Take it from Alabama coach Nate Oats, who knows a thing or two considering he’s in the middle of four straight games against teams in the top 14 of the current Associated Press Top 25 poll: No. 8 Illinois’ 90-86 loss to No. 11 Alabama on Wednesday night in Chicago did nothing to suggest the Illini are not worthy of competing for the biggest stakes.
“They’re going to be competing for a national championship, in my opinion,” Oats said. “They’re going to be in the mix.
“They can go inside on you,” Oats continued. “They can drive on you. They can go outside with the entire lineup, one through five. I think they’re pretty good. They didn’t play bad (Wednesday night). They just missed a bunch of free throws. Shoot, if they make their free throws, they probably win.”
Indeed, the Illini made just 13 of 22 free-throw attempts (59.1 percent) on the United Center’s finicky NBA rims. Had they hit at the 79-percent clip they brought into the game, that’s four more points and an overtime affair. But reversion to the mean at the free-throw line is not why Illinois belongs on the current short list of national championship contenders. It’s the fact the Illini, due to injuries, might have more room to grow than anyone else.
Seven-foot-1 junior center Tomislav Ivisic — the team’s best player despite Andrej Stojakovic being the only Illini on the Wooden Award’s 50-man preseason watch list — has played a grand total of 37 minutes this season due to a painful bone bruise. Fourteen of those came off the bench against Alabama, when he managed just 3 points and 3 rebounds while moving tentatively and with little to no conditioning. Illinois coach Brad Underwood says Ivisic has been a part of just nine or 10 of the team’s first 40 practices — and most were in the small window between his early-October tonsillectomy and his early-November knee injury.
“He hasn’t literally done anything,” Underwood said. “It’s like (reporters) getting off the couch after being there for 16 days and trying to go play a basketball game. And his conditioning is just not there. You want to be fair to him.”
At the same time, the Illini have a Black Friday date with No. 3 UConn at Madison Square Garden. Tennessee looms Dec. 6 in Nashville. The Big Ten opener at Ohio State happens three days after that. There’s no rest for the gimpy or the easily fatigued. “We need Tomi,” Underwood said. “We need his passing. We need his facilitating. We need his brains. And it shows the most on the defensive side, to be very honest with you. So I think as we get in these next couple games (Saturday against Long Island and Monday against Rio Grande Valley), we need to see amped-up minutes and better conditioning. He committed a turnover in the first half out of fatigue. That’s the stuff we’ve got to get through.”
Ivisic isn’t the only one who needs to ramp up ASAP.
Mihailo Petrovic, the 22-year-old pro Underwood signed in the offseason to be Illinois’ starting point guard, missed the first four games with a left hamstring injury. He finally rejoined practices in full within the last week, so it made sense that he looked rusty and uncertain during warmups as he missed every outside shot he took — except his half-court swish on his way to the locker room 10 minutes before tip.
Petrovic finally made his college debut Wednesday against Alabama and dished out five assists in 12 minutes, but he might not have entered with 3:54 left in the first half if Stojakovic and Kylan Boswell hadn’t picked up their second fouls seven seconds apart. “That was my dilemma going into this,” Underwood said. “You’ve got a really big game. I probably, to be honest with you, wouldn’t have played him had there not been the need to do that — just from a confidence standpoint. But I did find out and my confidence grew a great deal in him.”
When Petrovic returns to full strength, he gives Illinois a four-man perimeter rotation that already boasts Boswell (19.2 points, 4.4 assists per game), Stojakovic (16.8 points) and freshman Keaton Wagler (15.6 points, 5.8 rebounds). Boswell and Stojakovic, the son of former NBA great Peja Stojakovic, combined for 34 second-half points Wednesday as they bullied Alabama’s smaller guards.
“Boswell’s as tough a lead guard…I mean, he’s a winner,” Oats said. “Stojakovic, shoot, I loved watching his dad play. Andrej’s pretty good, too. He just dropped 26 on us.”
In one breath, Underwood will declare how he loves his team. In another, he’ll remind them how they’re playing for the biggest stakes every night. Stojakovic, for example, grew accustomed to being the undisputed lead dog in his first two college seasons at Stanford and Cal. While he hit 11 of 16 shots against Alabama, he also committed five turnovers trying to force things when Illinois’ six double-figure scorers don’t necessarily require that.
“You can’t have live-ball turnovers,” Underwood said. “I have a junior in Andrej and I love him to death. But you can’t have half our turnovers. You have to learn how not to lose games sometimes.
“Every possession is important,” he continued. “There’s no, ‘Oops, I messed up.’ We’re going to be in 25 more of these close games. And those are the things that Andrej and ‘Mirk’ (freshman forward David Mirkovic) and Keaton all have to learn to understand is, ‘Oh, I screwed up this switch.’
“No. No. I expect perfection. I demand perfection. I know it’s not going to happen, but it doesn’t mean I’m not still going to expect the same type of things for them.”
Four more for the Wooden
The Los Angeles Athletic Club trotted out its 50-man Wooden Award preseason watch list this week — and the Big Ten was well-represented.
Illinois’ Andrej Stojakovic, Indiana’s Tucker DeVries, Iowa’s Bennett Stirtz, Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg, Northwestern’s Nick Martinelli, Ohio State’s Bruce Thornton, Oregon’s Nate Bittle and Jackson Shelstad, Purdue’s Trey Kaufman-Renn and Braden Smith, UCLA’s Donovan Dent and Wisconsin’s John Blackwell all made the initial competition for the preeminent National Player of the Year award.
That’s nine seniors and three juniors. Or, if you prefer to break it down the modern way, that’s seven guys who’ve spent their whole career at the same school and five who are in their first year in the Big Ten.
Only the SEC, with 14 players, boasts more players on the list than the Big Ten’s dozen. And while we’re not suggesting anybody should be kicked off this list, we’d like to add four more from the Big Ten:
Tomislav Ivisic, Illinois: As mentioned in the lead of this Insider, the younger of the Ivisic twins is the Illini’s most important player. He was their most important player last year, too, on a squad with two NBA first-round picks. The 7-foot-1 lefthanded Croatian is the team’s best rebounder, three-point shooter (he made 9 of 21 in the NCAA Tournament), post-up threat and facilitator. Illinois can’t wait until he sheds his knee bruise, so he can assume his role as the sun around which all of Illinois’ other offensive weapons orbit.
Jeremy Fears Jr., Michigan State: Tom Izzo has been throwing around the “Mateen” word with this 2023 McDonald’s All-American pretty much since he got to campus. And if you watched the Spartans demolish Kentucky on Tuesday at Madison Square Garden, you know why. The redshirt sophomore point guard took three shots in 31 minutes yet controlled the whole show.
Fears piled up 13 assists with just two turnovers, scored eight points and made three steals to move into the national lead in assists (10.3 per game). Not only did he enter Friday’s contest against Detroit averaging 10.3 points and 10.3 assists per game, his assist/turnover ratio was 4.56 and he has improved his free-throw percentage from 73.0 percent to 90.0.
Rodney Rice, USC: Last year at Maryland, Rice served as a sniper for the “Crab Five” while Ja’Kobi Gillespie ran the point. That meant Rice averaged just 2.1 assists per game for the Sweet Sixteen squad, but drilled 80 of 214 three-pointers (37.4 percent) while averaging 13.6 points.
Once ballyhooed USC freshman Alijah Arenas tore the meniscus in his knee in July, Rice became the Trojans’ best option at the point and he has played the role to the hilt. While USC hasn’t faced the roughest schedule to date, check out his numbers: 20.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 7.8 assists per game while committing just 1.8 turnovers — a 4.43 assist/turnover ratio, similar to Fears.
Rice also racked up the second triple-double in USC annals when he went for 21, 10, and 10 against Illinois State on Nov. 14. He joined Daniel Hackett (Nov. 17, 2007) in the exclusive club.
Fletcher Loyer, Purdue: If other top teams (Florida, Houston, St. John’s) can have three players on the Wooden watch list, why can’t top-ranked Purdue’s third senior stud receive the same acknowledgement?
Going into Friday’s Baha Mar championship game against Texas Tech, Loyer ranked a close second to Braden Smith in scoring (17.0 points per game) while leading the way in three-point shooting (3.5 per game at a 51.9-percent clip) and free-throw accuracy (18 of 19). He forces defenses to play relatively honest against Smith and Kaufman-Renn.
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Around the rim
Indiana Hoisters
Through five games of the Darian DeVries era, Indiana has attempted 132 three-pointers and sank 52. The Hoosiers’ 39.4-percent accuracy ranks among the top 40 teams nationally as Tucker DeVries (20 of 43) and Lamar Wilkerson (16 of 36) are doing most of the damage.
Indiana drained at least 10 three-pointers in each of its first three games. Guess how many times the Hoosiers hit at least 10 three-pointers in three straight games under Mike Woodson? None.
Guess how many times the Hoosiers hit at least 10 threes in back-to-back games? Once…Dec. 7-10, 2022, in a Nebraska win and an Arizona loss.
Maryland Buzzing
It’s clear things are never going to be boring at Maryland with Buzz Williams in charge. Check out this five-day roller-coaster:
On Nov. 15, Williams returned to Marquette for the first time since leaving there in 2014 and presided over a valuable 89-82 road win. Unfortunately for the Terps, senior big man Pharrel Payne, who returned to the Big Ten a leaner, meaner version than everyone saw for two years at Minnesota, suffered a gruesome hip injury while landing after a dunk. But Payne and his 18.3 points and 6.3 rebounds per game might return next week.
On Wednesday, five-star combo forward Babatunde Oladotun committed to Maryland. The 6-foot-10 star, who reclassified from 2027, goes to Blake High School in Silver Spring, Md. That’s just 10.5 miles from Maryland’s Xfinity Center.
The same day, Maryland nearly lost at home to unheralded Mount St. Mary’s. The Terps trailed by five points with 30 seconds left, but forced overtime and won 95-90 as Diggy Coit went off for 41 points that featured 8-for-10 shooting on threes. Coit, who’s not as tall as his listed 5-foot-11 height, joined the late Len Bias on the five-man list of Maryland players who’ve gone for 40-plus.
Recruiting race
Oladotun’s decision to attend Maryland pushed the Terps into the No. 3 spot on 247 Sports’ ranking of 2026 recruiting classes. While these freshman groups obviously aren’t as crucial as they once were, it still matters.
And look who else in the Big Ten is at the top: Michigan State ranks No. 1 after 7-footer Ethan Taylor chose the Spartans last week. Taylor, by the way, teamed up with Illinois freshman Keaton Wagler to win back-to-back state titles at Shawnee Mission High School in Kansas.
Purdue, meanwhile, ranks No. 4 in 247 Sports’ rankings. With five seniors graduating and no other upperclassmen on scholarship, Matt Painter is bringing in four freshmen. Of course, one of them stands 7-foot. Two weeks ago, China native Sinan Huan selected the Boilers over Illinois and Ohio State.
Painter’s masterpiece
Speaking of Painter, he collected his 500th career win last Sunday when Purdue knocked off MAC favorite Akron by a 97-79 count. He became the 79th coach in D-I history (per Sports Reference) to reach the 500 mark.
“I’d think it’s a big deal if it isn’t me,” said Painter, who’s in his 22nd year. “But it is me, so I don’t think it’s a big deal. You know, I’m yet to see a really good coach with bad players. It’s a players’ game. Get the right players that fit together. Get ’em on the bus. Get ’em on time. Tell ’em the truth. And then have a lot of fun with it.”
As time marches on for the 55-year-old Painter, here are some coaches he’s likely to pass: his Purdue coach/mentor/predecessor, Gene Keady (550 wins) and Purdue alum John Wooden (664). Michigan State’s Tom Izzo, who ranks 23rd on the all-time list with 742 wins, earned his 500th win when he was 60 years old.
The 20-20 club
When Illinois freshman David Mirkovic racked up 27 points and 21 rebounds against Colgate on Nov. 14, he became the eighth Big Ten player in the last eight years to gain access to the 20-20 club. It’s a pretty solid list.
Maryland’s Derik Queen, the last 20-20 man, is the only other one who did it as a freshman. The rest of the crew consists of Purdue’s Zach Edey (three times, and always with 30-plus points) and Trevion Williams, Iowa’s Keegan Murray and Kris Murray, Indiana’s Trayce Jackson-Davis and Minnesota’s Daniel Oturu.
Trojan miracle
If you didn’t see the incredible finish to USC’s 107-106 triple-overtime win on Thursday night, then you need to click this link.
In case you can’t: Troy, which earned a 108-106 double-overtime win two nights earlier at San Diego State, led 106-104 and grabbed a defensive rebound with eight seconds left. Rather than wait to get fouled, Troy threw an outlet pass toward halfcourt that didn’t connect but kept bouncing away from USC’s basket.
USC’s Rodney Rice collected the loose ball 75 feet from the hoop with 3.5 seconds left and flung it ahead to Jordan Marsh. He dribbled twice to get just outside the arc, hung in the air while being challenged by a defender and rattled it home as the buzzer sounded.
Had this been in March, it would have gone down as an all-time heartbreaker.
Games to watch
Plan your Feast Week viewing here:
Monday: Oregon vs. Auburn (8 p.m. ET; truTV): Maryland, Michigan and Rutgers also are representing the Big Ten at the Players Era Championship in beautiful Las Vegas, but the Ducks have the most compelling opening-day matchup of the three-day event. The Tigers (4-1) are, by far, the toughest test to date for Oregon (4-0). Once Kwame Evans becomes the guy who piled up 16 points and 14 rebounds against Oregon State — and not the guy who provided 23 points and 14 rebounds against South Dakota State, Rice and Hawaii combined — the Ducks will soar in the KenPom and NET calculations.
Tuesday: Iowa vs. Ole Miss (9:30 p.m. ET; CBS Sports Network): The Gonzaga-Maryland matchup happening simultaneously in Vegas will attract more eyeballs, but this is a big one for those who worry about stacking nonconference wins for NCAA Tournament purposes. The Hawkeyes and Rebels are both 5-0 as they’ve clowned foes at home. They’re also both in the 30s in KenPom, so a win in Ben McCollum’s first road trip will carry weight in March. Note: Bennett Stirtz has only played 184 of a possible 200 minutes. Slacker. Ten bucks says he doesn’t leave the floor in either Iowa game in Palm Springs, Calif.
Thursday: Michigan State vs. North Carolina (4:30 p.m. ET; FOX): The Spartans wrap up their two-game Fort Myers Classic with a blue-blood banger. If you haven’t met Tar Heels frosh Caleb Wilson, he’s a 6-foot-10 force of nature who reminds many of Kevin Garnett. He brings averages of 20.6 points, 10.0 rebounds, 1.8 blocks and 2.0 steals into this one, but the Spartans’ complement of big men led by Jaxon Kohler and Carson Cooper should be up for the challenge.
Friday: Illinois vs. Connecticut (12:30 p.m. ET; FOX): Brad Underwood loves putting his guys on display at Madison Square Garden. This is the fourth year in a row the Illini have pulled up in Manhattan. And while February’s NYC game against Duke was a disaster, it righted the Illini down the stretch. Underwood expects this game against the physical, deep, skilled Huskies will provide similar lessons, though he’d prefer they come with a W this time.
Meet your guide
