Northwestern hasn’t won at Illinois since January 2013 — two months before Chris Collins became the Wildcats’ head coach.
Collins has led Northwestern to the first three NCAA Tournament appearances in school annals, yet he hasn’t been able to lead the Wildcats to a victory in Champaign. They’ve lost their eight visits by an average of 12.4 points. But could Sunday’s Big Ten game between the Wildcats (12-7, 3-5 conference) and the 17th-ranked Illini (13-6, 5-4) be Collins’ breakthrough?
The first bit of evidence: When Illinois and Northwestern met Dec. 6 in Evanston, Ill., the Wildcats erased a 10-point second-half deficit and earned a 70-66 overtime victory. Nick Martinelli scored most of his game-high 27 points after halftime as the Wildcats kept going to him and the Illini kept letting him go one-on-one.
The second bit of evidence: The Illini enter this contest dealing with their first two-game losing streak since they closed out the 2022-23 season with losses in the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments. More concerning, they have dropped their last two home games by 10 points (to Southern California) and 21 (to Maryland).
“Been a long time since the Illini took a good ol’ ass-kicking like that,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said after Thursday’s 91-70 loss to the Terrapins. “Really, no excuses from us.”
But here’s the first contrary bit of evidence: Illinois didn’t have freshman point guard Kasparas Jakucionis, its leading scorer (16.2 points per game), for the USC loss.
Illinois announced Saturday that starting center Tomislav Ivisic will not play Sunday because of what Underwood said is mononucleosis. The 7-foot-1 Ivisic, who like Jakucionis, missed the loss to Maryland, leads the team with an 8.5 rebounding average and is second in scoring with 13.0 points per game.
When either Jakucionis or Ivisic is not on the court, Illinois doesn’t have its most productive offensive option: running a high ball screen that either leads to a Jakucionis drive and kick or an Ivisic pick-and-pop for a 3-pointer.
“We have had a really tough week with sickness and not knowing whether guys are playing — guys not in practice,” Underwood said before Saturday’s announcement. “‘Tomi’ has been our highest-graded guy almost every game defensively. He’s your brains. He’s 7-1. He makes everyone around him better because he covers for all that. And I don’t know when we get him back. He’s been just deathly sick.
“We’ve just got to find a way to get whole again, so guys can settle back into their roles.”
Meanwhile, Northwestern has started to thrive again with fifth-year senior Ty Berry fitting back into his role as the team’s leading sharpshooter. Berry went 1-for-10 from 3-point range during the Wildcats’ three-game losing streak earlier this month to Penn State, then-No. 20 Purdue and then-No. 16 Michigan State.
That inspired Collins to put freshman Angelo Ciaravino into the lineup and bring Berry off the bench. During the Wildcats’ last three games — an overtime win over Maryland, an overtime loss at Michigan and Wednesday’s home win over Indiana — Berry has drilled 12 of 26 3-pointers while averaging 16.7 points and 5.7 rebounds. The 3-point spree includes his career-high 7-of-10 performance against the Hoosiers.
“I’ve always loved Ty,” Collins said. “I love his energy. I’m an enthusiastic person, a high-energy person, and I played that way. Coaches need to get some of that, too. He fills my bucket a lot with that. That’s why when he’s not right, it affects me. I love feeding off his energy and his enthusiasm and that smile he has when he’s playing with joy.”
–Field Level Media
