Conference home romp over Northwestern. “It’s growing steps and part of our process.”
That process will take the Fighting Illini (14-6, 6-4) on the road Thursday night for another conference matchup, this time against struggling Nebraska (12-8, 2-7) in Lincoln, Neb.
Illinois was never in danger Sunday, despite what the final score said. It led 43-21 at halftime and maintained that 22-point lead until the last five minutes, when the Wildcats went on a run to make the final margin more respectable.
What made the outcome more impressive was that the Illini dominated in rebounding without 7-foot-1 center Tomislav Ivisic, the team’s second-leading scorer at an average of 13 points a game and top rebounder at 8.5 per game.
He missed his second straight game with mononucleosis, and his status for Thursday night isn’t known.
Illinois carved out a 50-27 advantage on the glass against Northwestern, grabbing 21 offensive rebounds. It helped that freshman forward Morez Johnson Jr., who was overmatched in the team’s 91-70 loss against Maryland last Thursday, had 15 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots.
Johnson is averaging 6.6 rebounds in just 16.1 minutes per game this season.
“Rebounding is the key to our team,” Underwood said. “I thought Morez did a great job.”
The Illini lead Division I in rebounds with an average of 42 per game. In addition to Ivisic and Johnson, three other players are averaging at least 5.4 per game.
Kasparas Jakucionis leads the team in scoring at 15.9 ppg and in assists with 5.4.
While Illinois appears to be on a collision course with a top-four seed in the NCAA Tournament, the Cornhuskers have hit tough times. Sunday’s 83-55 setback at then-No. 18 Wisconsin stretched their losing streak to six games and has them missing the conference tournament, which leaves out the bottom three teams in the 18-team league.
Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg praised his team’s defense when it was 12-2 and flirting with a spot in the Top 25, but that’s not been the case lately. The team has allowed an average of 86 points a game during its skid, giving up 17 3-pointers on Sunday.
“When you’re on a streak like we are right now,” Hoiberg said, “the human nature is to start questioning and to separate a little bit. But we have to find a way to stay together through this tough time and hopefully get this thing reversed soon.
“Any time you lose, it’s frustrating as hell. We have some very good opportunities ahead of us and some difficult tasks.”
The good news for the Cornhuskers is that after this game and a trip to No. 16 Oregon on Sunday, they won’t play a ranked team over the final nine games. But they still need to put together a winning streak to revive their hopes of earning a second straight NCAA berth.
Brice Williams is the team’s leading scorer at 18.2 ppg, although he was held to 11 points on 4-of-12 shooting from the field on Sunday.
The Illini lead the all-time series 23-8 and have won the last nine meetings.
–Field Level Media
