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How a football recruiting whirlwind landed this Princeville lineman at Illinois

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How a football recruiting whirlwind landed this Princeville lineman at Illinois


Kellen Francis can’t wait to play football in Champaign.

The 2023 Princeville grad committed to join Illinois on Saturday, choosing the Fighting Illini over scholarship offers from Arkansas, Houston, Texas State, Ohio, Marshall and Eastern Illinois. He becomes the fourth Illinois offensive lineman to transfer in for the 2024 season.

“It happened pretty fast,” the 6-foot-6, 310-pound right tackle said, “so I don’t think it settled in it yet, but yeah, I’m really excited. I just want to get down there. … I’ve always wanted to play for Illinois.”

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Francis spent the 2023 campaign at Butler Community College in El Dorado, Kan., playing offensive guard and garnered all-Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference honorable mention honors. He made the position move during spring practice after growing an inch and putting on 10 pounds.

A lot of the credit, according to the 2022 all-Lincoln Trail Conference first-team o-lineman, goes to the Butler strength and conditioning coach Kyle Woodall for helping him work harder to become bigger, stronger and faster in the offseason. Plus, on winter break, Francis spent countless hours in the gym, training with his brother, Jack Arnett.

“There was a big jump from my fall season to spring practice,” Francis said of his overall improvement, “so that’s kind of what it was.”

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His recruitment really took off after May 7 when he posted his spring practice highlights on social media. EIU offered him two days later, with four more schools following suit in less than a week.

Just 10 days after his initial offer, Francis, who is the grandson of the late Princeville coach Rollin Arnett, was in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on an official visit with the Razorbacks.

But his dream was to be an Illini.

“The Arkansas visit was great,” Francis said, “so that was kind of in the back of my mind, but I knew pretty quick right when we got to Champaign that I was going to commit there.

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Everything from the football facilities to the weightroom and training tables were all big selling points for him. He met with Tank Wright, the Director of Football Strength and Conditioning, and o-line coach Bart Miller.

Francis, who is looking to enroll next week, has no intentions of redshirting and plans to compete right away for a starting job in any of the five offensive line spots.

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“I want to get in there,” he said, “and learn the playbook and get as big and as fast and as strong as I can.”

Francis has advice to any hungry small-school players looking to leap the junior college ranks to playing major college football: “As long as you keep that end goal in mind,” he said, “… if you really want to play Division-I then it won’t be too hard to stay motivated.”

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Adam Duvall is a Journal Star sports reporter. Email him at aduvall@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @AdamDuvall.



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Illinois

Kasparas Jakucionis scores 21, lifts Illinois over Missouri in thriller

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Kasparas Jakucionis scores 21, lifts Illinois over Missouri in thriller



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ST. LOUIS (AP) — Kasparas Jakucionis scored 21 points, including the go-ahead basket with 28 seconds left and Illinois defeated Missouri 80-77 on Sunday in the annual Braggin’ Rights game between the nonconference rivals.

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Illinois held the lead for nearly 30 minutes of game time, but a late rally by Missouri took the game down to the wire. An 11-0 run, capped by Trent Pierce’s layup gave the Tigers a 68-67 lead with about 4 minutes to go.

Jakucionis hit a straight-on 3-pointer for a 75-72 Illinois lead with 2 minutes remaining, but Missouri’s Tamar Bates hit a wide-open 3 in transition to tie it at 75 with 1:14 to go.

After the teams exchanged free throws, Jakucionis, a freshman who has six consecutive 20-point games, drove the right side of the line, stopped, pivoted and hit a turnaround jumper to put Illinois ahead 79-77 with 28 seconds left.

After a miss by Missouri, Kylan Boswell made one of two free throws for a three-point lead. Jacob Crews missed a 3-pointer that could have tied it for Missouri.

Boswell made 11 of 12 free throws and Jakucionis went 8 for 8 for Illinois, which was 22 of 23 from the line. Missouri made 28 free throws but shot only 76% from the line. There 43 total fouls in the game.

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Boswell had 16 points, nine rebounds and five assists for Illinois (8-3). Tre White scored 13 and Tomislav Ivisic had 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Mark Mitchell and Tony Perkins scored 18 points each and Bates had 17 for Missouri (10-2), which saw its 10-game winning streak come to an end.

Illinois hosts Chicago State on Dec. 29 and Missouri hosts Alabama State on Dec. 30.

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Illinois Coach Brad Underwood Praises Mizzou After Braggin’ Rights Showdown

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Illinois Coach Brad Underwood Praises Mizzou After Braggin’ Rights Showdown


ST. LOUIS —  After each of the last three Braggin’ Rights games between the Missouri Tigers and the Illinois Fighting Illini have been decided by 20 or more points, Illinois head coach Brad Underwood believes gave fans “a pretty good show” Sunday.

The game was tied at 72, 75 and 77 in the final 2:30 of play before Illinois finally created separation with a successful jump shot from Kasparas Jakucionis with 28 seconds remaining to secure a 80-77 win for Illinois.

“We kept our foot on the shovel and we kept digging,” Missouri head coach Dennis Gates said of Missouri’s performance in the final minutes. “That’s the sign of a good team.”

Illinois has been ranked as high as 19th in the AP Poll this season before falling out of the rankings on Dec. 9. The Tigers received more votes than Illinois in the most recent AP Poll, with both just outside of the top 25. But Sunday showed why both Missouri and Illinois could continue to rise throughout the remainder of the season.

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“That’s two really good basketball teams,” Underwood said after the win for Illinois. “It makes this game another game that is great for college basketball.”

Being able to compete with a team as formidable as Illinois was not something the Tigers did often through the 2023-’24 season, going 0-18 in SEC play. But, Missouri is already starting to show signs of steering the ship back in the right direction. First with an upset win over Kansas on Dec. 8, and now with this performance against Illinois.

“Dennis does a fabulous job,” Underwood said. Coming off the year they had last year, is putting together a really good team.”

Sunday’s matchup was the 55th annual Braggin’ Rights showdown, host to a historic rivalry. Even with the loss, Missouri showed why they could reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2022-’23 season, Gates’ first year as the program’s head coach.

“When you get those two teams together, and you get them in the unique circumstances, you get a crowd like today, which, by the way, ours was fantastic,” Underwood said. “That’s an NCAA tournament team.”

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Mizzou Loses at Buzzer to Illinois in Braggin’ Rights Game



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What I'm looking at: Illinois

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What I'm looking at: Illinois


What I’m looking at: Illinois

We’ve reached the second rivalry game as the Tigers (10-1) take on the Illinois Fighting Illini (7-3) in the annual Braggin’ Rights matchup in St. Louis.

Here’s what I’ll be keeping an eye on at noon at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis (ESPN).

Scouting Report

Illinois enters the 55th edition of the rivalry matchup and 43rd in St. Louis coming off a last-second 66-64 loss to No. 1 Tennessee.

The Illini have played a very tough schedule to this point, losing to No. 8 Alabama, No. 1 Tennessee and Northwestern in the Dec. 6 opener of Big 10 play, as well as beating No. 19 Arkansas and No. 20 Wisconsin.

There’s exactly one player on Illinois’ team who appeared in last year’s Braggin’ Rights matchup, 6-foot-1, 185-pound sophomore guard Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn, who played 3 minutes without a stat other than a missed shot in last year’s game and is averaging about 13.8 minutes per game, appearing in all 10 this season.

Otherwise, it’s a fully new Illini roster.

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Freshman guard Kasparas Jakucionis (6-6, 205) has taken the lead for Illinois this year, scoring 16.1 points to go with 6.1 rebounds per contest and a team-high 5.6 assists per game. The do-it-all guard hits 42 percent of his attempts from 3 (21-of-50) and is tied for first on the team in makes from deep while being 10 attempts behind 6-9, 225-pound graduate forward Ben Humrichous, who has made 21-of-60 from deep.

Sophomore center Tomislav Ivisic (7-1, 255) who is from Croatia, is second on the team at 14.2 points per game to go with his near double-double average of 9.7 boards per contest. Freshman forward Will Riley (6-8, 195) adds 13.5 points and 4.2 rebounds per game, while 6-2, 205-pound junior guard Kylan Boswell scores 10.1 points per game to go with 4.1 rebounds per contest.

All four have played in all 10 games, though Riley has come off the bench in all 10.

The Illini have used the same starting 5 in every game with Jakucionis, Ivisic, Boswell, junior guard Tre White (6-7, 210) and Humrichous.

The Illini score 84 points a game and give up 64.6.

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Illinois shoots 43.2 percent from the field, 32.4 percent from 3 and 73.5 percent from the free-throw line, while allowing opponents to shoot 36.9/23.9/61.5.

Illinois leads the all-time series 34-20 and holds a 26-16 advantage for matchups in St. Louis, including a 97-73 win last season. But the Illini hold just a 6-4 lead in the past 10 games.

Matchups

Mizzou’s perimeter defense vs. Jakucionis

The Tigers allow opponents to shoot just 33.2 percent from beyond the arc, which is surprisingly low considering the amount of open looks it feels like the Tigers give up every game.

Jakucionis comes in firing from deep. If Mizzou leaves him open, there’s going to be some major issues, especially if he hits a few early.

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The Tiger defense needs to stay locked on Kajucionis around the perimeter as much as possible. He’s definitely a major threat closer to the basket, too, but a few early, open 3s could give the Illini the momentum and the Tigers need to take it early and run with it like they did in the Border War.

Mizzou’s defense forcing turnovers

We’re sticking with the defense with the second matchup.

The Illini commit 11.2 turnovers a game and force only 10.4, so Illinois is running a deficit game-to-game.

For the Border War, I said one of the routes to a win was the Tiger defense forcing a lot of early turnovers and building a lead, then holding onto the momentum. That’s the same case here and the 2022 Braggin’ Rights matchup is the prime example to look at.

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If Mizzou is able to play in transition early and get some easy looks, that sets the Tigers up about as well as possible against a team they don’t necessarily match up well with.

Josh Gray vs. Tomislav Ivisic

This one is just interesting to me.

Watching two talented 7-footers battle it out in the post is always fun. I think Ivisic is the type of post player that’s going to go right at Gray more than Hunter Dickinson did, so another game where Gray makes a big, immediate difference in the post could go a long way to the Tigers getting their 11th consecutive win.

What I’m looking for

Has to be a quick start like we saw in the Border War.

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If the Tigers are going to win both of their rivalry games this year, they have the formula and showed they can do it.

They don’t need a 29-point night from Tamar Bates again, though that would be a good way to keep the offense moving, but there’s going to have to be a big offensive night from somebody.

Both teams like to play in transition, which is going to lead to some turnovers, if the Tigers are able to take advantage and force Illinois into some early ones that lead to easy buckets, that’s the best setup Mizzou can have for this game.

And once again, gotta try to keep away that offensive lull. It’s probably going to happen at some point, we see it just about every game. The Tigers pulled out the win against kansas because they built up a big enough lead to withstand a long lull.

That’s a lot to ask them to do again, so instead, how about we ask for a shorter lull. Maybe only five minutes instead of 13 where the offense looks awful.

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No lull at all would be fantastic, but feels like too big of an ask at this point until we see them go without one against a good team.

And just for my sake:

I already have one of my favorite coverage assignments I’ve gotten to experience in this year’s Border War. The 2022 version of Braggin’ Rights is another one that’s up there for me because it was my first time covering a game courtside and the way that game went, I could feel the energy from the Mizzou side of the arena all night.

I was sent up to the top of the arena for last year’s game and it definitely affected the experience, but I got confirmation Friday that I’m back on the floor this year, so hopefully the Tigers can give me a second of my favorite games I’ve ever covered in the same basketball season.

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You can follow me on X @kyle_mcareavy for more news and updates.



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