Kentucky
Kentucky basketball vs Illinois prediction, pick for 2025 NCAA Tournament second round
Pitino and Calipari face off in March Madness battle of coaching greats
Mackenzie Salmon takes a look at the best games to watch on the first day of second round action in the NCAA Tournament including a battle of coaching legends.
Sports Seriously
MILWAUKEE — Kentucky basketball is on the doorstep of the NCAA Tournament’s second weekend.
But to advance to the Sweet 16 of March Madness for the first time in six years, UK and coach Mark Pope will have to scrape past Illinois.
The Wildcats sealed their place in the Midwest Region’s second round by virtue of a 76-57 win over Troy in Friday’s first round. The Fighting Illini took the court next, downing the Musketeers, 86-73.
The Wildcats’ foe, the Illini, are the region’s 6-seed. Illinois enters Sunday’s game with a 22-12 record on the season. The Illini finished in a tie for seventh in the Big Ten during the regular season, going 13-7. Illinois went 1-1 during the league tournament in Indianapolis, topping Iowa in its opener but falling to Maryland in the quarterfinals.
The Wildcats and Illini will battle Sunday evening at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.
Here’s what to know about Kentucky’s second-round matchup against Illinois:
Illinois has won nearly everything there is in the sport.
Except an NCAA championship.
Yes, the Illini were retroactively awarded titles in 1915 (per the Premo-Porretta Power Poll) and 1943 (by the Helms Athletics Foundation). But neither of those were won on the court.
The closest Illinois has been to that elusive title came in 2005, when it lost in the national championship game to North Carolina. The Illini have appeared in the Final Four on four other occasions; Illinois’ five appearances are tied for second most (alongside Oklahoma) among schools without a championship, trailing Houston’s six.
Friday’s triumph gave the Illini 46 victories in the Big Dance. Among schools that have yet to win a title, that’s third most, behind Purdue (50) and Gonzaga (47).
There will be a familiar face to Kentucky on the opposing sideline Sunday: Illinois associate head coach Orlando Antigua spent eight seasons, in two separate stints, on former coach John Calipari’s staff in Lexington. Antigua now is in his first season at Illinois.
Then there is Tomislav Ivišić.
No, he’s never suited up for UK.
But his twin brother, Zvonimir Ivišić, was part of Kentucky’s program last season. Zvonimir played in 15 games for the Wildcats off the bench in 2023-24, averaging 5.5 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in 11.7 minutes. He then entered the transfer portal and followed Calipari to Arkansas.
Tomislav has had a stellar season for Illinois, leading the team with 11 double-doubles. His most recent: Friday’s win, when he had 20 points and 10 rebounds.
Illinois coach Brad Underwood is in his eighth season guiding the program. After back-to-back sub-.500 seasons to begin his tenure (2017-18 and 2018-19) as he was rebuilding the program, Underwood has molded the Illini into one of the country’s most consistent winners.
Consider:
- It is one of four schools nationally with 20 or more wins during the regular season each of the past six seasons;
- It is the Big Ten’s winningest program in league play in that same span;
- It is the only team in the conference with a winning record against conference competition six years running;
- It has captured three Big Ten titles in the past five years;
- And during the Underwood era, it boasts four All-American selections and 19 All-Big Ten honorees (seven first-teamers).
Buy Kentucky NCAA Tournament tickets vs. Illinois
Kentucky 91, Illinois 89: Expect plenty of points in this one. The Wildcats and Illini are among the top 10 in Division I in scoring offense … and outside the top 250 in scoring defense. UK has found ways to win close games all season. Here’s betting Mark Pope’s outfit strikes upon a winning formula in a tight contest featuring double-digit lead changes, ties and swings in momentum before the Illini’s last-chance 3 at the buzzer grazes the rim.
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Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.
The Brooklyn Nets have developed their teams through a number of strategies over the decades, and their front office has put together considerable success through the NBA draft. Many of the franchise’s best players have joined the Nets either by being selected directly in the annual draft or through trades made on that day.
Moreover, it is not only the star players who have been acquired by the Nets through the draft. Several prominent alumni have been selected by the team each offseason during this annual event, with certain colleges being more prominently represented than others. An analysis of the players from different schools reveals that both prestigious programs and smaller institutions have contributed top talent to the Nets’ roster over the years.
So without further ado, let’s take a look at every player who has been drafted by the Nets out of Kentucky State University.
Gerald Cunningham – forward
Draft year and position: fifth round (first pick, 89th overall), 1977 NBA Draft
Seasons at Kentucky State University:
Seasons played with Nets: did not make the team
All stats and data courtesy of Basketball Reference.
The best shooter in college basketball will, in fact, stay in college basketball — and Kentucky is ready to make its final push.
Iowa State star Milan Momcilovic has withdrawn from the 2026 NBA Draft and will play somewhere at his current level in 2026-27. That’s not expected to be back in Ames, as Cyclone coach T.J. Otzelberger made clear, saying that if the 6-8 forward doesn’t make the jump to the pros, “it’s important that he’s able to find a landing spot at a college that fits what he’s looking for.”
Could Lexington be that final destination? The perimeter sniper already said he’s got respect for the Wildcats and Mark Pope, watching his programs closely since his time at BYU when they competed against each other in the Big 12.
In his eyes, he could be the piece Kentucky was missing this past season in the program’s Round of 32 exit, led by Momcilovic’s 20 points and five rebounds in the Cyclones’ 82-63 victory in St. Louis.
“I think Kentucky would be a good fit,” Momcilovic told the Herald-Leader’s Ben Roberts last week at the NBA Draft Combine. “I obviously went against Pope at BYU his first year (in the Big 12), and I loved how his team played. I think we went 1-1 against them, but they killed us at their place, because they fly the ball up the court and shoot 3s. I really like the way they play.
“And obviously, Kentucky last year, he didn’t have enough shooters around him to really coach, I feel like, the way he wanted. But I think — if I were to choose Kentucky — that would be a good fit for me. I feel like I’d be a great player for him, and he’d be a good coach for me.”
Momcilovic averaged a career-high 16.9 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 30.5 minutes per game while shooting 50.6 percent from the field, 48.7 percent from three and 87.8 percent at the line. He knocked down 260 3-pointers, good for 3.7 makes on 7.5 attempts per contest.
The former four-star recruit has been Kentucky’s dream portal target all offseason. Now, he’s officially a free agent, pulling out of the draft ahead of the withdrawal deadline.
On Tuesday, head coach Mark Pope revealed that there will likely be no summer trip for the 2026-27 Wildcats.
“We’re probably a lean towards not going right now,” Pope told Darrell Bird of Cats Pause.
The NCAA recently adopted a proposal that will allow schools to take summer tours every year after the rules previously limited schools to one trip every four years. Even if it ended up being somewhere close by, this would’ve been a great experience for the Cats to get some exhibition games in, especially with the roster overhaul they’re going through.
Oh well. The good news is UK will still have plenty of summer practices to develop and build chemistry.
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