#13 Illini Ride 4-Game Streak Into Penn State Matchup Wednesday at State Farm Center

Illinois returns from its Pacific Northwest road swing, which included wins at No. 9 at Oregon and Washington, to host Penn State Wednesday (8 p.m. CT, BTN) in the first of back-to-back home games this week.

The game against the Nittany Lions is No. 13 Illinois’ first home game in 10 days since a 117-64 blowout at Chicago State on Dec. 29.

Illinois is 7-1 at home this season, including a 1-0 mark at State Farm Center in the Big Ten following the team’s 86-80 win over No. 20 Wisconsin on Dec. 10.

Illinois is riding a season-high four-game winning streak. Since a 66-64 loss to no. 1 in Tennessee on December 14, the Illini earned a Braggin’ Rights victory over rival Missouri in St. Louis, posted a 53-point home win over Chicago State, recorded the largest road victory over an AP Top-10 program in college basketball history with last Thursday’s 109-77 win at No. 9 in Oregon, and pulled away from a hard-fought 81-77 win at Washington on Sunday.

Point guard Kasparas Jakucionis was named Big Ten Co-Freshman of the Week on Monday. Jakucionis led the Illini to three wins during the nomination period, averaging a team-best 16.0 points and 5.3 assists along with 5.0 rebounds while shooting 60% from the field, 39% from 3-point range and making all seven free throw attempt. .

Illinois won back-to-back games by more than 30 points, defeating Chicago State, 117-64, at home on Dec. 29 before a historic 109-77 win at No. 9 at Oregon on Thursday, the program’s first road win over a top-10 opponent since March 6, 2021 at Ohio State No. 7.

Illinois’ 32-point victory over the Ducks was the largest margin of victory ever by a road team over an AP Top-10 opponent, and the largest road victory in Illinois program history against any top-25 opponent.

The 109 scored points vs. Oregon is the second-most ever scored by a team in a regular-season road game against a top-10 opponent, trailing only Kansas State’s 116 at Texas in 2023. Illinois’ 109 points are also the most ever by an Oregon road team.

The Illini became the first Big Ten team since Feb. 9, 1989 to record 100+ points in a Top-10 road win (No. 10 Michigan defeated No. 8 Iowa, 108-107).

Illinois is 3-2 against ranked teams this season, with wins over No. 19 Arkansas, no. 20 Wisconsin and no. 9 Oregon. The Illini’s three top-25 wins are tied for third-most in the nation, behind Alabama and Auburn with four each.

Illinois leads the Big Ten in the latest NCAA NET rankings at No. 7.

Brad Underwood has led the Illini program to Top-25 rankings for six consecutive seasons. Illinois has been ranked for five weeks this season, and is currently at No. 13, the highest ranking of the year.

Illinois’ win in Washington was The Underwoods 154. in Illinois. He ranks fourth on the program’s all-time coaching wins list.

Six Illini scored in double figures at Oregon, including sophomores Jake Davis (12) and Drag Gibbs-Lawhorn (11), who scored all 23 of their total points in the first half to help the Illini build a 45-38 halftime lead. It marked Davis’ first double-digit effort as an Illini and just the fourth in two seasons for Gibbs-Lawhorn.

During the Fighting Illini’s four-game winning streak, Drag Gibbs Lawhorn has an average of 10.5 points per game while shooting 73.1% (19-26) from the field.

Junior guard Kylan Boswell recorded the seventh triple-double in Illinois history and the fifth in the Underwood era against Chicago State, with 18 points, a career-high 10 rebounds and a career-high 10 assists.

Over the last six games, Boswell averages 15.3 points (92), 5.8 rebounds (35) and 4.5 assists (27).

Point guard Kasparas Jakucionis scored 20+ points in six straight games from Nov. 25-Dec. 22, breaking the Illini freshman record for consecutive 20-point games (previous record was two).

Jacuzzi became the fourth Big Ten freshman since 1996-97 with at least six straight 20-point games and the first to do so since Indiana’s Eric Gordon had seven straight in 2007.

While his 20-point game streak was snapped with a 14-point outing against Chicago State, Jacuzzi is still averaging 19.9 points (179) over the last nine games, averaging 2.8 threes per game. 49).

Tomislav Ivisic scored 23 points in career and game vs. Chicago State, leading the team in scoring for the third time this season (second to Kasparas Jakucionis’ seven).

Ivisic has recorded six double-doubles through 14 games, tied for third in the Big Ten, tied for 20th in the NCAA overall, and first among power conference underclassmen.

After the Elite Eight appearance in 2024 and the Big Ten Tournament Championship, Illinois has a dramatically different roster this season. The program returns just one rotation player – last year’s ninth-leading scorer Drag Gibbs-Lawhorn – and returns just 2.9% of his minutes, 2.2% of his points and 2.0% of his rebounds overall.

Newcomers to the Illini roster have accounted for 92.3% of the team’s scoring thus far (1,132 out of 1,227 total points), with UI freshmen accounting for 40.7% of those points (461).

Four of Illinois’ top scorers and rebounders are all in their first year of collegiate basketball. First year student G Kasparas Jakucionis ranks first in scoring (16.4 ppg) and third in rebounding (5.6 rpg). Sophomore C Tomislav Ivisic nearly averaging a double-double at 13.8 points (second on the team) and a team-leading 9.1 rebounds per game. match. Freshman F Will Riley is the Illini’s no. 4 scores with 11.4 points per match. And Freshman F Morez Johnson Jr. second on the team with 6.1 rebounds per match.

Just 14 games into his college career, Jacuzzi already has six 20-point games, just two away from tying the Illini all-time record for 20-point games by a freshman. Cory Bradford (1998-99) set the current Illini mark with eight, followed by Ayo Dosunmu (2018-19) and Kiwane Garris (1993-94) on seven each.

Jacuzzi is the fifth Underwood-era rookie to record at least five 20-point games in his rookie season, joining Dosunmu (7 in 2018-19), Trent Frazier (5 in 2017-18), Giorgi Bezhanishvili (5 in 2018-19), and Kofi Cockburn (5 in 2019-20).

Jacuzziat 16.4 ppg, is on pace to break the Illini freshman scoring average record of 15.9 ppg set by Kiwane Garris 31 years ago.

Freshman Morez Johnson Jr. averaged 6.3 points (25) and 6.0 rebounds (24) over Illini’s four-game hitting streak vs. Mizzou, vs. Chicago State, at No. 9 in Oregon and in Washington. Johnson has recorded five blocks during that stretch with three rejections against Chicago State and two more against the Ducks.

Tomislav Ivisic is no. 3 rebounds in the Big Ten at 9.1 rpg, trailing Michigan’s Danny Wolf (10.4) and Indiana’s Oumar Ballo (9.6).

Illinois currently ranks 13th in KenPom adjusted defensive efficiency (93.6), its highest ranking since reaching seventh during the 2021 season and the third-best mark in the Underwood era (88.9 in 2021 and 93, 3 in 2022).

Illinois ranks sixth nationally in effective field goal percentage defense (.428), 11th in 2-point defense (.431) and 17th in 3-point defense (.282).

Illinois leads the Big Ten in eight statistical categories with the following NCAA rankings: defensive rebounds per. game (1st; 32.1), rebound margin (2nd, 12.4), total rebounds per game (3rd, 45.1), 3-point attempts per game (7th in NCAA, 31.5), field goal percentage defense (16th; .381), 3-point percentage defense (18th; .282), 3-pointers per game game (18th; 10.7) and offensive rebounds per match (52.; 12.9).

According to KenPom, the Illini rank 17th nationally and fourth among Power Conference programs with a 3-point attempt rate (3-point attempts/total field goal attempts) of 49.2%.

The Illini’s scoring average of 87.6 ppg is the team’s highest in 60 years since the 1964-65 team had a school record of 92.2 ppg.

Illinois’ scoring margin of +20.4 points per game is tied for No. 2 in program history, just behind the 1942-43 team, which outscored opponents by 20.6 points per game. match. The team’s top mark since 1960 is +15.9 set in 2004-05.

Illinois ranks third nationally in rebounding with 45.1 boards per game. game, on pace for the program’s best average in 53 seasons since posting 48.0 rebounds per contest in 1971-72. The Orange and Blue have outscored their opponents in 13 of 14 games this season.

Illinois is the winningest team in the Big Ten since 2019-20, posting a 72-32 (.692) mark in league play. And when you include the conference tournament, the Illini have a league-best 78 wins during that span. The Illini won the 2024 Big Ten Tournament championship as the #2 seed, captured the 2022 regular season championship and led the conference in wins while adding a B1G tournament crown in 2021.

Head coach Brad Underwood has also led Illinois to the Big Ten’s best road record since the start of the 2019-20 season. During that span, the Illini are 32-22 (.593) in conference road games and have finished .500 or better in four of the last five seasons.