When Brad Underwood committed to bring Illinois to face No. 3 Duke in a Saturday night main event at Madison Square Garden, it sounded like a magnificent marketing opportunity thanks to the national FOX audience — and a fabulous measuring stick to find out how far the Illini might go in March.
Instead, given his team’s string of injuries and illnesses that have contributed to seven losses in its last 12 games, Underwood might be wondering whether he can get the broadcast switched to local cable access.
Perhaps Aurora’s TV-10 — which came to life from the Saturday Night Live studios not too far from Madison Square Garden — might want the rights to Duke (23-3) and Illinois (17-10)?
“In 38 years, I’ve never seen anything like what’s gone through our team,” Underwood said. “Tomi’s literally practiced maybe once in a month.”
“Tomi” is 7-foot-1 sophomore center Tomislav Ivisic. He has dealt with everything but the plague over the last month.
He contracted mono that cost him three games (including two losses). Then he suffered a high ankle sprain Feb. 5 that he’s still hobbling through. His most recent issue has been his turn with the team-wide flu that limited him to 21 minutes in Tuesday’s 21-point loss at No. 11 Wisconsin.
Illinois’ current frontcourt issues are compounded because 6-foot-9, 250-pound freshman power forward Morez Johnson Jr. went from looking like the team’s breakout star of the second half to breaking his wrist last Saturday against Michigan State. Johnson landed hard after swatting a shot out of bounds with both hands.
“We don’t know who we have from day-to-day,” Underwood said. “But we’ll be fine. Eighteen-year-olds gotta grow up and deal with some adversity. It’s David playing Goliath in the next one and we’ll show up and we’re gonna fight.”
In a perfect Illinois world, its pair of freshmen with lottery-pick potential — point guard Kasparas Jakucionis and wing Will Riley — will rise to the occasion and give Duke’s trio of expected lottery picks — Cooper Flagg (19.7 ppg, 7.7 rpg), Kon Knueppel (13.2 ppg) and 7-2 Khaman Malauch (8.0 ppg, 6.2 rpg) — a run for their money.
Jakucionis, who has been projected as high as the No. 5 pick in the upcoming draft, has been struggling in recent game. At Wisconsin on Tuesday, he finished with a career-high-tying seven turnovers and no assists in 24 minutes as Underwood had him sit for uncharacteristically long stretches. Riley, on the other hand, has come off the bench and scored in double figures in seven straight games. He has averaged 15.8 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.8 assists in his last five.
Duke appears to be on cruise control steering toward a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Flagg grabbed a career-high 14 rebounds in Monday’s 80-62 win at Virginia, yet another sign the potential National Player of the Year has no limits to his game.
The only thing that could slow the Blue Devils right now is injuries — a factor Saturday. Syracuse transfer Maliq Brown, a 6-9 defensive terror, dislocated his left shoulder against Virginia and won’t play against Illinois.
“It’s a big loss for us,” said Duke coach Jon Scheyer, who said Thursday that tests on Brown’s shoulder were positive and sparked optimism for his return this season.
In Brown’s absence, freshman Patrick Ngongba should get more run. That means the Blue Devils will have five freshmen in their eight-man rotation as rookie guard Isaiah Evans continues to impress off the bench. He drilled 5-of-6 3-pointers against Virginia to post 17 points — one shy of his career-high — in 22 minutes.
“I think we’re just a team that can exploit a lot of different things that a defense gives us,” Evans said. “(We’re) just taking what the defense gives you and just trusting your teammates because we’re all really good players.”
–Field Level Media
