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Box Score

Illinois 82 - Nebraska 72

Nebraska Cornhuskers (12-8) vs #18 Fighting Illini (14-6) Date: Thursday Jan. 30th, 2025 Time: 7:30 pm CST Arena: PBA Broadcast: FS1 (Kevin Kugler and Nick Bahe) Illinois Info Head Coach: Brad Underwood (7th season) Location: Champaign, IL Conference: B1G Nickname: Fightin' Illini Mascot: Chief Illiniwek They got rid of Chief Illiniwek in 2007 Line: Illinois by 3.5 Typical Rotation Depth: 8 KenPom rank: 11 Nota bene: Starting center Tomislav Ivisic is out with mono Illinois is one of the lengthiest teams in D-1, ranking 10th in KenPom's height stat The Illini are ranked despite turning over the roster (345th in KenPom minutes continuity) and having a young roster (294th in D-1 experience) Illinois is 3pt centeric, ranking 21st in 3pa/fga offensively while ranking 5th in defensive 3pa/fga Nebraska is looking for their 3rd win over a ranked team in one season since 2013-14 Fred Hoiberg is 0-8 vs Illinois at Nebraska Last game Brice Williams scored enough points for him and his father to become the 7th father-son duo to combine for over 4000 points combine at the D-1 level. Player to watch: Kasparas Jakucionis The Lithuanian freshman has exceeded all expectations and is listed as a lottery pick on multiple mock draft sites. KJ leads the team in scoring and assists as well as 3pt percentage at 37.5% As one of the primary ball handlers can be turnover prone. Player to watch: Morez Johnson With starting center Tomislav Ivisic out with illness, Johnson is the man in the post and he's been impressive, going for 15 and 9 in his last game. Offensively he's the only traditional type center who plays so he's the only Illini who is not a threat to pop a 3. He's a high contact player so there is a chance he gets a Husker in foul trouble while also getting himself in foul trouble. Player to watch: Ben Humrichous The Evansville stretch 4 might be a matchup problem for the Huskers when Johnson is off the court as he's basically a 6'9" 3pt specialist and there will not be anyone in the post to guard if he's their 5 man. Illinois's Roster Player # Class Pos Height Weight Summary Kasparas Jakucionis 32 FR G 6-6 205 15.9 Pts 5.4 Reb 5.4 Ast Kylan Boswell 4 JR G 6-2 195 12.3 Pts 5.5 Reb 3.9 Ast Tomislav Ivisic 13 FR C 7-1 255 13.0 Pts 8.5 Reb 2.0 Ast Tre White 22 JR G 6-7 210 10.3 Pts 5.4 Reb 1.1 Ast Will Riley 7 FR F 6-8 195 10.1 Pts 3.6 Reb 1.7 Ast Ben Humrichous 3 SR F 6-9 220 8.9 Pts 3.7 Reb 0.9 Ast Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn 2 SO G 6-1 185 7.6 Pts 2.0 Reb 0.5 Ast Morez Johnson 21 FR F 6-9 255 6.5 Pts 6.6 Reb 0.2 Ast Jake Davis 15 SO F 6-6 210 3.1 Pts 1.6 Reb 0.3 Ast Carey Booth 0 SO F 6-10 203 1.4 Pts 1.2 Reb 0.1 Ast Other Players Jr PG and second leading scorer Kylan Boswell has struggled from 3 this season after shooting over 37.9% in his first two seasons at Arizona. Tre White is a 6'7" slasher on his 3rd school in 3 years. True freshman Will Riley has struggled to score in conference. Notre Dame transfer stretch 4 Casey Booth isn't getting much run but could see action with Ivisic out. 6'1" guard Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn is somehow hitting 71.4% from 2 and 29% from 3 and I will have to see this in action as I've yet to seriously watch Illinois play this season. UNL Game Notes Roster/infirmary report Possible starters for Nebraska 3 Guard Brice Williams 6-7 214 lbs Senior 1 Guard Sam Hoiberg 6-0 185 lbs Junior 4 Forward Juwan Gary 6-6 226 lbs Senior 23 Forward Andrew Morgan 6-10 242 lbs Senior 24 Guard Rollie Worster 6-5 210 lbs Senior Bench 34 Center Braxton Meah 7-1 264 lbs Senior 0 Guard Connor Essegian 6-4 190 lbs Junior 2 Guard Ahron Ulis 6-3 190 lbs Senior 9 Forward Berke Büyüktuncel 6-10 244 lbs 31 Guard Cale Jacobsen 6-4 195 lbs Sophomore 12 Guard Gavin Griffiths 6-7 193 lbs Sophomore 5 Forward Braden Frager 6-7 220 lbs Freshman 8 Guard Jeffrey Grace III 6-3 200 lbs Junior 20 Forward Justin Bolis 6-8 225 lbs Sophomore 25 Guard Nick Janowski 6-4 208 lbs Freshman 35 Forward Henry Burt 6-7 222 lbs Sophomore Out for year 51 Forward Rienk Mast 6-10 260 lbs Senior Fred Hoiberg Presser We have lost our identity. Yikes! We are airing our grievances. Yikes! The Skinny: Brad Underwood teams when on a roll show no quarter. This season they have beaten Oregon on the road by 32 and Indiana on the road by 25. They whopped Penn St by 39 at home. If they're making 3s, looking out. The Huskers will need all the juice they can muster defensively if they want to put an end to this 6 game January skid. Defensively, the only thing Illinois doesn't do is turn you over as they spend most of their time running you off the 3pt line into shot blockers. They generally do so without fouling so Nebraska will need to earn points in the paint. Offensively, they take 3s and gain extra possessions by crashing the boards and/or securing ricochets from said 3s. While Johnson is your main threat to rebound, this lengthy team isn't a one man show. Can Nebraska slow down Illinois enough to keep the Huskers in this game? Prediction: Illinois 82 - Nebraska 72 View full article

We gotta take these bastards. Now we could do it with conventional weapons, but that could take years and cost millions of lives. No, I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part! https://huskerhoopscentral.com/sam-steals/

Realizing that I was watching the end of this game at a kid's birthday at a bowling alley and had forgotten to post my usual postgame stuff / no on cared because we got our teeth knocked out and fed to us Notes from UNL *-With today’s loss, Wisconsin now leads the series, 23-17. *-With the loss, Nebraska falls to 2-2 against ranked teams this season. *- Nebraska used its fifth different lineup of the season, as Sam Hoiberg and Andrew Morgan made their first starts of the season. It was Hoiberg’s second career start for the Huskers and first since the 2022-23 season. Morgan had made 59 starts during his three seasons at North Dakota State. *-With a team-high nine rebounds today, Juwan Gary has grabbed seven or more rebounds in three of the last four games *-Brice Williams finished with 11 points, as Brice and his father Henry became the seventh father-son combo to reach the 4,000-point mark at the Division I level. The pair now has 4,002 career points *-Williams has now been in double figures in 18 of Nebraska’s 20 game this season and 22 of NU’s last 24 games dating back to last season. *-Nebraska’s 11-0 first-half run was its 15th double-figure run of the season.

Box Score

That would explain it, I'm looking at tempo free stats. They're one of the highest tempo teams in the country. Relatively speaking they're turning the ball over less than us.

I am not seeing that they are a turnover prone team outside of Jakucionis

Even if he's not playing it's still the fastest way to springboard into the rotation.

It's nice to have something besides the team to crap on in these difficult times

I keep looking at this Illinois team that shoots a ton of 3s at under 30% in conference and a defense where you double the post and run out on shooters makes a lot of sense, especially when the one true post player they have doesn't shoot 3s, doesn't pass the ball, and you need like 2 guys just to keep him off the boards. When they inevitably roll out 5 guys with a stretch 4 at center and everyone jacks up 3s? No idea.

They burned it the previous game as Emmanuel Ogbole is now out for the season with a knee injury. Here's the thing with Janowski and Frager. If they were difference makers coming into the season, they wouldn't have redshirted. At this point, you'd be adding more guys to a rotation to a coach who does not excel at playing too many guys.

Hope he can tough it out as we are at our best when a program rolls out their starting center recovering from mono

Putting in Morgan and Sam seemed like a weird way to "jump start" things because Morgan arguably gives you better offense and Sam gives you individual defense. I could see us trying to get ahead on offense at Wisconsin but who exactly are we trying to take away defensively on a Wisconsin team where basically everyone can hurt you? Maybe Meah was a bad matchup for Wisky but all the numbers I look at show that at worst it doesn't matter if he's on or off the court and at best he gives you defense without hurting your offense. I think we're finding it hard to use a guy who only dunks, blocks shots, and rebounds because for the most part we don't put him in a position to dunk lobs or block shots. If we're looking to get ahead offensively, the answer is Essegian. Given how he's the guy most wired to score on offense we could do worse than having him go full Keisei in terms of usage and build the team around protecting him on offense and defense.

And can shoot and make 3s. Mast and Berke + 9 wings / combo guards. That's assuming we think that Berke fits our self-starting culture

The entire point for some to ask for more size (added) and athleticism (not added) was so that we might run a defense that doesn't involve double teaming the post and scrambling on 3s regardless of opponent. We add 5-6 transfers every season and most of the size we recruited is leaving. What exactly are we committed to besides our defensive philosophy and desire to play 5 out?

Ladies Night promotion level post

Most times at least 2 of the 5 players we have on the court aren't 3pt threats.

Wouldn't Nebraska have to recruit him first? Tonje was signed with New Mexico until Chucky left and Wisconsin out bid them. At any point we could have signed Tonje and I don't think it would have been more money than we're paying most anyone on the roster.

The real disappointing thing about putting together this roster that demanded a different style of play is that we're mostly running the same stuff we did last year. Surround Mast and Berke with guys who can shoot

No one for Nebraska on the injury report

Wisconsin 85 - Nebraska 79 10 assists