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Illini Meet #19 Arkansas at Thanksgiving Hoops Showcase in Kansas City
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Illini Meet #19 Arkansas at Thanksgiving Hoops Showcase in Kansas City























PROBABLE STARTERS (Based on previous game)
Pos. No. Name Ht. Wt. Yr. PPG RPG APG Note
G 32 Kasparas Jakucionis 6-6 205 Fr. 12.0 6.0 6.3 NCAA’s No. 2-ranked freshman in assists/game
G 4 Kylan Boswell 6-2 205 Jr. 8.0 3.3 3.2 Season-highs 17 points/7 rebounds vs. #8 Alabama
G 22 Tre White 6-7 210 Jr. 8.8 6.0 0.8 Season-high 16 points vs. Little Rock
F 3 Ben Humrichous 6-9 225 Gr. 10.3 3.5 1.2 .395 3FG%, sixth in the Big Ten
C 13 Tomislav Ivisic 7-1 255 So. 15.5 8.7 1.2 3 double-doubles, 9th in NCAA / 1st in Big Ten
OFF THE BENCH
Pos. No. Name Ht. Wt. Yr. PPG RPG APG Note
F 0 Carey Booth 6-10 215 So. 2.7 1.7 0.2 Four of five field goals are 3-pointers
G 2 Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn 6-1 185 So. 7.7 2.3 0.2 Career-high 21 points vs EIU
G 5 AJ Redd 6-3 170 Jr. 0.5 0.8 0.3 Former team manager turned walkon
F 7 Will Riley 6-8 195 Fr. 17.2 5.3 1.8 No. 7 freshman scorer in the NCAA (2nd in B1G)
F 15 Jake Davis 6-6 205 So. 1.3 1.5 0.0 Season-high 4 rebounds vs. UMES
F 21 Morez Johnson Jr. 6-9 255 Fr. 5.3 7.8 0.2 1st double-double (10 points, 13 rebounds) vs. UMES
G 24 Keaton Kutcher 6-2 195 r-Jr. 0.5 0.3 0.3 Scored first Illinois points vs. SIUE
REDSHIRT (Averages from 2023-24 season)
Pos. No. Name Ht. Wt. Yr. PPG RPG APG Note
G/F 20 Ty Rodgers 6-6 210 Jr. 6.2 5.3 2.0 Started all 38 games last season
F 31 Jason Jakstys 6-10 210 Fr. Third-Team All-State

Head Coach Brad Underwood

Career Record: 257-116 (.689), 12th year

At Illinois: 148-89 (.624), 8th year

Big Ten: 80-58 (.580)

Series History vs. Arkansas

All-Time Record / Streak: Illinois leads, 5-1 / Arkansas W1

Record at Neutral Sites: Illinois leads, 4-1

Last Meeting: Arkansas 73, Illinois 63 (3/16/2023 at Des Moines, Iowa // NCAA Tournament Round 1)

Underwood vs. Arkansas at Illinois / All-Time: 0-1 / 1-1

Opening Tips

  • Illinois (5-1) closes a stretch of four games in nine days across three different cities, with a Thanksgiving Day matchup against No. 19-ranked Arkansas (5-1) in the Thanksgiving Hoops Showcase at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City. (3 p.m. CT/CBS).
  • The Illini are coming off of the team’s two largest victory margins of the season – vs. UMES (+47, 87-40) on Saturday and vs. Little Rock (+58, 92-34) on Monday – to improve to 5-0 at home this season, with an average scoring margin of 38.8 points.
  • Monday’s win over Little Rock marked the 148th victory of Brad Underwood‘s Illini tenure. In his eighth season in Champaign, Underwood now ranks fifth on the Illinois all-time coaching wins list.
  • Following the 2024 Elite Eight appearance and 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 Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn – and returns just 2.9% of its minutes, 2.2% of its points, and 2.0% of its rebounds overall.
  • Newcomers to the Illini roster have accounted for 90.1% of the team’s scoring so far (484 of 534 total points), with UI freshmen accounting for 38.7% of those points (207).
  • Illinois leads the Big Ten and ranks among the top teams nationally in: scoring margin (7th in NCAA, +30.2), 3-point attempts per game (1st, 34.3), 3-pointers made per game (10th, 11.3), total rebounds per game (1st, 50.2), rebound margin (1st, +17.3), defensive rebounds per game (3rd, 34.5), and offensive rebounds per game (13th, 15.7) 
  • KenPom.com ranks the Illini 21st in adjusted efficiency rating (+20.95), with the Orange and Blue coming in at No. 17 in defensive efficiency (94.5) and No. 33 in offensive efficiency (115.5) . 
  • According to KenPom, the Illini rank 11th nationally, fifth among Power Conference programs, and first in the Big Ten with a 3-point attempt rate (3-point attempts/total field goal attempts) of 52.2%. The Illini boast the best overall offensive efficiency rating (115.5) among the top-25 programs in 3-point attempt percentage.  
  • Illinois is the winningest team in the Big Ten over the last five seasons, registering a 69-31 (.690) mark in league play. And when including the conference tournament, the Illini have a league-best 75 wins during this time span. The Illini won the 2024 Big Ten Tournament championship as the #2 seed, captured the regular season championship in 2022, and led the conference in wins while adding a B1G Tournament crown in 2021. 
  • Illinois is six spots outside of the top 25 of the AP poll released Monday after cracking the poll for the first time this season at No. 25 the previous week. Head coach Brad Underwood has led the Fighting Illini program to AP top-25 rankings in six consecutive seasons.

Illinois-Arkansas Connections

  • Thursday’s matchup between Illinois and Arkansas features a number of connections between the two programs. 
  • Illinois sophomore C Tomislav Ivisic is the twin brother of Arkansas’ Zvonimir Ivisic. Zvonimir came to the U.S. in 2023 after being recruited to Kentucky, then followed head coach John Calipari to Arkansas in the offseason. Tomislav remained in Europe for an additional year where he played for club SC Derby in Podgorica, Montenegro, before being recruited by Underwood and his staff to Illinois this year. 
  • Illinois associate head coach Orlando Antigua was key to recruiting both Tomislav and Zvonimir Ivisic to Illinois and Kentucky, respectively. Prior to rejoining Brad Underwood‘s Illinois staff this season, Antigua spent three years at Kentucky (2021-24). In addition to his connection to Zvonimir Ivisic, Antigua was a part of John Calipari’s staff that recruited and coached three other current Razorbacks – graduate G Kareem Watkins, junior F Adou Thiero, and sophomore G D.J. Wagner – at Kentucky. Antigua is in his second stint at Illinois after four seasons on Underwood’s staff (2017-21) as his first hire in the spring of 2017.
  • Arkansas associate head coach Chin Coleman was also a part of Underwood’s Illinois staff from 2017-21.  He was then hired, alongside Antigua, at Kentucky before following John Calipari to Arkansas this past offseason.

Illinois-Arkansas Series

  • Thursday’s contest is the seventh meeting between Illinois and Arkansas, with the Illini holding a 5-1 edge dating back to the first matchup, a 65-53 Illini win in Champaign on Dec. 14, 1949.  
  • The Illini and Razorbacks have met five times on neutral floors since 2001. Illinois is 4-1 in those contests, picking up wins at United Center in Chicago in 2001 (94-91) and 2003 (85-61), while securing victories in Little Rock in 2002 (62-58) and 2004 (72-60). 
  • In the most recent meeting, eighth-seeded Arkansas defeated ninth-seeded Illinois, 73-63, in Round 1 of the 2023 NCAA Tournament in Des Moines, Iowa, on March 15, 2023. 
  • Illinois head coach Brad Underwood is 1-1 vs. Arkansas in his career, having led Oklahoma State to a 99-71 victory over the Razorbacks on Jan. 28, 2017. 
  • Thursday’s matchup vs. No. 19 Arkansas is the second of four regular-season games for the Illini against SEC foes. Illinois fell to No. 8 Alabama, 100-87, at the C.M. Newton Classic in Birmingham on Nov. 20, and follows the matchup vs. the Razorbacks with a home game against No. 7 Tennessee on Dec. 14 (4:30 p.m. CT, FOX) and the annual Braggin’ Rights game vs. Missouri in St. Louis on Dec. 22 (12 p.m. CT, ESPN). 
  • Illinois also went to Oxford, Miss., on Oct. 27 to face a fifth SEC opponent, Ole Miss, in a charity exhibition game.  
  • The Illinois men’s basketball program is a combined 88-53 all-time against the current 16-team membership of the Southeastern Conference.
  • Brad Underwood is 8-9 in his career vs. current SEC programs. During his time at Illinois he is 4-6 against the current membership of the SEC, including a 1-1 mark last season with a 97-73 win Braggin’ Rights win over Mizzou, and a hard-fought 86-79 road loss at then-No. 17 Tennessee

Illini On Thanksgiving

  • Thursday’s contest vs. No. 19 Arkansas marks the sixth time that the Illini program has competed on Thanksgiving Day. 
  • Illinois is 4-1 all-time, and 1-0 under head coach Brad Underwood, when tipping off as part of the holiday festivities,

    • Nov. 27, 1997 – Illinois 70, Wichita State 57 (Bayamon P.R., Puerto Rico Shootout)
    • Nov. 22, 2001 – #2 Illinois 78, Penn 71 (Las Vegas Invitational)
    • Nov. 27, 2014 – Illinois 88, Indiana State 62 (Las Vegas Invitational)
    • Nov. 24, 2016 – #19 West Virginia 89, Illinois 57 (Brooklyn, NIT Season Tip-Off)
    • Nov. 26, 2020 – #8 Illinois 97, Chicago State 38 (Champaign, Joseph J. Biggs Invitational)

K.C. Connections

  • Head coach Brad Underwood grew up in McPherson, Kansas, located 190 miles west of Kansas City. He played and coached at Kansas State, and was with the K-State program for a number of games in K.C.
  • Underwood played in the Big 8 Tournament at Kemper Arena in 1985 and 1986. He was a K-State assistant coach for a total of 13 games the Wildcats played at T-Mobile Center from the 2007-08 through 2011-12 seasons, including the CBE Hall of Fame Classic (November 2010) and highlighted by an appearance in the 2010 Big 12 Tournament title game.
  • Underwood also visited T-Mobile Center for the 2017 Big 12 Tournament in his lone season as Oklahoma State head coach. 
  • Most recently, Underwood led the Illini at the Hall of Fame Classic at T-Mobile Center, Nov. 22-23, 2021. Illinois fell, 71-51, to Cincinnati before bouncing back the following day with a 72-64 victory over Kansas State. 
  • Thursday’s game is Illinois’ fifth all-time in Kansas City, where the Illini have posted a 1-3 mark. Prior to the team’s 1-1 showing at the 2021 Hall of Fame Classic, the Illini lost to No. 13 Kansas (65-55) at Kemper Arena on Dec. 19, 1998, and dropped a 55-50 contest vs. Missouri on Dec. 16, 1946.
  • With the team having Friday as a scheduled day off, Underwood – a lifelong Chiefs and Royals fan – will capitalize on the trip to Kansas City by taking his family to Friday’s home Chiefs game to watch the reigning Super Bowl Champions. It will be his first time attending a Chiefs game in more than 15 years, since early in his tenure as a K-State assistant coach.. 

Complete Illinois Game Notes (PDF)