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Illinois
Monday, November 22nd, 2021
6:30 PM
T-Mobile Center
ESPNews
On paper, the Fighting Illini (KP #5) are the best team on our schedule and will present a tremendous challenge on both ends of the court.
The 2021 Big 10 regular season/tournament champions were upset in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament by Loyola-Chicago, but return a number of major pieces from last season's team: 6'1 G Andre Curbelo (B10 Sixth Man of the Year/All-Freshman Team), 6'2 G Trent Frazier (B10 Honorable Mention/All-Defensive Team) and 6'10 C Kofi Cockburn (B10 First Team All Conference/2nd Team All-American) who will be making his season debut against UC.
Despite suffering a 67-66 upset loss at Marquette (KP #77) last week, Illinois still ranks #1 in AdjD on KenPom and have established themselves as one of the top rebounding teams in the nation through 3 games - even without the presence of Kofi Cockburn.
Their greatest weakness so far appears to be turnovers where they average over 19/game. They committed 23 against Marquette and also committed a season-high 24 fouls in that game.
The Bearcats are 10.5-point underdogs in Kansas City and will face either Kansas State or Arkansas tomorrow evening.
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