Scrimmage, exhibition up next for Illini

Oct. 12—Illinois hosted its on-campus media day Friday afternoon at Ubben Basketball Complex. Here’s some of what Illini coach Brad Underwood had to say, courtesy beat writer :

Even after delaying the start of practice by a week, Illinois eighth-year coach Brad Underwood sees his team “trying to fight the monotony of just seeing each other every day.” That will be solved — at least momentarily — with a Sunday scrimmage against Butler.

The format will be much like what Illinois had two years ago against Kansas in a similar situation. More segmented action than full game. Underwood said the Illini are in a spot where they need to put five on the floor instead of 10 and start identifying roles on a roster that hasn’t seen much separation between players thus far in practice.

“I need to see what we’re not good at,” Underwood said. “I need to see the first speed bump. What is it? You get to a point where I am right now standing here today. Our offense was good, so does that mean our defense was bad?

“I just need to see what the reaction is to seeing a different colored jersey. There’s a lot I want to learn. There’s a reason we moved it up a week compared to what we’ve done in the past. Then we’ve got two weeks to quite simply go to work and get some things fixed, and then we’ll actually have a true road environment game (in the Oct. 27 exhibition at Mississippi).”

Illinois will scrimmage Butler this weekend without freshman Tomislav Ivisic. The 7-foot-1 center has yet to be cleared by the NCAA. There’s no timeline for when Ivisic will be cleared or if that decision will come by the Nov. 4 season opener against Eastern Illinois. Underwood said Illinois continues to field questions from the NCAA in regards to Ivisic’s time playing the past three seasons for Montenegrin club SC Derby in the ABA League (previously the Adriatic League). It’s a similar process Ivisic’s twin brother, Zvonimir, went through last season at Kentucky.

“There’s some differences in their cases, but I would…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/scrimmage-exhibition-next-illini-144700526.html

Author : The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.

Publish date : 2024-10-12 14:47:00

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