Illinois made changes to its roster after reaching the Elite Eight, and coach Brad Underwood understood that the season would have its ups and downs with such a young team, the second-youngest in the Power Four.
The 18th-ranked Illini (14-7, 6-4 Big Ten) have hit a rough patch. Their 80-74 overtime loss to Nebraska on Thursday night marked their fourth defeat in six games.
They started the season with a 12-3 record, with losses to No. 8 Alabama and a last-second buzzer-beater loss to No. 1 Tennessee. Three weeks ago, they were ranked No. 13, and Underwood believed his team had the potential for another deep postseason run.
“It’s frustrating for me,” he said after the loss to Nebraska, “because I know where we can be and what we were getting to.”
The Illini have played three straight games without their 7-foot-1 sophomore center, Tomislav Ivisic, who is out indefinitely with mononucleosis. Ivisic is the team’s second-leading scorer with 13 points per game and the top rebounder with 8.5 rebounds per game. In his place, 6-9, 255-pound Morez Johnson Jr. has been starting.
“It’s big for sure,” said sophomore guard Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn about Ivisic’s absence. “Tomi is a great player. He’s one of our starting guys, one of our best players for sure. That’s not an excuse. We have to have the next-man-up mentality.”
Freshman point guard Kasparas Jakucionis missed two games earlier this month due to a left wrist injury. He’s the leading scorer with 15.9 points per game and the best 3-point shooter on the team at 37.5%.
Will Riley, another freshman, got the flu and didn’t play much in a 91-70 loss to Maryland last week.
“I don’t know when we’ll get whole again,” Underwood said. “Tomi is a big piece of what we do, and Morez was becoming that. We have the No. 1 defense in the country when those two are on the floor together.”
With Ivisic and Johnson out, the team has struggled offensively. They’ve shot 25% on 3-pointers (48 of 190) and averaged 13 turnovers in their last six games.
Underwood said many of the turnovers are inexcusable because they come from players ignoring scouting reports and making poor passes. In the Nebraska game, several passes were thrown directly into the defense.
“Grow up. Grow up,” Underwood said, raising his voice. “I would like to have an explanation. We had four scouting report (turnovers) where we told our guys you’re not going to throw the baseline pass, and we continually tried to do that. Tonight was very uncharacteristic of us from a scouting report standpoint, making those turnovers. You’re not going to beat anybody doing that.”
Thursday marked the beginning of a stretch where the Illini play three of their next four games on the road over 10 days. They’ll host Ohio State on Sunday, then travel to Rutgers and Minnesota, both of whom are under .500 in Big Ten play.
“I feel like with this team, we’re going to go on our little slumps,” Riley said. “We’re very young. I feel like we’re getting more consistent as the days go. We’re onto the next game. We’re going to come out with high intensity, high effort.”
