Illinois coach Brad Underwood had implied after his team’s loss to Northwestern last week that he had been too “soft” on his players in practice. This was coming at a time when the Illini were also shooting blanks at both the 3-point and free-throw line. They needed a boost.
Hello, Tre White.
It was Illini junior guard White who, after scoring just four points in his past two games, broke out with 23 points, eight rebounds and set the tone both as a shooter and a defender as Illinois ground out an 86-80 win over Wisconsin on Tuesday at the State Farm Center in Champaign, Illinois.
It was an important step for the young Illini, who were tentative and seemed to get pushed around in Evanston by the Wildcats last Friday. Even Peacock announcer Robbie Hummel noted in the second half Tuesday that the Badgers game was starting to shape up similarly – until White muscled up and gave the biggest push in slamming the door on UW.
Nursing a dwindling lead after Badgers forward Nolan Winter sank a wide-open 3-pointer from the top of the key to cut it to 74-70 with 2:41 left in the game, the Illini were meeting all kinds of resistance from the Wisconsin D. Guard Kasparas Jakucionis, with nowhere to go, threw up a fadeaway mid-range jumper that clanged off the rim. Center Tomislav Ivisic corralled the rebound, gathered, spun and … rimmed a baby hook.
But then White, who had been left alone on the block as his defender and a gang of Badgers attacked the defensive glass, stepped in, elevated and crushed a one-handed putback that lifted the State Farm Center crowd to its feet and gave Illinois a bit of breathing room at 76-70 with 2:21 left.
Tre White CLEANS UP ‼️ @IlliniMBB#B1GMBBall on Peacock 💻 pic.twitter.com/4NfH7jNWZL
— Big Ten Men’s Basketball (@B1GMBBall) December 11, 2024
The Illini still went out of their way to make the task more difficult, giving up 3s to Max Klesmit and John Tonje down the stretch. Yet this time the Illini made their free throws – 10 of 11 down the stretch, including two from White (who was 9-for-10 from the line on the night).
Moreover, it was the defense of White (and lockdown guard Kylan Boswell) that mostly bottled up Badgers leading scorer Tonje (14 points on 5-for-15 field-goal shooting). White’s eight boards were part of a group effort that saw the Illini again overwhelm an opponent on the glass, 40-29.
Jakucionis continued his brilliant offensive play with a game-high 24 points, and combined with White to go 6-for-11 on 3-pointers on an otherwise (and increasingly too-frequent) poor shooting performance for the Illini from long distance (10-for-33, 30.3 percent).
Boswell pitched in 19 points and Ivisic had 11 rebounds on a rare off night from the floor.
Illinois (7-2, 1-1 Big Ten) secured its first conference win and sent Wisconsin (8-3, 0-2 Big Ten), still looking to get on the board in Big Ten play, to its third straight defeat.
The next step for the Illini? It’s a doozy. They’ll face No. 1 Tennessee on Saturday (4:30 p.m. CT, on FOX) in Champaign.
