| Illinois Probable Starters (from the last game) | |||||||||
| Pos. | No. | Name | Ht. | Wt. | Yr. | PPG | RPG | APG | Note |
| G | 5 | Andre Curbelo | 6-1 | 175 | So. | 8.0 | 4.0 | 7.0 | Cousy Award Watch List |
| G | 1 | Trent Frazier | 6-2 | 175 | Sr. | 12.0 | 4.0 | 0.0 | 18th on UI career scoring list, 1446 pts |
| G/F | 3 | Jacob Grandison | 6-6 | 210 | Gr. | 17.5 | 5.5 | 1.0 | UI career-high 20 points vs JSU |
| F | 33 | Coleman Hawkins | 6-10 | 215 | So. | 15.0 | 10.0 | 3.5 | 17 pts, 12 reb, 4 ast, 4 blk vs ASU |
| F | 4 | Omar Payne | 6-10 | 240 | Jr. | 4.5 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 3 blocks vs JSU |
| Off the Bench | |||||||||
| Pos. | No. | Name | Ht. | Wt. | Yr. | PPG | RPG | APG | Note |
| G | 0 | Brandin Podziemski | 6-5 | 200 | Fr. | 0.5 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 2021 Wisconsin Mr. Basketball |
| F | 2 | Connor Serven | 6-9 | 235 | So. | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | Team’s lone walkon in second year |
| G | 10 | Luke Goode | 6-7 | 200 | Fr. | 5.0 | 4.5 | 0.0 | 2021 Indiana first-team All-State |
| G | 11 | Alfonso Plummer | 6-1 | 180 | Gr. | 8.5 | 3.0 | 2.0 | Leads UI in minutes played (31.3 mpg) |
| C | 12 | Brandon Lieb | 7-0 | 220 | So. | 2.0 | 1.5 | 0.5 | Career-high 4 points vs ASU |
| F | 13 | Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk | 6-8 | 235 | r-So. | 6.5 | 10.0 | 1.5 | Career-high 10 boards vs JSU & ASU |
| G | 15 | RJ Melendez | 6-7 | 205 | Fr. | 5.5 | 2.0 | 0.5 | 2021 Florida SIAA Player of the Year |
| G | 20 | Da’Monte Williams | 6-3 | 215 | Sr. | 6.5 | 4.5 | 2.0 | Played point guard in opener |
| G | 22 | Austin Hutcherson | 6-6 | 190 | Gr. | – | – | – | Missed last season with back injury |
| Out (* = 2020-21 stats) | |||||||||
| Pos. | No. | Name | Ht. | Wt. | Yr. | PPG | RPG | APG | Note |
| C | 21 | Kofi Cockburn | 7-0 | 285 | Jr. | 17.7* | 9.5* | 0.2* | 2021 Consensus Second-Team All-American |
Head Coach Brad Underwood
Career Record: 182-83 (.687), 9th year
At Illinois: 73-56 (.566), 5th year
Series Notes vs. Marquette
Record: Illinois leads 9-5
Record at Milwaukee: Illinois leads 4-3
Last Meeting: MARQ 74, #16 ILL 65 (12/7/93 @MARQ)
Underwood vs. Marquette: First meeting
Opening Tips
• No. 11 Illinois plays its first road game of the season on Monday night, facing 2-0 Marquette in the annual Gavitt Tipoff Games (6 p.m. CT, FS1).
• This is Illinois’ first road game in front of non-reduced capacity since March 5, 2020 at Ohio State.
• Illinois opened the season with blowout home wins over Jackson State and Arkansas State, racking up a +31.5 scoring margin and +22 rebounding margin, holding those opponents to 50.0 ppg on combined 33.6% shooting.
• Illinois is in a two-week stretch without a home game, playing three straight away from State Farm Center.
• Illinois is No. 11 in the opening Associated Press poll and No. 10 in the Coaches poll, marking the second straight year the Illini appear in the preseason rankings (No. 8 entering last season). It is the first time since 2009-10 and 2010-11 that Illinois is ranked in consecutive preseason polls.
• Illinois has been ranked for 21 straight weeks spanning three seasons of the Underwood era, a streak that began with the March 2, 2020 poll.
• Illinois is No. 4 in preseason ratings by kenpom and No. 5 by t-rank.
• Illinois is without Preseason All-American and Preseason Big Ten Player of the Year Kofi Cockburn. He is serving a three-game NCAA suspension to open the season after selling institutionally issued apparel and memorabilia in June. Cockburn’s activities occurred before July 1, when the State of Illinois and the NCAA enacted new NIL legislation that would have made those sales permissible.
About the Gavitt Tipoff Games
The Gavitt Tipoff Games is an early-season series played between the Big Ten and Big East conferences and named in honor of Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer Dave Gavitt, founder of the Big East and basketball visionary who had a profound and lasting influence on the sport at the collegiate, professional and Olympic levels.
Scheduled through 2022, the Gavitt Tipoff Games will be played on consecutive days in the first full week each season. The series spans eight years, with games played at home sites. Each Big East team will participate a minimum of six times, while Big Ten programs take part a minimum of four times.
This is Illinois’ fourth appearance in the Gavitt Tipoff Games, and first since 2018. The Illini are 1-2 in the event, losing 60-59 at Providence (Nov. 18, 2015), defeating DePaul at State Farm Center, 82-73 (Nov. 17, 2017), and falling at home to Georgetown, 88-80 (Nov. 13, 2018).
Notes from Friday’s 92-53 Win Over Arkansas State
• Illinois won its seventh straight game at State Farm Center.
• Illinois broke the game open late in the first half, closing with an 18-2 run over the final six minutes to turn a 30-24 lead into a 48-26 advantage at the break.
• Illinois grabbed 24 offensive rebounds, its second-highest total in a game since at least the 2010-11 season, and most since collecting 25 vs. Longwood 12/13/17.
• Illinois’ total of 56 rebounds also marked its second-most in a game since at least the 2010-11 season, trailing only its 62 boards vs. North Carolina A&T in last year’s opener (11/25/20).
• Sophomore Coleman Hawkins recorded his first career double-double, setting career highs with 17 points and 12 rebounds (6 offensive). Those surpassed his previous career bests of 13 points and 8 boards set three days ago in the season opener vs. Jackson State.
• Hawkins also set career highs with 4 blocked shots and 4 assists.
• Senior Jacob Grandison reached double figures for the second straight game with 15 points. He is now averaging 17.5 points through two games.
• Sophomore Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk set a career high with 8 points and equaled his career high in rebounding, grabbing 10 boards for the second consecutive game.
• Senior guard Trent Frazier and sophomore point guard Andre Curbelo both returned to action after missing the opener. Frazier netted 12 points while Curbelo had 8 points and game-high 7 assists.
• Frazier moved into 18th place on the Illini career scoring list (1,446 points), passing Frank Williams.
Honors Rolling In for Illini Duo
The preseason accolades are plentiful for Fighting Illini junior center Kofi Cockburn and sophomore point guard Andre Curbelo.
Cockburn averaged 17.7 points on 65.4% shooting, 9.5 rebounds and 1.3 blocks assists last season, earning NCAA Consensus Second-Team All-America honors. Curbelo, meanwhile, was named 2021 Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year after averaging 9.1 points, 4.2 assists and 4.0 rebounds.
They are projected to be one of the most prolific point guard-center tandems in college basketball this season:
Cockburn Preseason Recognition
• Associated Press All-America Team
• Big Ten Player of the Year (conference media)
• Wooden Award Top-50 Watch List (Los Angeles Athletic Club)
• Naismith Trophy Watch List (Atlanta Tipoff Club)
• NABC Div. I Player of the Year Watch List
• Lute Olson Award Watch List
• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award Watch List, nation’s top center (Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame)
• First-team All-American (Sporting News, CBS Sports, Blue Ribbon Yearbook, The Athletic, Athlon Sports, Dick Vitale & College Hoops Today)
• Second-Team All-American (Lindy’s, Field of 68)
• No. 2, CBS Sports’ Top 101 Players
• No. 3, March Madness 365’s Top 25 Returning Players
• No. 4, Athlon Sports’ Top 100 Players & Lindy’s Top 150 Players
• Big Ten Player of the Year (The Athletic, Blue Ribbon & Lindy’s)
Curbelo Preseason Recognition
• Wooden Award Top-50 Watch List (Los Angeles Athletic Club)
• Naismith Trophy Watch List (Atlanta Tipoff Club)
• Lute Olson Award Watch List
• Bob Cousy Award Watch List, nation’s top point guard (Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame)
• First-Team All-American (Field of 68)
• Third-Team All-American (College Hoops Today)
• Fourth-Team All-American (Dick Vitale)
• All-Big Ten Team (conference media)
• No. 3, The Athletic’s Top 20 Guards
• No. 24, CBS Sports’ Top 101 Players
» Complete Illinois Game Notes (PDF)
Discussion about this post