Game dayyyyy!!!!! One of…,no, *the* most anticipated game of the season.
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.
🤡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.