MILWAUKEE — Illinois will be looking to regain its offensive form when the sixth-seeded Fighting Illini face No. 11 Xavier in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament South Region on Friday.
Illinois (21-12), making its fifth consecutive NCAA Tournament, lost to Maryland 88-65 in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament last Friday. Xavier (22-11) advanced with an 86-80 comeback victory against Texas in the First Four on Wednesday in Dayton, Ohio.
Xavier erased a 10-point deficit over the final 12 minutes and closed with an 8-2 run over the final 1:48. The Musketeers shot 55.2 percent and hit 12 of 25 shots from beyond the arc.
“The badge of this group, right when you think you’re going to count us out, we win,” Xavier coach Sean Miller said. “Right when you think things aren’t going to go well, we have found a way and I think that’s a great characteristic in this year’s, or in any NCAA Tournament.”
The Illini have been inconsistent. They won four consecutive games before the loss to Maryland but had dropped three straight before the winning streak.
“When you lose, you go home,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said after the Big Ten tourney loss. “The next time we get to do this, we lose we go home. Hopefully we learned a lot from Maryland.”
Illinois averages 83.8 points, with five players in double figures, while allowing 74.6 points. Against Maryland, the Illini shot just 36.5 percent and missed 21 of their 27 shots from deep.
Kasparas Jakucionis, a freshman from Lithuania, leads with 15.0 points and Tomislav Ivisic, a 7-1 sophomore from Croatia, adds 12.5 points and team-best 7.7 rebounds.
Freshman Morez Johnson Jr. missed five games with a broken wrist but returned for the Big Ten tournament. He averages 7.1 points and 6.7 rebounds in 17.9 minutes and shares the team lead with 33 blocks.
The Illini are No. 2 in the country in rebounds per game at 42.5 and are sixth in rebound margin at 8.8 per game. Against Maryland, the Illini had a 47-38 edge on the boards but turned it over 17 times to just three by the Terps.
Xavier, which averages 78.3 points and gives up 71.2., was 15-2 at home, but 7-9 in true road games or neutral sites.
Zach Freemantle leads with 17.2 points and 7.0 rebounds per game. Ryan Conwell adds 16.7 points and Dailyn Swain is third with 10.5 per game.
Marcus Foster, who averages 8.0 points and 4.9 rebounds, had a team-high 22 points against Texas, hitting 8 of 9 shots, including four 3-pointers, along with eight rebounds.
“You’ve just got to keep getting in the tournament. Sometimes you get a good bounce,” Miller said. “The second thing that happens in this tournament is individual players, they rise to the challenge. Marcus Foster is a very important player for us, but he hasn’t been our leading scorer very often.”
Illinois and Xavier have split four games all-time but have not faced each other in the NCAA Tournament. Xavier won the last meeting in 2018 at the Maui Invitational.
–Jim Hoehn, Field Level Media
