How to Watch (and bet)

Date: Sunday, 1/5/25

Tip-Off Time: 1:00 pm PT

TV: Big Ten Network

Radio: Huskies Gameday App, Sports Radio KJR

Location: Seattle, Washington

Betting Line: Washington Huskies +10

Illinois Fighting Illini 2024-25 Statistics:

Record: 10-3 (2-1)

Points For per Game: 88.2 ppg (5th)

Points Against per Game: 66.5 ppg (55th)

Adjusted Offensive Efficiency: 119.5 (15th)

Adjusted Defensive Efficiency: 93.5 (7th)

Strength of Schedule: 44th

Illinois Key Players:

G- Kylan Boswell, Jr. 6’2, 205: 11.5 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 4.1 apg, 36.1% FG, 27.6% 3pt, 76.7% FT

Husky fans are familiar with Boswell as he spent the last 2 seasons at Arizona. He hasn’t quite lived up to the billing he had as a former 5-star recruit and is shooting a career worst on 3-pointers by far. Although he hit 4/5 against Oregon on Thursday. Boswell is a good passer but has been Illinois’ secondary ball handler for the most part despite career bests in both assist and turnover rate so far.

G- Kasparas Jakucionis, Fr. 6’6, 205: 16.3 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 5.4 apg, 49.2% FG, 42.9% 3pt, 86.8% FT

The Lithuanian freshman superstar is the big reason for Illinois not skipping a beat despite almost entirely flipping their roster from last year. He’s a jumbo point guard who is efficient shooting from everywhere on the court. If there’s one nitpick it’s that he commits way too many turnovers with 3.7 per game but despite that he is still a well above average offensive player given he does everything else well.

G- Tre White, Sr. 6’7, 210: 10.2 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 1.1 apg, 56.4% FG, 34.8% 3pt, 90.2% FT

White had a great freshman season at USC, transferred to a bad Louisville team last year, and now is thriving again on Illinois. He has been unstoppable inside the arc in Big Ten play so far shooting 82.4% on 2’s and 92.9% from the FT line in their 3 conference games. That includes a 20 pts, 11 reb, 4 ast, 2 blk game against Oregon this week. He doesn’t take a lot of him but it certainly doesn’t hurt that he also is shooting a career best on 3’s. Look at just about any rate stat and it’s a career high for White so far.

F- Ben Humirichous, Sr. 6’9, 225: 8.2 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 1.0 apg, 41.1% FG, 36.5% 3pt, 60.0% FT

You could argue that Humirichous is maybe the only disappointment on this Illinois roster so far. He shot 42.1% from deep last year at Evansville and that is down a little bit to 36.5% and just 28.6% in B1G play. Although like the rest of the team he broke out with 4/7 from deep against Oregon and a season-best 18 points. The other thing that has backslid is his rebounding. Looking at his statistical profile it’s about what you’d expect for a 6’2 SG who does nothing but take 3-pointers.

C- Tomislav Ivisic, Fr. 7’1, 255: 14.2 ppg, 9.2 rpg, 1.2 bpg, 53.0% FG, 37.9% 3pt, 73.3% FT

Technically, Ivisic is a sophomore in terms of eligibility as that was the NCAA compromise after the Croatian spent some time playing professionally in Europe. His brother plays at Arkansas but this Ivisic has come in and been dominant right away. He’s top-ten in the Big Ten in both offensive and defensive rebounding and is shooting 65% on 2’s and 38% on 3’s while also almost never turning over the ball. In Big Ten play so far he has actually taken more 3-pointers than 2-pointers despite being 7’1 so he sometimes is prone to settling for outside shots.

The Outlook

It’s fair to say that both teams are coming off of their best wins of the season on Thursday night. Washington was able to beat a top-25 Maryland team at home by 6 points. Good. Illinois meanwhile set an NCAA record for the biggest margin of victory over an AP Top-Ten team on the road with a 109-77 win. Yikes.

Before the Oregon game it would’ve been fair to question Illinois’ ability to win on the road. They lost by 13 to Alabama in a semi-away game and lost in OT to Northwestern at the beginning of December. But then they crushed Oregon into a fine powder by shooting 26/44 (59.1%) inside the arc and 16/29 (55.2%) beyond it.

It seems unlikely to think that Illinois can have that kind of performance again. Illinois has now scored at least 109 points in back-to-back games but even with that taken into consideration they still shoot just 34.9% on 3’s for the season. Of their 7 leaders in 3-point attempts this season, 4 of them shoot between 35% and 38%. It’s a team of guys who are good from deep but not quite lights out status.

Washington’s last 3 opponents have combined to shoot 9/46 (19.6%) from deep and on the season the Huskies rank in the top-20 nationally in both 3-point% defense and preventing opponents from attempting 3-point shot. Illinois doesn’t make a crazy percentage overall but they take 50% of their shots on the season from deep. It will be up to Washington to make them uncomfortable and force them to drive the ball as Illinois is 350th nationally in percentage of their points coming on 2-pointers.

There’s no reason though to think that Washington will light it up from deep. The Huskies have crawled out of their early shooting hole and are now merely bad rather than horrendous from deep at 32.2%. Illinois is also elite at preventing 3’s and rank 6th in opponent 3-pt% at 27.2% and 30th in preventing 3-point shots. It will be a struggle for Washington to even reach average although the Huskies still beat Maryland without doing so on Thursday.

It’s an interesting defensive strategy for Illinois but one that clearly works. The Illini are 12th or better in opponent shooting percentage on 2’s, 3’s and FTs. Almost no one is efficient shooting on them. They also rank 9th in defensive rebounding rate so they don’t allow second chance points.

There only 2 reasons anyone scores on Illinois. The first is that they are 333rd nationally in opponent turnover rate. They will guard the hell out of you but they aren’t going to gamble in the passing lanes or get overaggressive with their hands. The Huskies absolutely can’t throw the ball away and help Illinois in that regard. The Illini also play with the 18th fastest pace in the country so they want to run up and down and increase the number of total possessions. We’ll see if that helps or hurts the Huskies.

There will be opportunities inside for Great Osobor. Illinois has only one true shot blocker and it’s their backup center who plays about 14 minutes per game. Washington will need to repeatedly get the ball inside and score at the basket particularly in transition rather than settle for three-point shots. They’ll also need to aggressively chase Illinois off the three-point line and hope that they experience some regression to the mean with their outside shooting.

Thursday night’s game kicked off a stretch of 7 straight games against teams that rank in the top-27 at KenPom and 11 of 12 against top-45 teams. That’s absolutely brutal and even clawing out a 3-4 record in those first 7 contests would be a clear sign of progress for Washington. A good but not great Northwestern team held Illinois to 56 points in regulation and beat them in overtime last month. It’s possible. But it’s certainly not the most likely outcome.

Prediction

Washington Huskies– 75, Illinois Fighting Illini- 84

An Illinois father was fatally shot in Mexico while visiting loved ones for the holidays, according to relatives.

Jesús Macías was allegedly gunned down on Dec. 30 in the central Mexican state of Zacatecas after refusing to stop at what his family described as an improvised checkpoint by unknown individuals. The 50-year-old had traveled to Mexico to spend time with his mother, wife and child.

Despite being a U.S. citizen, relatives said Mexican authorities have been uncooperative and provided no answers.

“We just want to know why this happened and who is responsible,” said Macías’ niece, Lucero Rivas. “He deserves justice.”

Relatives and community leaders, with the assistance of the non-profit United Giving Hope, will gather at 2 p.m. on Sunday in Waukegan to plead with the U.S. government to step in.

NBC Chicago and Telemundo Chicago reached out to Mexican authorities for comment on the case, but they declined to provide any information.

No. 22 Illinois arrived in Eugene for Thursday’s game against No. 9 Oregon as 4.5-point ‘dogs, then hit the floor and ran like greyhounds and shredded the Ducks like hungry pit bulls in a 109-77 statement win that set a new NCAA mark for highest margin of victory by a road team against a top-10 opponent.

And now that we’ve exhausted our quota of canine references, let’s get down to the fun part after a game like this: handing out high marks (nearly) all around. As always, keep in mind that the following grades reflect single-game performances only and are meant to be an objective analysis of the performances of a bunch of young men undoubtedly trying their best at a game that happens to be really, really hard.

It’s kind of amazing when the player who is generally considered your No. 4 or 5 is out here hanging a 20-10 on a top-10 team on the road. White has been wildly productive (he has nearly notched a 20-10 in three other games this season) and a perfect fit on this team – and he only now seems to be gaining his footing.

Right place, right time? Maybe so, but you know what they say: Half of success is just showing up. Davis had one gift bunny teed up for him against Oregon, and he was set up nicely on a couple other buckets. But those shots don’t just hit themselves, and in his 11 minutes he added three rebounds to go with his 12 points. Unless he’s piloting the plane home, too, you can’t ask for more.

Gibbs-Lawhorn continues to find his niche in this group and bring intensity, athleticism and shooting to the dance. Especially when Illinois finds itself in a track meet, DGL (11 points on 5-for-6 shooting against the Ducks) can be expected to hit the ground running whenever he checks in.

Whatever Boswell delivered Thursday was bound to be a comedown from his triple-double against Chicago State, but 15 points (on 4-for-5 shooting from three-point range), four assists and two steals – plus the usual lockdown on-ball defense – is the kind of drop-off coach Brad Underwood will welcome again and again.

Why not higher? Honestly, Humrichous’ defense was spotty in Eugene, and another two-rebound game is not where it’s at from a starting power forward. But let’s focus on the positives: Humrichous rediscovered his shooting form in a big way (7-for-11 on field goals and 4-for-7 from three) to finish with 18 points, and in seemingly every game he does something that reminds why he should probably be given more leeway to put in work inside the arc: Against Oregon, it was a filthy one-handed dunk that seemed to impress even the Ducks.

After a first-half no-show (no points or rebounds, one assist) due in part to foul trouble, Jakucionis squeezed nearly a full game’s worth of production into 20 minutes: 16 points (6-for-11 from the field), six rebounds and six assists. His between-the-legs dropoff assist on a Humrichous three was a highlight, but his methodical picking apart of Oregon’s D in a second-half point guard masterclass honestly topped it.

It may not have been a banner day for the Illini big man, but eight points, eight rebounds and high-quality interior defense is more than acceptable production when nearly all of your teammates are cooking with jet fuel. The numbers didn’t totally reflect it, but Ivisic was a difference-maker.

Johnson’s numbers – especially given the per-minute standard he has set – were mostly forgettable, but his interior defense played a role and the learning lesson he got in Eugene will be invaluable. Slugging it out inside with a tank like Supreme Cook represent vital reps that should ready Johnson for the Big Ten stretch run.

Riley is still figuring out how best to contribute when he’s on the floor, and that too often translates to trying to do too much – over-dribbling, driving into help and iffy shot selection. His catch-and-shoot three at the end of the game may have been a throwaway, but it was a good example of how calming his approach and taking what he’s given could open up the game for him.

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