Buckle up, because the Illini are back in action. The No. 24 Ole Miss Rebels match up with Illinois on Sunday. The affair marks Illinois fans’ first taste of the 2024-25 team.
Know the foe
You can’t discuss Ole Miss basketball without referencing Chris Beard. The two-time Big 12 coach of the year and 2019 AP men’s college coach of the year has led three programs in the last four years for external reasons, but when he’s on the sideline, his programs win.
The Rebels went from 12-21 in 2022-23 to 20-12 in Beard’s first season in Oxford. He made an immediate impact on recruiting, drawing top 16 transfer classes in each of his first two offseasons at Ole Miss.
His top guy didn’t come from the portal, though, as senior guard Matthew Murrell enters his fifth season. He averaged 16.2 ppg last season while shooting 40% from deep, and will lead this veteran group again.
Three of the Rebels’ four players who averaged more than 5.5 points per game last season returned, and Beard surrounded them with an incoming talented point guard of some size.
Both bigs that transferred in averaged more than 17 points last year with their respective mid-majors and can stretch the floor. The 6-foot-9-inch junior forward Malik Dia and 6-foot-8-inch senior forward Mikeal Brown-Jones will be vital to the Rebels’ success this season.
All five transfers averaged more than 13 ppg last year, joining three returning Rebels to match that feat. They are a veteran team with plenty of scoring to go around and will be a handful for a less experienced Illini to deal with.
What the game represents
It’s just an exhibition. This game doesn’t count for any record or any purpose, quite frankly, other than to get a grasp on where this roster stands heading into the season.
The Kansas exhibition last season was fun. It’s for charity, after all, and with no real consequence to falling short on the scoreboard, you might as well have some fun. These charity events are becoming popular among the top programs and are likely here to stay.
Illini to watch
There will be plenty of fresh faces on Sunday, but one key player the Illini didn’t expect to have already is freshman center Tomislav Ivisic. Ivisic still isn’t cleared for the regular season, but he is allowed to suit up for some pre-season action. He will likely be an important player down the stretch if Illinois wants to even think about repeating their Elite Eight effort from a year ago, so getting some game action is beneficial.
Freshman guard Kasparas Jakucionis and freshman forward Will Riley are the obvious guys to look for as well. The two highly-rated recruits have been the talk of Champaign for months now, and we finally get to see them in action.
The final guy getting some major buzz lately is senior forward Ben Humrichous. The only senior on the roster has received generous comparisons to Dalton Knecht recently due to his talent combined with the fact that he transferred from a mid-major. His lights-out shooting and ability to score will be on full display this weekend.
Where and when
After hosting an anticipated exhibition last year at the State Farm Center, Illinois hits the road in 2024. The Sandy and John Black Pavilion at Ole Miss is where the Illini will play their first 40 minutes of the season, tipping off at 11 a.m. CT. The exhibition will be broadcast on the SECN.
@benfader7