We’ll finish the countdown with a No. 1 team that had a rough night in Champaign, a No. 1 jersey from a very familiar recruiting class, and the freshman wearing it now. Let’s remember some guys and get to know a new one.

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No. 1 Wake Forest comes to Assembly Hall

December 1, 2004. No. 5 Illinois against No. 1 Wake Forest. Chris Paul and Justin Gray on one side, Dee Brown, Deron Williams, and Luther Head on the other. Assembly Hall was orange, and Bruce Weber had the jacket to match.

That is a helluva setup for a basketball game.

Then Deron picked up his second foul less than three minutes in. He played only eight minutes in the first half and didn’t score. Illinois led 54–33 at halftime anyway.

The Illini shot 60 percent in that half and made eight threes. The lead eventually reached 32. Illinois won 91–73, and even an eighteen-point margin made the game look more competitive than it had been.

Roger Powell Jr. led Illinois with nineteen points on 8-for-10 shooting. Dee and Luther had sixteen apiece. Deron finished with eleven assists, and Illinois assisted on 27 of its 38 baskets while turning the ball over just six times.

Paul and Gray combined to shoot 7-for-27. Illinois was making life miserable at both ends.

Five days later, Illinois took over No. 1 in the AP poll. The Illini stayed there for fifteen straight weeks. Wake Forest had come to Champaign with the ranking, but Illinois gave everybody a pretty good look at who deserved it.

The first to wear Number 1

Aaron Spears arrived from Chicago’s Dunbar High School in 2002, joining a freshman class with Dee Brown, Deron Williams, James Augustine, and Kyle Wilson. Bill Self called the 6-foot-9 big man “the missing piece” when he signed.

That’s the part worth remembering before jumping to the career totals. Spears came in with real expectations, wearing No. 1 alongside some guys who would become very familiar.

He played in Illinois’ first six games, including eight points and four assists against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Then a knee injury in practice that December interrupted his freshman season. He finished the year with nineteen points in 55 minutes.

He returned to play in twenty games in 2003–04, adding another twenty-one points. That left his Illinois career at 26 appearances and forty points. It was a short stay on the court, but it puts another name back into that 2002 recruiting class.

His college career continued through Highland Community College and then St. John’s. The Illinois chapter was small. There was more basketball after it.

Lincoln Williams is the new No. 1

Lincoln Williams gives us a No. 1 for this season. The 6-foot-5 freshman from Kankakee averaged 26 points as a senior and left as his school’s all-time leading scorer with 1,853 points.

There’s a little hype worth paying attention to here. Brad Underwood has talked about Williams’ ability to play and guard all the perimeter positions, along with his potential to become an elite college defender. A guy who can score like that and has his coach excited about his defense? That’s a pretty interesting combination.

Illinois opens its exhibition schedule at Cincinnati tomorrow, Saturday, October 17. Tipoff is scheduled for 4 p.m. Central.

One more day. Let’s go, Illini!!

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Yesterday, four and three gave us a double feature. Today, two gets the floor to itself. We’ve got Joseph Bertrand making almost everything, Tyler Griffey getting loose at exactly the right time, and Michigan hanging around for ten minutes longer than anybody needed.

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No. 2 and a whole lot of twos

Joseph Bertrand could make that little floater look awfully easy. On January 7, 2012, Illinois needed just about every one he could provide.

Bertrand scored 25 points on 11-for-12 shooting in a 59–54 win over Nebraska at Assembly Hall. All eleven of his baskets were twos. No. 2 was taking this countdown business seriously long before we got here.

The Illini were short on options. Sam Maniscalco was out, D.J. Richardson was dealing with a wrist injury, and Nebraska was crowding Meyers Leonard. Bertrand was making only his third career start.

He missed one shot all afternoon. Illinois still needed him to break a 54–54 tie in the final minute.

After a Nebraska turnover, Bertrand got into the lane and dropped in the floater that put Illinois ahead for good. Brandon Paul’s late free throws helped finish it.

There were 34 turnovers in that game. You probably wouldn’t hand somebody the full replay as an introduction to college basketball. Bertrand’s eleven makes, though? Those deserve another look.

Twenty-five of Illinois’ fifty-nine points came from a guy making his third start. Pretty damn useful afternoon.

Two points that sent everybody onto the floor

Tyler Griffey didn’t need a difficult shot on February 7, 2013. He needed somebody to forget where he was.

With 0.9 seconds left, Brandon Paul inbounded from the baseline, Griffey slipped behind Indiana’s defense, and the layup gave Illinois a 74–72 win over the No. 1 team in the country.

A two-point win, courtesy of about as welcome a two-pointer as Assembly Hall has ever seen.

Getting there was considerably less comfortable. Illinois trailed 70–61 with 3:33 remaining. D.J. Richardson scored eight straight Illini points during the comeback, then came up with the late steal that led to the final possession. Victor Oladipo blocked Richardson’s layup out of bounds, leaving just enough time for Griffey.

Richardson finished with 23 points. Paul had 21, and Griffey added fourteen and eight rebounds.

It’s easy to jump straight to the inbound play when this game comes up. Fair enough. But give D.J. his flowers while you’re watching it again. Illinois needed a whole lot of work before it could make the last basket look that simple.

Two overtimes, because Michigan wouldn’t just go home

On March 2, 2023, Illinois beat Michigan 91–87 in double overtime on Senior Night. Terrence Shannon Jr. and Matthew Mayer were honored before the game, then spent the evening making sure the celebration ended properly.

There were a few complications.

Illinois led 70–63 with 2:35 left in regulation. Michigan erased all seven points. Then the Wolverines went ahead 81–74 with 1:49 left in the first overtime.

Apparently one team blowing a seven-point lead wasn’t enough.

The Illini scored the last seven points of that overtime to force another one. Mayer then made three straight field goals to open the second extra period, finally giving Illinois some room to breathe.

Not much room. Hunter Dickinson pulled Michigan within one and had a free throw to tie it with forty-one seconds left. He missed, and Illinois finished the job at the line.

Mayer scored 24 and Shannon had 21. Between them, they supplied seventeen of Illinois’ twenty-one overtime points. Ty Rodgers added a then-career-high fourteen off the bench.

Dickinson finished with 31 points and sixteen rebounds. That is a helluva line to put up before leaving Champaign with a loss.

Fifty minutes was a little excessive, but the sellout crowd got its Senior Night win.

A floater to get out of trouble, a layup to beat No. 1, and two overtimes to send Michigan home unhappy. Two has done pretty well for itself.

Illinois opens its exhibition schedule at Cincinnati on Saturday, October 17. Tipoff is scheduled for 4 p.m. Central.

Two days. Let’s goooo

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KenPom has Illinois No. 4 in its preseason ratings. EvanMiya has the Illini No. 3. That gives us a pretty good reason to put both numbers together this morning. Today is a double feature, and we have three days until Illinois takes the floor at Cincinnati.

Preseason rankings are a fun way to spend October. Give an Illinois fan two computers that like his basketball team and see how quickly he finds the refresh button. We’ll get our first look against somebody else on Saturday. Until then, there’s plenty to enjoy about seeing Illinois that high.

So let’s give four and three some company. We’ve got No. 4 and No. 3 winning on the road, a couple of shooting nights, and enough overtime to test the patience of anyone waiting for the television.

Luther Head wore four and Brandon Paul wore three

Luther gives us the number on the jersey and the number of threes.

On January 15, 2005, Head scored 26 points in Illinois’ 78–66 win at Northwestern. He made four threes, scored seventeen of his points after halftime, and helped the Illini reach 18–0. The best start in school history now belonged to that team, moving it past the Flyin’ Illini.

Evanston had been trouble the year before. Illinois had led by nine at halftime and lost by ten. This time, Deron Williams picked up his fourth foul with 11:39 left, giving everybody another reason to be a little uncomfortable.

Luther took care of that. His final three pushed the lead to eighteen, and he celebrated with a chest bump with Dee Brown. The No. 1 team in the country was going home with another win. No. 4 had done a helluva lot to make it happen.

No. 3 took his turn on a much longer road trip.

On December 8, 2012, Brandon Paul scored 35 as No. 13 Illinois beat No. 10 Gonzaga 85–74 in Spokane. Both teams were unbeaten, and John Groce’s first Illinois team came out of there 10–0.

Gonzaga scored the first eight points and led by eleven before Illinois pulled even at halftime. Paul kept supplying answers. When the Bulldogs got within 75–71 late, he scored through a Kelly Olynyk foul and made the free throw. Seven-point lead, 2:29 left.

He finished 10-for-16 from the field, 5-for-9 from three, and 10-for-11 at the line. There were three steals and two blocks, too. If you’re going to stay up for a game in Spokane, that’s a pretty good way to spend the evening.

Four threes and one last three

Kylan Boswell gives us another No. 4 who brought four threes along for the ride.

On March 13, 2025, Boswell scored a then-career-high 24 points in Illinois’ 106–94 Big Ten Tournament win over Iowa. He went 10-for-14 from the field, made four of seven threes, and finished with seven assists against one turnover.

Illinois led by only two early in the second half. Boswell’s back-to-back threes later pushed the lead into double digits for the first time. Tre White scored 22, Will Riley had 21, and Tomislav Ivisic added nineteen with ten rebounds.

Payton Sandfort made eight threes for Iowa, and the Hawkeyes still lost by twelve. Sometimes the best response to an opponent who won’t stop scoring is to hang 106 on him. Illinois had never scored that many in a conference tournament game.

Jalen Coleman-Lands needed considerably fewer points to provide a memorable finish.

On November 23, 2015, Illinois beat Chicago State 82–79 in Springfield on his three from the corner. The freshman wore No. 5, but he made four threes that night. The last one supplies our three and saves everybody a lot of grief.

Illinois had trailed by fourteen. Malcolm Hill helped rescue it late, stealing the ball and finding Khalid Lewis for the tying jumper. After a Chicago State shot-clock violation, the Illini had 4.6 seconds.

Hill pushed the ball, drew two defenders, and found Coleman-Lands in the corner. The shot left his hand with one-tenth of a second remaining and went through after the horn.

Four threes, twelve points, one very relieved Illinois bench. That last three is the one we’re still talking about.

Four overtimes and then three

Of course, sometimes the numbers tell you how long it took to get everybody home.

On January 28, 1984, Illinois beat Michigan 75–66 at Assembly Hall in four overtimes. They were tied at 46 after regulation, 57 after the first overtime, 62 after the second, and 64 after the third. Illinois finally won the fourth extra period 11–2.

Bruce Douglas played all sixty minutes. Efrem Winters and Quinn Richardson each played fifty-five. Doug Altenberger played fifty-four and George Montgomery fifty-one. Lou Henson got a whole lot of basketball out of those five guys.

Winters led the Illini with 23 points. Douglas had ten points, four assists, and three steals, while apparently deciding the bench could get along without him.

Five days later, Illinois needed two overtimes to win at Iowa. Douglas played all fifty minutes of that one, too. One hundred ten minutes in two games, both wins. Take a bow, Bruce.

The 2015–16 Illini needed three overtimes to win 110–101 at Rutgers on February 3. Malcolm Hill finished with 32 points, fourteen rebounds, and five assists in forty-nine minutes.

They really could have saved him some work. Illinois led 86–79 with twenty-nine seconds left in the first overtime. Rutgers still tied it, with Corey Sanders missing a three, getting his own rebound, and making another one at the buzzer.

After another tied overtime, Illinois finally opened the third with nine straight points. Hill made all ten of his free throws in that period, and the Illini went 12-for-12 as a team. Coleman-Lands added 26 points and six threes for the game.

After blowing a seven-point lead in twenty-nine seconds, twelve straight free throws sounds pretty freaking good.

That takes care of four and three. The computers have supplied their numbers, and the old box scores have supplied plenty of reasons to smile.

Illinois opens its exhibition schedule at Cincinnati on Saturday, October 17, at 4 p.m. Central.

Three days. Let’s go, Illini!!

What did I miss?

Five days until Illinois heads to Cincinnati. Saturday is getting really really close!!

Five gives us Deron Williams, which would be reason enough to open the record book. But there’s also a big man who took over a school record against Purdue and another No. 5 who helped bring a Big Ten Tournament trophy back to Champaign.

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Deron Williams wore five and made five when it mattered

There was never much suspense about who would lead off this one.

On March 26, 2005, Deron Williams scored 22 points and handed out ten assists in Illinois’ 90–89 overtime win over Arizona. He made five of his nine three-point attempts. Luther Head made five, too.

Ten threes between those two, and Illinois still needed just about every second it could get.

Deron’s tying three gets replayed for good reason. Illinois had been down 75–60 with about four minutes left. By the time he let that shot go, the Illini had somehow clawed their way back to a one-possession game. It went in, the score was 80–80, and there was suddenly another five minutes of basketball to survive.

He made two more threes in overtime. Getting the game tied had already required an absurd comeback, and then No. 5 still had six more points to contribute before Illinois could finally celebrate a trip to St. Louis.

A week later, he gave us a different kind of performance against Louisville. Francisco Garcia came in averaging 21 points through the Cardinals’ first four NCAA Tournament games. With Deron guarding him, Garcia finished with four points on 2-for-10 shooting. Illinois won 72–57 and reached the national championship game.

Five made threes one Saturday, then a defensive assignment like that the next. Deron had a helluva lot of ways to help Illinois win.

Nnanna Egwu and five blocks that changed the record book

On January 21, 2015, Illinois beat Purdue 66–57 at State Farm Center. Nnanna Egwu finished with eleven points, seven rebounds, three steals, and five blocks.

The fourth block was the one that put his name on top. Egwu turned away a Vince Edwards dunk attempt late in the first half, passing Deon Thomas’ Illinois career record of 177. Thomas had held that mark since 1994.

Egwu added one more before the night was over and left with 179 career blocks. Five in one game, and a record that had lasted more than twenty years was his.

Illinois needed those stops. The Illini shot 28.6 percent in the first half and somehow reached the break ahead 32–30. You don’t get many comfortable possessions when the shots are falling that infrequently.

Leron Black helped make up for it. In his first career start, the freshman had fifteen points and thirteen rebounds, six of them offensive. Malcolm Hill scored eighteen. Illinois also went 21-for-24 at the foul line.

Egwu got a pretty good finishing touch on his record-setting night, too. His dunk with eighteen seconds left made it 64–57 and gave the Illini a little breathing room.

A school record, five blocked shots, and a late dunk to help put Purdue away. That’s a night worth pulling out of the archives.

Andre Curbelo gave No 5 another championship afternoon

Sixteen years after Deron’s last Illinois season, another No. 5 was making plays in overtime with a trophy waiting.

On March 14, 2021, Illinois beat Ohio State 91–88 in Indianapolis to win its first Big Ten Tournament championship since 2005. Ayo Dosunmu, Kofi Cockburn, and freshman Andre Curbelo each scored sixteen points.

Curbelo added six rebounds and five assists. There’s our number again.

His freshman year had already earned him Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year honors. He scored seventeen in the win at Michigan, then nineteen in the regular-season finale at Ohio State. By tournament Sunday, Illinois had plenty of evidence that he could produce against good teams away from Champaign.

Then the championship game went to overtime, tied at 77. Curbelo opened the extra period with a pullup jumper. Later, he added another jumper and two free throws. Six of his sixteen points came in those final five minutes.

That’s a whole lot to ask from a freshman in a championship game. Illinois had Ayo and Kofi, and it still needed what Curbelo could give it with the ball in his hands.

The Illini had waited since 2005 to win this tournament again. Getting it done with another No. 5 helping finish the job was a pretty sweet connection.

Illinois opens its exhibition schedule at Cincinnati on Saturday, October 17, at 4 p.m. Central.

Five days. Let’s go, Illini!!

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Today brings us a freshman who picked a pretty good night to start making threes, a Trent Frazier performance with a little bit of everything, and a Thanksgiving afternoon when Tomislav Ivisic faced his brother and kept making threes.

Three different games, three good reasons to spend another day remembering some guys.

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Rich McBride and six threes when Illinois needed a guard

On December 13, 2003, No. 14 Illinois beat Memphis 74–64 at Assembly Hall. Rich McBride came off the bench and scored 22 points, making six of his ten three-point attempts.

Illinois was playing without Deron Williams, who had suffered a broken jaw two nights earlier against Maryland-Eastern Shore. Then the Illini fell behind 19–9 in the first half. They were 4-for-25 from the field at one point.

That is a rough way to find out how you’re going to get by without your point guard.

McBride helped get Illinois to halftime with a lead anyway. His three at the buzzer made it 28–27, and he had plenty left for the second half.

He hit three more threes between 16:32 and 12:50 remaining. Illinois went from trailing 34–32 to leading 50–37 during that stretch. James Augustine was getting to work inside, too, finishing with 21 points on 8-for-10 shooting.

McBride’s full line deserves a little extra attention: 22 points, five rebounds, five assists, zero turnovers. All in twenty-nine minutes.

Five assists without giving the ball away, on a night Illinois was missing Deron. The freshman did a helluva lot more than make shots.

Trent Frazier took it away six times

We’ve spent some time with Trent’s shooting. His hands give us today’s number.

On February 20, 2021, Frazier had six steals as fifth-ranked Illinois beat Minnesota 94–63 at The Barn. He added 15 points, four assists, and three rebounds.

The six steals were a career high and the most by an Illini in sixteen years. Minnesota managed two steals as a team.

And Trent managed to put the defense and the shooting into the same highlight before halftime.

He stole the ball in the final seconds and hit from half court at the buzzer, sending Illinois into the break ahead 48–33. That gave him thirteen points in the first half. A steal and three points before anybody could head to the locker room is a pretty damn good way to finish twenty minutes.

He picked right back up after the break. With 19:16 left, he stole it again, then scored four seconds later to make it 52–33. Illinois opened the half with eight straight points and kept going.

The team numbers were just as fun: eighteen Minnesota turnovers, a 31–8 advantage in fast-break points, and twenty-seven assists on thirty-seven made baskets.

Six steals from Trent helped turn a road game into an afternoon full of Illinois highlights.

Tomislav Ivisic brought six threes to Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day in 2024 gave us the first college meeting between the Ivisic twins. Tomi was with Illinois, Zvonimir was with Arkansas, and the Illini won 90–77 in Kansas City.

Tomi finished with 21 points and ten rebounds. Eighteen of those points came from six made threes on nine attempts.

He hit two during Illinois’ opening 11–0 run, had four by halftime, and opened the Illini’s second-half scoring with his fifth. Arkansas had a seven-footer to find a long way from the basket.

Illinois never trailed against the nineteenth-ranked Razorbacks. The Illini made fifteen threes, and Tomi supplied six of them while still doing plenty of the usual big-man work.

Ten rebounds, three blocks, two steals, and two assists belong next to those six threes. That’s a pretty full afternoon.

Kasparas Jakučionis scored 23, and Kylan Boswell added eighteen points and six assists. There’s another six for anybody keeping count.

Tomi is back on the Illinois roster this season. After looking back at a game like that, getting another season of him feels like a pretty good place to leave today’s countdown.

The Cincinnati exhibition is Saturday, October 17, at 4 p.m. Central.

Six days. Let’s go, Illini!!

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Tracy Abrams and seven threes after two lost seasons

On December 10, 2016, Abrams made seven of his eight three-point attempts and scored a career-high 31 points in Illinois’ 92–73 win over Central Michigan at State Farm Center. He went 10-for-12 from the field.

Two missed shots all afternoon. One from three and one from two. Pretty efficient work.

The first half was especially ridiculous. Abrams had 23 points by the break and had made all five of his threes. Illinois led 46–36, with its point guard responsible for exactly half the scoring. He finished with five rebounds and three assists in 26 minutes, too.

There was a milestone tucked into all that shooting. Abrams came in needing four points to reach 1,000 for his Illinois career. A jumper with 15:47 left in the first half got him there. He was the 49th Illini to reach the mark, and he kept right on going.

Getting that chance had taken some doing. He missed 2014–15 with a torn ACL, then missed 2015–16 with a torn Achilles. The NCAA granted him a sixth year of eligibility for 2016–17. Two entire seasons disappeared between his junior year and this return.

Then came seven threes, a career high, and 1,000 points on the same afternoon. That’s a helluva game to have waiting on the other side of all that rehab.

Frank Williams had three different sevens

On January 20, 2001, No. 11 Illinois beat Penn State 92–60 at Assembly Hall. Williams finished with seven points on seven shots, plus seven assists. Add four steals and just one turnover.

Frank had plenty to do while everybody else was scoring.

He drew Joe Crispin, who came in leading the Big Ten at 22 points per game. (You just imagined a step-back jumper, didn’t you?). Crispin went 0-for-6 in the first half and didn’t score. Penn State needed eight minutes to make its first basket and went 4-for-25 before halftime.

Four makes in twenty-five tries. That’s a miserable way to spend a half.

Sean Harrington hit a three at the buzzer to make it 39–18. By then, Illinois had done most of the work necessary to turn a conference game into a comfortable afternoon. Robert Archibald contributed 12 points and 12 rebounds, and the Illini got 35 points from their bench.

Seven points can get lost when your team scores ninety-two. Seven assists and an opposing scorer spending the first half stuck on zero make it a little easier to see what Frank was doing.

Trent Frazier was already letting it fly

Frazier’s seven comes from February 8, 2018, when the freshman scored 32 against Wisconsin. He made seven of eleven threes and ten of twenty shots overall.

Illinois lost 78–69, so this one comes with the frustrating ending attached. Frazier hit a three to tie the game with eleven minutes left, but Wisconsin answered with an 11–2 run. Ethan Happ finished with 27 points.

Still, look at what the freshman had already put together. He had also made seven threes against Iowa on January 11. Two games with seven makes from deep, less than a month apart, during his first Big Ten season.

The 32 points against Wisconsin remained his Illinois career high. He eventually finished with 310 made threes over five seasons, but those two early nights gave us plenty of evidence that the kid could shoot. The buckets didn’t stop when he left Champaign, either. Alex Kyi covered Trent’s early pro success at Armchair Illini, including a 45-point game in Serbia.

Seven days from now, we get to start seeing what this year’s group can do. Illinois opens its exhibition schedule at Cincinnati on Saturday, October 17, at 4 p.m. Central.

One week. Let’s go, Illini!!

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Yesterday took us to Mackey for nine threes. Today, eight sends us a little farther west, then into an NBA box score that still takes a minute to believe. We’ll finish back in St. Louis, where Missouri had a pretty miserable night last December.

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Kevin Turner and eight threes at Pauley

Before the record had a whole list of names attached to it, Kevin Turner went to UCLA and made eight.

On December 30, 1997, Turner scored 32 points and set the Illinois single-game record with eight three-pointers at Pauley Pavilion. The Illini lost 74–69 to the ninth-ranked Bruins, but Turner gave them a real chance to steal it.

Illinois had been down seventeen early in the second half. By the time Turner hit his eighth three, the Illini were ahead 66–63 with 4:39 remaining.

Awvee Storey helped bring them back, too. All eleven of his points came in the final 8:42. Turner supplied the shooting, and the freshman gave Illinois another way to keep the comeback moving.

Turner’s last basket put Illinois ahead 69–68 with 2:25 left. UCLA finished it from there, and his late attempt from three didn’t go down.

That part still stinks. Eight threes on the road against a top-ten team ought to come with a happier final paragraph.

But this is where that Illinois record started. Before Dee, before Brandon Paul, before the other guys who joined him at eight, Turner put the number on the board in one of college basketball’s most recognizable buildings.

Quite a place to make yourself a problem.

No 8 had fifty seven for New Jersey

Deron Williams gives us an eight on the jersey and another one on the scoreboard at halftime.

On March 4, 2012, his New Jersey Nets trailed Charlotte 53–45 at the break. Deron had seventeen points already. Then he scored forty more.

Forty in the second half. Fifty-seven for the game, in a 104–101 Nets win.

He wore No. 8 that night, and the official box score is worth spending a little time with. Sixteen made field goals. Four threes. Twenty-one free throws in twenty-one attempts.

He made more free throws than the rest of the Nets combined, and New Jersey won by three. There wasn’t much room to leave any of those at the line.

Deron also finished with seven assists and six rebounds. Even with fifty-seven points, there was still some passing to do.

It was a Nets franchise scoring record at the time. And it came in fewer than thirty-eight minutes on the floor.

We’ve spent plenty of this countdown with that Illinois backcourt. Here’s a good reminder that the fun of following those guys kept going after Champaign. No. 8 spent this particular Sunday giving Charlotte far more Deron Williams than it wanted.

Eight blocks and a whole lot of Braggin Rights

For the last eight, let’s get back to a game with orange in the stands and Missouri on the other side.

Illinois beat the Tigers 91–48 on December 22, 2025. Forty-three points was the largest margin in the history of the series. There are plenty of numbers to enjoy from that one, but today’s is the eight blocked shots.

Zvonimir Ivisic had three of them to go with eight points and eleven rebounds off the bench. There’s another eight for us, with a pretty useful night of work attached to it.

Missouri shot 16-for-56. Illinois won the rebounding battle 43–24 and had fifteen offensive boards. The Tigers weren’t getting much to fall, and the Illini kept giving themselves another possession at the other end.

That’s how you make a rivalry game feel very long for the other fan base.

Illinois was already up 41–25 at halftime, then won the second half 50–23. No late scare. No last possession to survive. Just another half of making Missouri deal with it.

The fifteen made threes were plenty fun. Eight blocks belong in the memory of that night, too.

The first exhibition is Saturday, October 17, at Cincinnati. Tipoff is scheduled for 4 p.m. Central.

Eight days. Let’s go, Illini!!

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We remember the shots, the tournament runs, the defensive possessions that got a building going. Then their careers move somewhere else, and there’s another reason to keep watching.

The 2026–27 season gives us plenty of those reasons. Ayo Dosunmu and Terrence Shannon Jr. share a locker room. Kasparas Jakučionis has changed teams and moved a little closer to “home” (aka Champaign). Keaton Wagler is starting the first season of his hopefully long and prolific NBA career. Some familiar faces overseas have already moved beyond preseason and into games that count.

Here are eleven former Illini worth following, with the backstory, the latest through October 7, and a few things to watch as their seasons unfold.

NBA

Ayo Dosunmu

Minnesota Timberwolves

Ayo helped change what an Illinois season could feel like. By 2021, the Illini had a Big Ten Tournament championship and a No. 1 NCAA seed, with a consensus first-team All-American running the show. His 20.1 points, 6.3 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game tell part of it. The expectation that he might rescue a close game tells the rest.

The hometown Bulls drafted him in 2021, and Minnesota acquired him this past February. Then came a pretty persuasive playoff breakthrough in a Wolves uniform: 43 points off the bench against Denver on April 25. Forty-three. The guy we used to trust with the end of an Illinois game had a much bigger audience watching him take over.

He re-signed with Minnesota in July and opened another chapter back home, too, joining the Illinois Athletics Hall of Fame in September. On October 7 at Indiana, he supplied 10 points and three assists in 17 minutes in Minnesota’s 123–112 preseason loss.

With LaMelo Ball joining the backcourt, there will be new combinations to sort out. Ayo’s appeal is that he can help without needing every possession built around him. How he balances that supporting work with the scoring he showed in April is worth watching. He has already given Minnesota a very good reason to trust him.

Terrence Shannon Jr.

Minnesota Timberwolves

There were stretches of March 2024 when the safest Illinois plan was to get Terrence Shannon Jr. moving toward the basket and see who wanted to get in the way. He scored 40 against Nebraska in the Big Ten semifinal, 34 in the championship game and 29 against Iowa State in the Sweet Sixteen. Illinois reached its first Elite Eight since 2005.

His next step in Minnesota comes with another number change. He wore 00 as a rookie, 1 last season and now 4, with newcomer LaMelo Ball wearing 1. Three NBA seasons, three jersey numbers, all with the same team. Keeping the wardrobe current is becoming a project.

There is more than a new number to follow. Shannon scored 24 in his first playoff start against Denver on April 30, helping Minnesota close the series. That is useful evidence of what he can do when the opportunity grows. On October 7, he had nine points and two assists in 17 minutes against Indiana.

The challenge now is making those contributions dependable enough to earn a regular place in the rotation. His pace and ability to attack are familiar. The next question is how consistently he can put them to work alongside Minnesota’s other creators. Illinois fans know how quickly he can change an evening. A regular rotation role would give him more chances to show it.

Kasparas Jakučionis

Milwaukee Bucks

Kasparas gave Illinois fans plenty to remember in one season. The NCAA Tournament win over Xavier is a good place to start: 16 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds. One rebound short of a triple-double, and an Illinois freshman record for assists in an NCAA Tournament game. There was a lot happening when he had the ball.

The route had already taken him from Lithuania through Barcelona’s academy to Champaign. Miami selected him twentieth in the 2025 draft, one pick before Will Riley. Now, after a July trade, he is starting his second NBA season in Milwaukee. That is a lot of new basketball to learn in a short time.

October 7 supplied an encouraging entry in the new notebook: 10 points, four rebounds and four assists in Milwaukee’s 128–126 preseason win at Oklahoma City. He made two threes in just under eighteen minutes.

The passing is the obvious attraction, but his next step also depends on how often he can turn a good read into a useful possession against NBA defenders. The shooting matters because it changes how those defenders treat him.

Will Riley

Washington Wizards

Will Riley’s first Illinois game was a 31-point introduction against Eastern Illinois. His NCAA Tournament debut brought 22 against Xavier, an Illinois freshman tournament record. Those are pretty good bookends for a player who arrived a year earlier than originally planned after reclassifying.

Between them, he became the Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year and finished the season playing some of his best basketball. He scored in double figures in thirteen of his final fifteen games. The appeal was easy to see: a big wing with enough scoring variety to make defenders uncomfortable.

Washington acquired Riley’s draft rights after Utah selected him twenty-first in 2025. He averaged 10.3 points as a rookie, and his second preseason begins October 8 at New York. The Wizards’ wing competition makes shooting and defense important parts of the next step.

Riley has already shown he can put points on an NBA scoreboard. The more interesting second-year question is whether his good stretches become reliable enough that a coach keeps reaching for him when other options are available. Illinois got to watch his confidence grow over a few months. Washington gets a longer look at what comes after that.

Keaton Wagler

LA Clippers

Forty-six points at Purdue, with nine threes. Twenty-five against Iowa to send Illinois to the Final Four. Keaton Wagler put together the kind of freshman season that makes a one-year stay feel considerably longer in the memory.

He averaged 17.9 points, won the Jerry West Award and became a consensus second-team All-American. The Clippers selected him fifth overall, tying Kendall Gill for the second-highest draft position in Illinois history behind Deron Williams. Quite a climb for a player who had only two high-major scholarship offers.

His October 4 preseason debut was a useful reminder that the next level brings different problems. Wagler scored 15 against Golden State but shot 3-for-15. Ty Lue’s assessment in the Clippers’ camp notebook was simple: “He doesn’t get rattled.”

That composure is a good starting point. Now comes the work of finding better shots, making the next decision and contributing when the jumper is being difficult. A rookie can have a rough shooting night and still give you something worth watching. The Clippers play again October 10 at Toronto.

Kylan Boswell

Charlotte Hornets on a two-way contract

Kylan Boswell’s Illinois story was a homecoming. He was born in Champaign and grew up in the area before leaving after eighth grade. Two seasons at Arizona eventually brought him back to play in front of family. His grandfather, David Aina, had played on Illinois’ 1983 Big Ten championship football team. The connections ran deeper than a transfer announcement.

Boswell added his own memories, including an 18-point, 10-rebound, 10-assist triple-double against Chicago State in December 2024. The last assist went to walk-on Keaton Kutcher for his first career three. That is a pretty good detail to keep attached to a triple-double.

After earning Big Ten All-Defensive honors in his final Illinois season, Boswell signed a two-way contract with Charlotte in July. His immediate job is getting healthy. The October 5 NBA update still had him rehabbing his right knee.

Once he is cleared, his defense and decision-making offer a sensible starting point for earning professional opportunities. A two-way contract gives him a place to begin that work. The first milestone is being available to do it, and there’s no need to rush past that just because the season is here.

ABROAD

Trent Frazier

Virtus Bologna in Italy

Trent Frazier gave Illinois five seasons, 1,794 points and a whole lot of miserable possessions for opposing guards. He finished his college career with 310 made threes and earned Big Ten All-Defensive honors in each of his last two seasons. There was a scorer in there, too. Indiana got a 23-point reminder in February 2022.

His professional career has taken him through FMP in Serbia and Zenit in Russia. Now it’s Virtus Bologna, which signed him to a one-year deal in July. The club’s announcement pointed to his 13.8 points and 5.8 assists per game in the previous VTB League season. That passing number is worth keeping beside the familiar left-handed jumper.

He scored 16 in Bologna’s 98–89 win over Maxima Roma on October 4. With Italian league games and the EuroLeague on the schedule, he has a demanding new setting for that combination of scoring, playmaking and defense.

How much of the offense can he organize while still supplying the pressure that made him so valuable at Illinois? Trent learned to help a team in several ways in Champaign. Bologna gives him a new place to put them together.

Kofi Cockburn

Hiroshima Dragonflies in Japan

Kofi Cockburn changed the geometry of an Illinois game. Get him the ball near the basket, and everybody else had a decision to make. Leave him alone? Send help and open something up outside? Neither option was particularly relaxing.

The college résumé still looks enormous: two consensus All-American seasons, 1,546 points, 861 rebounds and a school-record 45 double-doubles. Illinois raised his No. 21 banner in 2025. He earned a permanent spot in that building.

His current work is in Japan with the Hiroshima Dragonflies. The club’s October 4 update lists 22.5 points and 12 rebounds per game through four games, with 62.7 percent shooting. Last season’s line on the same page was 17.2 points and 9.7 rebounds. Four games won’t settle a season, but that is a pretty enjoyable opening set of numbers.

Can Hiroshima keep getting him productive touches and turn his rebounding advantage into wins? We know what a game can look like when Kofi controls the paint. There’s still plenty of reason to check how often it happens.

Andrés Feliz

Real Madrid in Spain

Andrés Feliz is a good reminder that a player’s most important work doesn’t always arrive in a twenty-point package. He averaged 11 points as an Illinois senior and shared the school’s 2020 Spirit Award. Brad Underwood described him as “the ultimate teammate.” That fits the player who helped Illinois get back into the national rankings before that season was cut short.

His climb continued through C. B. Prat and Joventut in Spain. By 2023–24, he was an All-ACB first-team selection at Joventut, averaging 15 points and 4.3 assists. Real Madrid paid his release clause and signed him for three seasons in July 2024. That’s a long way from arriving in Champaign as a junior-college transfer.

Now in his third Madrid season, Feliz has a EuroLeague date with Partizan on October 8. The thing to watch is how much trust he earns in the possessions that decide games: defending the ball, getting the offense into something useful and knowing when to go get a basket himself.

At a club with Madrid’s expectations, a guard who can steady a difficult stretch is worth having.

Kendrick Nunn

Panathinaikos in Greece

Kendrick Nunn’s career has covered an awful lot of basketball since his three seasons at Illinois. Oakland came next, followed by the G League and NBA stops in Miami, Los Angeles and Washington. He made the NBA All-Rookie First Team in 2020. Then he went to Athens and built another substantial chapter.

Nunn helped Panathinaikos win the EuroLeague title in 2024 and became the competition’s 2024–25 regular-season MVP. The club extended his contract through the summer of 2028. If you lost track of him after the NBA, there’s quite a bit to catch up on. He has been one of the main attractions on a very big European stage.

As of October 8, the immediate question is his return. In the club’s October 7 update, coach Željko Obradović said Nunn was not ready, ahead of the October 8 game against Fenerbahce. There’s no reason to invent a return date.

Once he is back, the expectation is understandably different from the one attached to a young player trying to find minutes. Panathinaikos will want the scoring and shot creation of a proven star. First comes getting him on the floor; then comes seeing how quickly that familiar offensive rhythm returns.

Malcolm Hill

U-BT Cluj-Napoca in Romania

Malcolm Hill finished his Illinois career with 29 points against UCF in the 2017 NIT, bringing his total to 1,846. He left third on the school’s scoring list. Even in the last game, he was giving Illinois another chance to hang around.

The years since have required a lot of moving. His professional stops have included the Philippines, Germany, Kazakhstan and Israel, followed by NBA and G League work. The ABA League’s announcement of his arrival in Cluj-Napoca noted 18.4 points per game in the G League last season. He arrives in Romania with considerably more experience than the player who left Champaign.

On October 7, Hill scored 10 in Cluj’s 98–92 EuroCup win over Venezia. Cluj trailed by ten at halftime and came back to win. A useful contribution in a real game, while most of our NBA attention was on preseason.

Cluj rebuilt much of its roster over the summer. Hill’s versatility should give him several ways to contribute while the group comes together. How much will the club lean on his scoring and experience? Malcolm has spent years finding the next opportunity. It’s good to have another team to pull for with him.

Eleven players, a lot of different circumstances, and more basketball than one television was built to handle. Some are trying to earn a larger role. Some are trying to get healthy. Others are carrying expectations they’ve earned over years as professionals.

That’s what makes following them worthwhile. The Illinois memories give us a starting point, and the games they’re playing now keep adding to the story.

If that sounds like your kind of basketball reading, welcome to The Dunker Spot. We spend time with Illinois hoops, the players who came through Champaign, and the games that still deserve another conversation.

Single digits!! Nine days until Illinois heads to Cincinnati for the first exhibition.

We’ve got a school record from last season, a little Luther Head, and a run of Lou Henson seasons worth remembering. There’s even a nine from this fall that has nothing to do with a box score. But we probably ought to start with what Keaton Wagler did at Mackey.

Keaton Wagler and nine threes at Mackey

On January 24, Wagler scored 46 points in Illinois’ 88–82 win at No. 4 Purdue. He made nine of his eleven three-point attempts, breaking the Illinois single-game record.

He missed twice from three all afternoon. That still looks ridiculous written out.

He scored the Illini’s first fourteen points and had twenty-four by halftime. Illinois still trailed 43–39 at the break, which tells you how much work was left even with its freshman having that kind of afternoon.

His ninth three came with 9:18 remaining and put Illinois ahead 63–61. He already had forty points. There was still nearly a quarter of the game left.

Purdue kept answering. The Illini eventually needed threes from Tomislav Ivisic, Jake Davis, and David Mirkovic down the stretch to pull ahead for good. Wagler had four assists to go with all that scoring.

That’s part of what makes this one so good to revisit. Forty-six could have become a ridiculous individual line in a frustrating loss. Instead, Illinois finished the job against the fourth-ranked team in the country.

Luther Head was handing out nine

On November 27, 2004, Head finished with 20 points and nine assists as No. 5 Illinois beat No. 24 Gonzaga 89–72 in Indianapolis.

Nine assists against one turnover. He also made four threes and came up with four steals, all in twenty-eight minutes.

Illinois led 58–27 at halftime. Fifty-eight to twenty-seven against a ranked team with Adam Morrison and Ronny Turiaf. That first half deserves another look whenever you have a little time to kill.

The Illini made ten threes before the break. Head finished the half with a layup at the buzzer, putting the last two points on a thirty-one-point lead.

We remember how well that backcourt could shoot, but Head’s passing belongs in the conversation, too. He had also handed out nine assists against Oakland three days earlier. Both games matched his career high at the time.

That gave Illinois another guard who could create a good shot for somebody else while being a serious problem to leave open himself. Pretty useful combination.

Lou Henson and nine straight twenty win seasons

Henson gives us a nine that took a little longer to put together.

From 1982–83 through 1990–91, Illinois won at least twenty games every season. Nine straight years.

The run included the 1984 Big Ten co-championship and the 1989 Final Four team. Illinois also finished in the top half of the Big Ten in each of those nine seasons.

Think about how many different players came through during that stretch. Freshmen arrived, seniors graduated, and Lou kept putting winning teams on the floor.

The Flyin’ Illini are an easy place to start when we talk about Henson. That whole run is worth appreciating, too. Nine seasons is long enough for a kid to grow up expecting Illinois to be good.

That’s a pretty damn nice thing for a coach to give a fan base.

[Daddy Underwood is entering this season with 7 straight 20-win seasons, and god-willing…and respectfully, he’s on pace to pass Lou’s nin seasons]

The students only needed nine minutes

Our last nine brings us back to this season.

Illinois announced on September 22 that all 3,000 student season tickets had been claimed within the first minute of sales. Processing those purchases took nine minutes, cutting last year’s eighteen-minute sellout record in half.

So the nine-minute headline actually undersells how quickly the students were ready.

That’s six consecutive seasons with a student-ticket sellout. The Orange Krush has already done its part to make sure the building will have some energy.

Now we just need the basketball to get here.

The first exhibition is Saturday, October 17, at Cincinnati. Tipoff is scheduled for 4 p.m. Central.

Nine days. Let’s go, Illini!!

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Ten days until Illinois heads to Cincinnati. Tomorrow we get to single digits, but there’s a No. 10 worth spending some time with first.

Andres Feliz gives us the jersey and the rebounds. Coleman Hawkins supplies another pair of tens, and Brad Underwood is about to start his tenth season in Champaign. That makes today a good excuse to revisit a couple of the guys who helped get us here.

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Andres Feliz and ten rebounds when Illinois needed them

Feliz wore No. 10, and his first Illinois double-double came in a win-or-go-home game in the Big Ten Tournament.

On March 13, 2019, he finished with 11 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists in a 74–69 overtime win over Northwestern in the Big Ten Tournament. He did it in 26 minutes off the bench.

Giorgi Bezhanishvili scored 26 that night, but he fouled out with 17 seconds left in regulation. Illinois had to find a way through overtime without the guy who had made twelve of his fifteen shots.

Trent Frazier and Ayo Dosunmu hit consecutive threes during an eight-point Illinois run in overtime. The Illini made all four of their field-goal attempts in the extra period and got to play another day.

Feliz led Illinois in rebounds and assists. On a night when Giorgi and Trent combined for 47 points, the guard coming off the bench was making sure there was more to the win than those two scoring lines.

Ten boards and six assists from No. 10. That’s a pretty damn useful way to spend twenty-six minutes.

Coleman Hawkins had ten of each

We already spent some time with an Ayo triple-double in the twelve-day post. Coleman gets his turn today, and the passing is a good place to start.

On November 29, 2022, Hawkins had 15 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists as No. 16 Illinois beat Syracuse 73–44 at State Farm Center. It was the fifth triple-double in program history, and he became the fourth Illini to record one.

Illinois put Coleman in the middle of the Syracuse zone and let him make decisions. He finished with ten assists against two turnovers. The team had 21 assists on 24 made baskets.

The fun part of that box score is how much room Illinois still had to shoot better. The Illini made 35.8 percent of their shots and went 11-for-39 from three. They won by twenty-nine anyway.

Hawkins went 7-for-11 himself. While some of those outside shots weren’t falling, he kept finding teammates and putting together one of the most complete nights of his Illinois career.

The win was also Underwood’s 100th at Illinois, which gets us to our next ten.

Brad Underwood and year ten

Underwood’s first Illinois season was 2017–18. The 2026–27 season will be his tenth.

Going back to that Northwestern game makes the distance easier to appreciate. Illinois finished that season with twelve wins. Now we’re counting down to the first exhibition after a Final Four trip.

Along the way came Big Ten Tournament titles in 2021 and 2024, a share of the 2022 regular-season championship, and six consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances. Illinois reached the Elite Eight in 2024 and the Final Four in 2026.

There’s another ten here, too. Underwood has ten NCAA Tournament wins at Illinois. Only Lou Henson, with twelve, has more.

That’s a helluva change from where this started.

David Mirkovic and Andrej Stojakovic were named preseason All-Big Ten on Monday. Both are back from the Final Four team. We’ll get our first exhibition look at this group in ten days.

And we have a time to put with that date now. Illinois’ schedule lists the Cincinnati exhibition for Saturday, October 17, at 4 p.m. Central.

Ten days until Cincinnati. Let’s go, Illini!!

What did I miss?

We’re down to eleven days until Illinois heads to Cincinnati, and this number gives us a pretty easy place to start.

Dee Brown wore it. Deron Williams handed out that many assists while Illinois took apart the No. 1 team in the country. Brandon Paul made that many shots from the field in a game Ohio State would probably prefer we quit bringing up.

That’s plenty to keep us occupied for another day. Let’s get to it.

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Dee Brown and the eleven on his jersey

The headband, the orange mouthguard, the jersey pop. You can get a pretty clear picture of Dee Brown before you even start talking about the basketball.

And then there’s the basketball.

In 2005, Brown was the Sporting News National Player of the Year, a consensus first-team All-American, and both the Big Ten Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. He followed that with the Bob Cousy Award as the nation’s top point guard in 2006.

No. 11 had a helluva college career. His senior-season game against Michigan State is a good place to spend a few minutes today.

On January 5, 2006, sixth-ranked Illinois beat No. 7 Michigan State 60–50 at Assembly Hall. Brown scored 34 of those 60 points, with 23 coming in the first half. He made seven threes, including one at the halftime buzzer that sent Illinois into the locker room ahead 35–28.

Thirty-four points in a game where nobody else on his team reached double figures. Michigan State had to deal with him all night, and knowing where the ball was going didn’t do much good.

The win moved Illinois to 15–0. It also ended the Spartans’ eleven-game winning streak, giving us another eleven to go with the one on Dee’s jersey.

Quite a way to open Big Ten play.

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Deron Williams and eleven assists against No. 1

The Gonzaga game gave us fourteen threes in the earlier countdown post. Four days after that game, Illinois had another good reason to let them fly.

On December 1, 2004, the fifth-ranked Illini beat No. 1 Wake Forest 91–73. Deron Williams finished with eleven assists in 25 minutes, and Illinois made eleven threes.

There’s our number twice, in one of the most enjoyable box scores you’ll ever open.

Luther Head made four of those threes, Rich McBride made three, and Dee Brown and Roger Powell made two apiece. Powell led the scoring with 19 points. Head and Brown each had 16.

Illinois had 27 assists on 38 made baskets and committed just six turnovers. Against the top-ranked team in the country, with Chris Paul on the other side, the Illini kept finding somebody with a better shot.

They led 54–33 at halftime and eventually stretched the lead to 32. The final margin makes this one look considerably closer than it was.

Deron’s eight points can get lost among all those other numbers. Eleven assists in 25 minutes tells you how much he was doing. That backcourt was so freaking good together.

Brandon Paul and an eleven-point hole

On January 10, 2012, Illinois trailed No. 5 Ohio State 48–37 early in the second half. Eleven down against a team like that makes for an uncomfortable evening.

Brandon Paul made sure the ending was worth it.

Paul scored a career-high 43 points in a 79–74 Illinois win. He went 11-for-15 from the field, including 8-for-10 from three, and made 13 of 15 free throws. He also grabbed eight rebounds and blocked four shots.

Eight threes and four blocks from the same guy. Apparently scoring forty-three wasn’t enough work for him.

The finish was even better. Paul scored Illinois’ final fifteen points, all in the last 2:40. With 43 seconds left, his off-balance three put Illinois ahead 74–70.

That is an absurd way to close out a top-five opponent. Ohio State kept making Illinois earn it, and Paul kept coming up with another answer.

Eleven made baskets helped bring Illinois back from eleven down. That one still deserves another watch.

Eleven days until Cincinnati. We’re getting there!!

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Fortunately, there’s plenty of basketball behind both of them. We’ve got two No. 13s connected to Final Four trips, a No. 12 with a big sophomore leap, and an Ayo stat line that still looks ridiculous. Then we can turn our attention to some actual basketball tonight.

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Kendall Gill and a thirteen point comeback

No. 13 belongs in any conversation about the Flyin’ Illini, and Kendall Gill gives us a good reason to pull up the Syracuse game again.

On March 26, 1989, Illinois beat Syracuse 89–86 to reach the Final Four. The Illini had trailed by as many as 13 in the first half. Even with all that talent, getting to Seattle required working their way back against a team that wasn’t going anywhere quietly.

Gill had a hand in the late separation, scoring on a putback dunk during a five-point Illinois run that made it 84–78 with less than two minutes left. Then he was there to finish the job. Syracuse missed a potential tying three on its final possession, Nick Anderson tipped the rebound toward Gill, and Gill took off with the ball as time expired.

That’s a helluva ending for No. 13 after a thirteen-point deficit.

Gill came back the next season and led the Big Ten in scoring at 20.0 points per game, earning consensus second-team All-America honors. The Final Four highlights are a good place to start with him. There’s plenty more after that.

Tomislav Ivisic and thirteen on the way to Indy

We don’t have to go nearly as far back for another No. 13 helping Illinois reach the Final Four.

On March 28, Tomislav Ivisic scored 13 points in the 71–59 Elite Eight win over Iowa. Eleven of them came in the second half, when he went 5-for-8 from the field. He also finished with four rebounds and two blocks.

Illinois trailed 32–28 at halftime, and the game was still tied at 51 with 7:14 left. The Illini closed it out 20–8, including the final eight points of the game. After twenty-one years, Illinois was going back to the Final Four.

Keaton Wagler scored 25. Andrej Stojakovic added 17. Tomi’s second half helped make sure those performances came with a regional championship celebration.

There’s your thirteen, and the final margin supplies twelve, too. Beating Iowa by twelve to get to the Final Four is a pretty damn good way to cover both days.

Tomi is back wearing No. 13 this season. Getting to watch him again is part of what makes October 17 feel so close and still not quite close enough.

Meyers Leonard and twelve rebounds against Richmond

Meyers Leonard wore No. 12, and his first college double-double fits right in here.

On November 22, 2011, he put up 22 points, 12 rebounds, and five blocks in a 70–61 win over Richmond. That is a lot of work at both ends from the big guy from Robinson

The jump between his two Illinois seasons was enormous. As a freshman, Leonard averaged 2.1 points and 1.2 rebounds. As a sophomore, those numbers became 13.6 and 8.2. He also led the Big Ten at 1.9 blocks per game.

The Richmond game was an early look at how much more Illinois could get from him. Twenty-two points were a career high, and he blocked five shots at the other end.

We spend a lot of the offseason wondering who can make that next jump. Leonard’s sophomore season is a useful reminder of just how different a player can look when the next November rolls around.

Ayo Dosunmu had twelve of each

Twelve rebounds would make a fine afternoon for a guard. Ayo added twelve assists, too.

On February 6, 2021, he finished with 21 points, 12 rebounds, and 12 assists in Illinois’ 75–60 win over No. 19 Wisconsin. It was the third triple-double in program history, the first since Sergio McClain in 2001, and the first by an Illini against a ranked opponent.

Wisconsin had 19 rebounds as a team. Ayo had twelve by himself, and Illinois won the rebounding battle 46–19.

The win also ended a seven-game home losing streak to Wisconsin. For all the individual numbers worth celebrating, finally sending the Badgers home from Champaign with a loss made the afternoon even better.

That’s the fun of going back through these games. A triple-double is enough to get your attention, but the opponent and the win make the numbers mean a little more. Ayo helped take care of all of it that day.

A little Illini basketball tonight

Minnesota opens its preseason at Milwaukee tonight at 7 p.m. Central. Ayo and Terrence Shannon Jr. are on the Timberwolves roster, and Kasparas Jakučionis is with the Bucks, giving this one another Illinois connection.

We’ll see who gets minutes, but that’s a good reason to keep an eye on an October NBA preseason game while we wait.

Twelve days until Cincinnati. We’re getting there!!

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Illinois opens its exhibition schedule at Cincinnati on October 17, and we’re down to fourteen days. Yesterday gave us Giorgi, Don Freeman, Bruce Douglas, and an Arizona replay worth watching for approximately the one-millionth time.

Today, fourteen takes us from an honored jersey to a Big Ten championship celebration, with a whole lot of made threes in between. And we’ll finish with somebody we get to watch again very soon.

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KOFI COCKBURN: FOURTEEN BOARDS AND A BIG TEN TITLE

March 6, 2022. Senior Night against Iowa.Illinois won 74–72 to claim a share of its first regular-season Big Ten championship since 2005.

Kofi finished with 21 points and 14 rebounds, and the Illini needed every bit of the work he did inside.

They also needed a comeback. Iowa led by as many as 15 before Illinois worked its way back, eventually leaving the whole thing to a final possession that nobody watching could enjoy until it was over.

Da’Monte Williams made the free throw that put Illinois ahead by two. Trent Frazier grabbed the last defensive rebound. Then the students poured onto the court.

Those two getting the last pieces of that win on Senior Night was so freaking sweet.

And there’s another fourteen tucked into the box score: Andre Curbelo scored 14 points. Kofi handled the big-man business, Curbelo supplied a little scoring lift, and Illinois finished the night with a championship to celebrate.

WALT KIRK: THE NO. 14 ABOVE THE COURT

Fourteen also gives us a reason to look up.

Walt Kirk’s honored jersey belongs in this conversation. In 1945, he was a consensus first-team All-American and a first-team All-Big Ten selection. He led Illinois in scoring, was the team’s MVP, and earned the university’s Athlete of the Year honor.

That’s quite a season to fit underneath one name on a banner.

His college career also had an interruption that puts basketball timelines in perspective. Kirk entered military service after the 1945 season, then returned to Illinois for his senior season in 1947.

He went on to play professionally and later coached high school basketball in Illinois and Iowa, spending years as a teacher and school administrator.

The countdown is a good excuse to spend a little time with players whose games aren’t sitting a click away on YouTube. Kirk earned his place up there. No. 14 gives us a day to talk about why.

FOURTEEN THREES: GONZAGA GOT THE EARLY WARNING

The Wake Forest game gets plenty of attention from the start of the 2004–05 season. That’s earned, but four days earlier, Illinois had put the nation on high alert with their game against Gonzaga.

On November 27, 2004, the fifth-ranked Illini beat No. 24 Gonzaga 89–72 at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Illinois made 14 of 28 from three, matching the school record at the time.

Fifty percent on twenty-eight attempts.

Deron Williams made five threes. Luther Head made four. Dee Brown made three. Rich McBride and Roger Powell supplied the other two.

Those three guards combined for 57 points and 20 assists with just two turnovers. The ball kept moving, the shots kept falling, and Gonzaga was down 58–27 at halftime.

The Arizona finish from yesterday is the replay you watch for the comeback. This is one you watch for the passing. Twenty assists and two turnovers from that backcourt tells you plenty before you even press play.

DAVID MIRKOVIC: FOURTEEN THEN, FOURTEEN AGAIN

Let’s bring this back to somebody on the current roster.

David Mirkovic introduced himself in the regular-season opener against Jackson State last November with 19 points, 14 rebounds, and four assists. He shot 7-for-10 from the field. That was his first official college game.

By March, he was putting up another number for today’s countdown on a much bigger stage.

Mirkovic scored 14 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in Illinois’ 65–55 Sweet 16 win over Houston on March 26. Houston was the No. 2 seed, playing in its own city, and Illinois held the Cougars to 55 points.

Mirkovic’s ten rebounds also pushed him past Kofi’s Illinois freshman record for total rebounds in a season. A little connection between our first stop today and our last.

Fourteen boards in the opener. Fourteen points in a Sweet 16 win. A freshman season that reached the Final Four. He wasn’t even the best freshman on the team!

Fourteen days until Cincinnati. Two weeks until we get to talk about new games again!!

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Fifteen days. We’re almost there!!

Illinois heads to Cincinnati on October 17 to open the exhibition schedule, with Baylor and UIC coming to Champaign after that. An exhibition is absolutely enough basketball for me to start planning my days around ball again.

The number fifteen gives us a couple of familiar faces, an older name that deserves some love, and an excuse to watch Arizona collapse again.

Always time for that.

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GIORGI BEZHANISHVILI: RUTGERS HAD NO ANSWER

We have to start with Giorgi.

On February 9, 2019, Illinois needed overtime to put away Rutgers, 99–94. Giorgi needed 18 shots to score 35 points, breaking Deon Thomas’ then-freshman record of 34.

He finished 14-for-18 from the floor and 7-for-8 at the line, with seven rebounds. But the ridiculous part came after halftime: 29 points on 12-for-13 shooting, including six of Illinois’ 13 points in overtime.

One missed shot after halftime. One.

Rutgers had an entire second half to figure something out, got five extra minutes to work on it, and still couldn’t stop him.

The win only moved Illinois to 9–15 overall and 5–8 in the Big Ten. There was plenty of frustration that season, but this was the third straight win, coming right after the upset of No. 9 Michigan State. Ayo and Giorgi were freshmen, and afternoons like this gave us something to be excited about while the overall record was still ugly.

And Giorgi’s still giving people problems professionally. This summer, he was playing for Satria Muda in Indonesia, where he put up 24 points, 13 rebounds, five assists, and two blocks in an 89–81 playoff win over the Bogor Hornbills on June 7.

DON FREEMAN: ANOTHER NO. 15 WHO COULD FILL IT UP

Before Giorgi, before Jake Davis, there was Don Freeman.

In 1965–66, Freeman scored 668 points and averaged 27.8 a game, earning first-team All-America honors. He finished his Illinois career with 1,449 points, the most in school history at the time.

His career after Illinois was pretty damn good, too.

Freeman played eight seasons in the ABA and one in the NBA, scored 11,544 ABA points, and made five ABA All-Star Games. If you know his name from the honored jersey at State Farm Center but haven’t looked much further, there’s a lot of basketball behind that banner.

BRUCE DOUGLAS: FIFTEEN ASSISTS AGAINST HOUSTON

On December 14, 1985, Illinois beat Houston 102–92 at Assembly Hall, with Bruce Douglas handing out 15 assists.

For perspective, the Illinois all-time record book lists 16-assist games from Tony Wysinger and Demetri McCamey just above that performance. Douglas was setting people up all night.

He did quite a bit of that over four years: 765 career assists, along with 324 steals. He was the Big Ten’s Co-Player of the Year in 1984 and its Defensive Player of the Year twice. That’s a helluva combination from your point guard. Get everybody involved, then make the other team miserable when it has the ball.

The 15 assists is our excuse to talk about him today, but Douglas gives us plenty of numbers to come back to.

ARIZONA 75, ILLINOIS 60, 4:04 left in the 2nd Half

March 26, 2005.

A trip to the Final Four slipping away, and Illinois down 15.

Even knowing the final score, that is an awful place to start a replay.

Then the threes started falling. Deron Williams. Luther Head. Steals from Head and Dee Brown. Illinois kept finding another possession, another basket, another reason Arizona couldn’t quite put the game away.

Jack Ingram’s steal helped set up Deron’s tying three, and somehow, after a 20–5 run, it was 80–80.

Overtime.

And after all of that, there were still five more minutes of basketball to survive. Illinois did, 90–89, and the Illini were headed to their first Final Four since 1989.

Deron’s shot is the one everybody remembers. It should be. But Ingram getting that ball back deserves another viewing, too. So do all the possessions before it, when Illinois was still trying to get close enough for a tying shot to even be possible.

Go watch those last few minutes again. The countdown can wait.

JAKE FROM STATE FARM CENTER

We can’t do 15 without the guy wearing it now.

Jake Davis is back, and he even supplied a tidy stat line for today’s theme: 15 points against Southern last December on 5-for-6 shooting from three.

Davis finished the 2025–26 season with 54 threes on 40.6% shooting, starting 22 games along the way. He’s coming back with a full season of that experience and a Final Four run behind him.

There will be plenty to talk about with this team once the games start. For now, it’s good to know we get another season of Jake.

Fifteen days until Cincinnati. Let’s get this thing going!!!

What did I miss?

I hear fans saying the game today doesn’t “mean anything” after the loss at UCLA. I don’t buy it. There are countless narratives that pundits and podcasters will dive into, but for me, there’s always something extra for me about a matchup against Michigan. In recent years, it’s been my white-hot hatred for Juwan H🤡ward, but I can remember it forever, going back to when I was a kid and I first heard someone yell “Muck Fichigan” at a game and something about hearing it just felt…right.

So today, lets take a look at some of the great moments in Illini history against the Wolverines in…

MICHIGAN MISERY HALL OF FAME

February 27, 2022 — No. 15 Illinois 93, Michigan 85 (Ann Arbor)

We have to start here. Happy Anniversary.

Exactly four years ago today, Illinois came in having just lost at home to Ohio State and desperately needing a road win to stay in the Big Ten title race. Michigan had two players returning from suspension following (you may remember this) an altercation against Wisconsin that occurred because Juwan Howard decided to open-hand strike a Wisconsin assistant coach in the face. Peak Juwan.

Illinois didn’t care about any of that drama. Kofi Cockburn posted 27, Alfonso Plummer caught fire for 26 (five threes in the first half alone), and Trent Frazier drilled the dagger three with under a minute left. The final: 93-85. Five straight wins over Michigan. Illinois stayed alive in the title race.

March 2, 2021 — No. 4 Illinois 76, No. 2 Michigan 53 (Ann Arbor)

This is the one you frame and put on the wall and never forget.

Michigan had climbed to No. 2 in the country. Ayo Dosunmu (in concussion protocol after taking an elbow to the face from Michigan State’s Mady Sissoko the week prior) was out for his third straight game.

Forty-five minutes later, it was 76-53. A 23-point beatdown of the second-ranked team in the country, on the road, without their best player. It was the largest victory by any team in the country that season over a top-two opponent on the road. It stood as the program’s highest-ranked road win ever. Illinois held Michigan (a team built around high-flying offense and elite guard play) to 53 points on their own floor.

Kofi Cockburn was a wrecking ball. Trent Frazier was relentless. And Juwan Howard, who had held the No. 2 ranking for less than 48 hours, got his program absolutely pantsed on national television.

March 2, 2025 — Illinois 93, #15 Michigan 73 (Ann Arbor)

Last year was Dusty May’s first season in charge and this Michigan’s Senior Day at Crisler Center. The Wolverines were ranked 15th and needed a strong finish to position themselves for the tournament. Illinois walked in at 19-11 with something to prove.

It was tight early. Michigan actually tied it at 41 in the first minute of the second half and had the crowd into it. Then Illinois went on a 52-32 run and that was that.

Tre White led the way with 19 points and 11 rebounds. Kylan Boswell had 17 (five offensive rebounds, four assists, two blocks). Kasparas Jakucionis added 17 off the bench and personally broke the Wolverines’ back with back-to-back threes in the second half that turned a competitive game into a blowout. Will Riley chipped in 13.

The real story was the offensive glass. Illinois grabbed 19 offensive rebounds and turned them into 30 second-chance points. Michigan simply could not keep the Illini off the boards, and every missed shot became another possession, another layup, another dagger. By the time Crisler emptied out on Senior Day, Dusty May’s team had lost by 20 at home to a team that came in below .500 in conference play.

Only Vlad Goldin (22 points, 11-for-15 shooting) showed up for Michigan. The other four starters combined for 28 points on 11-for-29 shooting. Nine in a row.

THE INDIVIDUAL EXCELLENCE FILE

Nick Weatherspoon — 23 Rebounds, March 2, 1971

Twenty-three rebounds in a single game against Michigan.

That performance stands as the individual single-game rebounding record for any player in the entire history of the Illinois-Michigan series (a record that has stood for 55 years and shows no signs of falling). Weatherspoon (one of the great big men of the early Illinois program) was an absolute force of nature that night. The Illini won the game. And Nick Weatherspoon grabbed nearly a third of the available boards by himself.

Kenny Battle — 7 Steals, March 9, 1988

Kenny Battle (the human highlight reel of Lou Henson’s late-80s teams) set the Illinois-Michigan series record with seven steals in a single game in 1988. Seven. That number also ties the Illinois single-game program record for steals against any opponent. Battle was the kind of defensive menace who made life genuinely miserable for opposing guards, and he apparently reserved something special for Michigan that night.

Fittingly, it’s tied for the program’s all-time single-game steals record. Michigan was the victim.

Bruce Douglas — 60 Minutes Played, January 28, 1984

This one’s more interesting than about the glory... but it’s remarkable in its own way. Bruce Douglas played 60 minutes against Michigan on January 28, 1984. Sixty minutes means four overtimes. The man did not leave the floor. That game stands in the Illinois-Michigan series record book as the most minutes ever played by any player, and it speaks to the kind of grueling, endurance-testing battles these two programs have produced over more than a century of competition.

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🤡JUWAN WATCH🤡

Where is he now, and how awful is he doing?

The short answer: He is now an assistant coach for the Brooklyn Nets, who are 15-42 and firmly planted at the bottom of the NBA’s Eastern Conference. So yes. Gloriously, spectacularly terrible.

After going 8-24 at Michigan in 2023-24 (finishing dead last in the Big Ten for the first time since 1966-67, losing nine straight games to close the season, and collecting the most losses in program history) Juwan Howard was fired in March 2024. Michigan gave him a $3 million buyout, walked him to the door, and hired Dusty May to clean up the mess.

Howard landed on the Brooklyn Nets bench that April as an assistant under Jordi Fernández. The Nets, who have been one of the worst teams in the NBA this season at 15-42, have provided the perfect soft landing for Juwan Howard: invisible, consequence-free, on a roster that no one is watching, with nothing on the line.

He did not get a head coaching job. He is not running the team. He is standing courtside in Brooklyn, holding a clipboard, while the man who replaced him at Michigan (Dusty May) is coaching the No. 3 team in the country and almost certainly headed to a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

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ILLINI IN THE PROS

International

Kofi Cockburn, Hiroshima Dragonflies (B.League, Japan)

Kofi’s been one of the most dominant big men in Asian professional basketball for going on three seasons now, and nothing about this year in Japan has changed that story. Through the heart of the B.League schedule, he’s posted around 17 points and 10 rebounds per game for Hiroshima (production that keeps him firmly among the league’s elite interior players).

The Dragonflies have had a full slate lately, playing four games over the Feb. 7–14 stretch, giving Cockburn plenty of opportunities to log minutes and do damage on the block. At this point, Kofi’s overseas resume speaks for itself: across the B.League and his time with Seoul Samsung in the KBL, he’s averaging 19.4 points and 11.4 rebounds per game over 148 professional contests.

Kendrick Nunn, Panathinaikos (EuroLeague / Greek Basketball League, Greece)

Nunn is best basketball player in Europe and the highest paid player in the EuroLeague.

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What to Watch

1. #10 Illinois (NET: 4) at UCLA (NET: 41)
Watch Score: 45 | 7:00 PM CT | FOX
✅ Quad 1 opportunities for both Illinois and UCLA

Coming off a 101-65 demolition of USC on Wednesday, Illinois heads to Pauley Pavilion for the second leg of the L.A. swing. UCLA (17-8) has won six of its last eight and is squarely in the NCAA tournament picture…this is far from a free W. Illinois is the second-best team in the Big Ten right now, and with Michigan-Illinois looming next week, a road split on the west coast would be a concerning momentum shift.

Keaton Wagler has scored in double figures in all 15 Big Ten games this season, and Andrej Stojakovic dropped 22 against USC on Wednesday.

2. #1 Michigan (NET: 1) vs. #3 Duke (NET: 2)
Watch Score: 3 | 5:30 PM CT | ESPN
✅ Quad 1 opportunities for both Michigan and Duke

The biggest game of the season arrives at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. Michigan (25-1) and Duke (24-2) are the two best teams in the country by nearly every metric, and College GameDay is on location to remind you in case you forgot. Michigan is the wire-to-wire favorite for the national title, anchored by an elite frontcourt led by Yaxel Lendeborg (14.4 ppg, 7.5 rpg). Duke counters with Cameron Boozer (22.8 ppg, 10.0 rpg), the overwhelming front-runner for National Player of the Year. Both teams are locked in as projected No. 1 seeds. This is a Final Four preview, and it’s the most important Big Ten game on the board today.

3. Penn State (NET: 132) at #9 Nebraska (NET: 11)
Watch Score: 143 | 1:00 PM CT | BTN
✅ Quad 1 opportunity for Penn State

Nebraska (22-4) has stumbled lately (back-to-back losses to Iowa and Purdue in OT before bouncing back against Northwestern), and a home date against Penn State (11-16, 2-13) is the kind of game the Cornhuskers have to win to stay in the Big Ten title conversation. Penn State is playing spoiler ball down the stretch — freshman Kayden Mingo (14 ppg) is a real offensive threat. Former Hawkeye Pryce Sandfort (17.3 ppg) leads the Huskers. Should be a comfortable Nebraska win, but “should be” has hurt them twice already this month.

4. Oregon (NET: 120) at USC (NET: 52)
Watch Score: 172 | 3:00 PM CT | FS1

Oregon (9-17) at USC (18-8) is a middling matchup with tournament bubble implications for the Trojans. USC has been one of the league’s underachievers this season, and a home win over a struggling Oregon squad is the kind of résumé filler they need. Not a marquee game, but worth a check-in if you want to see if USC can get healthy before March.

5. Washington (NET: 50) at Maryland (NET: 150)
Watch Score: 200 | 2:00 PM CT | Peacock

Washington (13-13) at Maryland (10-16) is a bottom-of-the-standings matchup between two programs that have underperformed badly this season. Maryland has lost six of its last seven. Skip this one and come back for Nebraska.

6. Rutgers (NET: 149) vs. Minnesota (NET: 79)
Watch Score: 228 | 11:00 AM CT | BTN

Warm up your day with a game in which Minnesota will most likely roll. A nice appetizer of the bigger matchups later in the day.

This Day In Illini History: February 21

1914: The Win That Started It All

On February 21, 1914, Illinois traveled to Minneapolis and beat Minnesota 26-11. Doesn’t sound like much. But that win was the opening chapter of one of the most remarkable stretches in program history: a 25-game winning streak (the second-longest ever at Illinois) that carried through the entire 1914-15 season and into 1916. That 1914-15 team went 16-0 and is recognized as national champions. The whole thing started with a road win at Minnesota on this date. Every dynasty has a first domino.

1948: Illinois 98, Purdue 54

On February 21, 1948, in Champaign, the Illini dropped 98 points on the Boilermakers in a 44-point shellacking that still stands as the largest win margin in the history of the Illinois-Purdue series... a record that has held for 78 years and counting. The 1947-48 Illini were a powerhouse by Big Ten standards, and that February afternoon they made Purdue look like they’d stumbled into the wrong gym. It remains one of those moments in the record book that reads almost unbelievably clean: 98-54. Final.

1990: Gill and the Illini Clip Purdue, 90-78

Coming off the Flyin’ Illini’s legendary 1989 Final Four run, the 1989-90 squad was still a loaded outfit... just trying to carve out its own identity. On February 21, 1990, a #19 Illinois team knocked off #9 Purdue 90-78 at Assembly Hall. Kendall Gill (who was averaging exactly 20.0 points per game that season to lead the Big Ten in scoring, the first Illini to hit that mark in 16 years) delivered exactly the kind of statement performance the team needed. Illinois finished the year 21-8 under Lou Henson. Gill went on to be selected 5th overall by the Charlotte Hornets in the 1990 NBA Draft.

2024: Shannon’s Career Night, Heartbreak at Rec Hall

Terrence Shannon Jr. was as good as anyone in the country on February 21, 2024. He put up a then-career-high 35 points at Penn State, including 19 in the second half, and drew a program-record-tying 19 free throw attempts (8th-most in a single game in Illinois history). Illinois led by 14 with under four minutes to go. Penn State closed on a 17-5 run, Zach Hicks got fouled shooting a three with three seconds left, drained all three free throws, and the Illini lost 90-89. Shannon went on to be drafted 27th overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves. The stat line lives in the record book. The ending still stings.

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THIS DAY IN ILLINI HISTORY

Ayo Does It Again!

There’s a version of February 20, 2021 where Ayo Dosunmu plays a normal, excellent basketball game for the fifth-ranked Illinois Fighting Illini. Drops 18, dishes 7, grabs 6. Brad Underwood smiles, the team boards the bus, and everyone moves on.

That’s not what happened.

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Belt. To. Booty.

That is all.

Illini In The Pros

Coming Home

The NBA’s All-Star break sent players to Los Angeles for the festivities. But for a remarkable number of former Illinois players, the break meant a trip back to Champaign.

Will Riley and Kasparas Jakucionis sat together on the north side of State Farm Center on Sunday, watching Keaton Wagler and David Mirkovic power Illinois to a 71-51 demolition of Indiana. It wasn’t long ago that Riley and Jakucionis were the two freshmen leading the Illini to Big Ten wins on their way to becoming one-and-done NBA Draft picks. Riley, who turned 20 on February 10, is averaging 7.0 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 1.4 assists in 43 games for the Washington Wizards this season — but he’s been scorching hot lately, averaging 18.2 points on 49.3 percent shooting through his first five February games, including a career-high 27 against Brooklyn.

“It feels like yesterday,” Riley said of being back. “It feels like I should be on the court right now. It’s crazy. It went by very quick.”

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Jakucionis echoed the sentiment. The 19-year-old rookie, who just lit up Washington and Utah for back-to-back six-three-pointer games to become the youngest rookie in NBA history to score 20-plus with six or more threes in consecutive outings, told Fox Illinois simply: “And to be honest, it feels like never left.”

But the best story of the weekend belonged to Terrence Shannon Jr. The Timberwolves guard, still working his way back from a left foot injury that sidelined him since Christmas Day, was in Champaign for multiple days. Shannon didn’t just watch.

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Illinois (21-5, 12-3 Big Ten) heads to the Galen Center to kick off its annual West Coast swing, and the opponent couldn’t be more fitting. USC (18-7, 7-7) handed the Illini one of their flattest performances of last season, an 82-72 loss at State Farm Center that still stings. Tonight’s a chance to gain a game back in a series the Trojans lead 9-3 all-time.

The good new is this team looks nothing like the one that sleepwalked through that January afternoon a year ago.

Meanwhile, it’s Wednesday, which means we’re checking in on the Illini making waves overseas...

ILLINI IN THE PROS

JAPAN B LEAGUE

Kofi Cockburn, Hiroshima Dragonflies

The big man continues to do what the big man does. Cockburn is averaging roughly 17 points and 9.8 rebounds through 18 games for the Dragonflies, shooting a characteristically efficient 62.3% from the field. The Dragonflies had a light February schedule ( just four games on the docket) with a pair of home games against Akita Northern Happinets and a road set at Shiga Lakes. Hiroshima’s next games come March 7-8 against the Koshigaya Alphas at home.

For context on how dominant Cockburn has been in Asia, his career overseas now spans 148 regular-season games across Japan and South Korea, averaging roughly 19.4 points and 11.4 rebounds per game. He’s fourth in the B.League in rebounds this season and remains the anchor of a Hiroshima squad that won the B.League title in 2024 and the East Asia Super League in 2025, both before Cockburn arrived last May. Hiroshima is banking on his production as they push for another deep postseason run.

EUROPE

Kendrick Nunn, Panathinaikos (Greece — EuroLeague)

The reigning EuroLeague MVP is finally back. After missing six consecutive games with a left ankle injury sustained in early January, coach Ergin Ataman confirmed last week that Nunn returned to full team practice and was “100% ready” for Round 28 against Fenerbahce. Ataman expected Nunn to log 25-30 minutes in his comeback.

Nunn’s absence was brutal for Panathinaikos — the Greek powerhouse went 2-4 without their leading scorer, who was averaging a competition-best 19.4 points per game along with 3.6 assists and 3.0 rebounds before going down. His last game was a 21-point outing against Virtus on January 9. Panathinaikos currently sits around seventh in the EuroLeague standings with a 16-11 record (as of early February), and getting Nunn back healthy is the difference between a deep playoff run and an early exit. The 30-year-old guard has been a revelation in Europe since his NBA days, capturing the EuroLeague MVP in 2024-25 and establishing himself as one of the continent’s premier scorers.

Andres Feliz, Real Madrid (Spain — Liga ACB / EuroLeague)

Feliz continues to carve out a steady role as a backcourt rotation piece for one of Europe’s elite clubs. In Liga ACB play this season, the Dominican guard has appeared in 15 games, averaging 5.8 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 1.6 assists in about 15 minutes per contest. His shooting has been efficient — 57% from the field overall, though his three-point stroke has cooled to 32%.

In the EuroLeague, Feliz has been a contributor across 38 total games (domestic and European combined), providing energy and defensive intensity off the bench. He ranks among Real Madrid’s leaders in steals, a testament to the same disruptive defensive instincts he showed in an Illini uniform. Real Madrid is competing on multiple fronts and Feliz’s versatility as a backup guard who can defend and create keeps him in the rotation for a loaded roster that includes Facundo Campazzo, Theo Maledon, and Mario Hezonja. For a guy who started his European career in Spain’s second division, suiting up for Real Madrid is a remarkable trajectory.

Trent Frazier, Zenit Saint Petersburg (Russia — VTB United League)

The captain keeps cooking in Saint Petersburg. Frazier is averaging around 14.8 points per game for Zenit this season, putting him among the team’s leading scorers. In November, Frazier led Zenit in scoring at 17.6 points per game, including a 27-point explosion against Nizhny Novgorod. He followed that up by leading the team in scoring again in December at 15.4 per game.

Now in his third full season with Zenit after arriving in February 2023, Frazier has become the club’s emotional leader — officially named team captain earlier this season. His playmaking has been a key piece of the puzzle, averaging 5.0 assists in November. Zenit’s next VTB League action comes February 19 on the road against Uralmash Yekaterinburg. For a four-year Illini guard who went undrafted in 2022, Frazier has built himself a legitimate European career, and his leadership in one of the VTB’s marquee markets speaks volumes about his growth as a professional.

Alfonso Plummer, KK Bosna (Bosnia — ABA League / FIBA Europe Cup)

Plummer has found a home in Sarajevo and is lighting it up. The Puerto Rican sharpshooter set a season-high with 30 points against Zadar in ABA League play, and he’s been a consistent scoring threat for a Bosna side competing on two fronts — the regional ABA League and the FIBA Europe Cup. Playing alongside fellow guard Jarrod West, Plummer’s role as a primary scorer suits his skill set perfectly. His ability to get hot from beyond the arc hasn’t diminished since his days torching Big Ten defenses.

Bosna’s most recent ABA League outing was a tough loss to Perspektiva Ilirija, but the club remains competitive in the FIBA Europe Cup, where they’ve already knocked off Cedevita Olimpija (85-82) at home. Plummer has bounced around (from the G League to Paris, Germany, Puerto Rico, Spain, and now Bosnia), but at 28, he seems to have found a situation where his scoring punch is the centerpiece rather than a complementary piece. The same stroke that torched Wisconsin for 35 at Utah is alive and well in the Balkans.

Andre Curbelo, Ironi Ness Ziona (Israel — Super League)

Curbelo’s Israeli adventure remains mostly theoretical. The former Illini point guard signed with Ness Ziona last September and showed promise in the preseason Winner Cup — averaging 13.8 points, 4.2 assists, and 2.8 steals across four games. A groin injury sustained near the start of the regular season has kept him on the shelf. As of our latest information, Curbelo has been listed as unavailable for regular-season action, though he remains on the Ness Ziona roster alongside fellow Americans Damion Lee, Isaiah Whitehead, and Yuri Collins.

At just 24, Curbelo still has time to establish himself professionally, but the lost development time is frustrating. When healthy, his speed, vision, and defensive disruption are legitimate weapons — the same toolkit that made him the Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year as a freshman at Illinois. Ness Ziona’s next game is February 22 against Maccabi Tel Aviv, and Illini fans will be watching to see if Curbelo can finally get on the court and make an impact.

This Day In Illini History: February 18

2020: Ayo’s Heroic Return — Illinois 62, No. 9 Penn State 56

This one is the stuff of legend. Just one week after being helped off the floor with a knee injury on the final play of a heartbreaking loss to Michigan State, Ayo Dosunmu declared himself a game-time decision, suited up, and proceeded to torch the ninth-ranked Nittany Lions for a game-high 24 points in State College. Illinois had lost four straight and desperately needed a spark. Dosunmu, playing at what he later admitted was about 75 percent, delivered one of the gutsiest performances in modern Illini history. He scored eight consecutive points in the second half to break open a tight game, then iced it with a layup with 16 seconds left. Freshman Kofi Cockburn chipped in 14 points and 7 boards, while Da’Monte Williams held Penn State star Lamar Stevens to just 13 points on 3-of-11 shooting. It was Illinois’ first road win over a top-10 team since 2012 and snapped a six-game losing streak to the Nittany Lions. Andres Feliz — now playing for Real Madrid — grabbed 7 rebounds off the bench. Three guys in that box score are still playing professionally overseas today.

2004: Grinding Out the Badgers — Illinois 65, No. 12 Wisconsin 57

In a season where the Illini would finish 26-7 and reach the Sweet Sixteen, this February 18 home win over 12th-ranked Wisconsin was a quintessential Big Ten rock fight. The Illini held the Badgers to 57 points in an era when Wisconsin wanted to play in the 50s anyway — beating Bo Ryan at his own game. Illinois would later lose to the same Badgers in the Big Ten Tournament final (53-70) before bouncing back with a NCAA Tournament win over Cincinnati and a run to the Sweet Sixteen, where Duke ended the ride.

1952: A Future Final Four Squad Visits Bloomington — No. 6 Illinois 77, No. 20 Indiana 70

Go way back. On February 18, 1952, the sixth-ranked Fighting Illini traveled to Bloomington and knocked off 20th-ranked Indiana 77-70 behind a roster that featured sophomore sensation Johnny “Red” Kerr, who was in the process of setting an Illini sophomore scoring record with 357 points that season. This was Harry Combes’ powerhouse — a squad that would win the Big Ten title, reach the Final Four (the first one ever officially recognized by the NCAA), and finish No. 2 in the final AP poll with a 22-4 record. Oh, and Combes? He was a Monticello, Illinois native. A little local flavor for the Dunker Spot readership.

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