Third-ranked Illinois won its first two games by an average of 58.5 points, while No. 16 Texas Tech coasted to two victories by an average of 26 points.
The Fighting Illini and Red Raiders will both receive their first true test of the season when the squads meet Tuesday night in Lubbock, Texas.
Illinois averaged 116 points in its two wins. The Illini opened with a program-record 75-point win (120-45) over Fairleigh Dickinson on Nov. 2 and followed up with a 112-70 trouncing of Penn on Thursday.
The offensive explosions have come despite preseason All-American forward David Mirkovic being out due to August foot surgery and an emergency appendectomy on Oct. 31. Also, forward Jake Davis went down with a separated shoulder during the win over FDU.
“It’s simple,” Underwood said of the versatility of the Illinois offense. “You can input any player. I could put five guys out there and we’re all basically doing the same thing. And so it’s not where there’s sets and actions and different positions.
“We can go do the same thing. So they’ve had a lot of reps at it, and they’ve gotten good. And now, it’s keep stressing them on the defensive end to grow there.”
Andrej Stojakovic is averaging 22.5 points to lead four players scoring at least 15 per game. Quentin Coleman is averaging 16.0 while reserves Stefan Vaaks (15.5) and Zavier Zens (15.0) also are off to good starts.
Zens will be playing a bigger role due to the injury to Davis. He made four 3-pointers and scored 18 points in 21 minutes against Penn.
“I knew I needed to step up a little bit, but my teammates did such a good job of finding me,” Zens said. “I was open, and they hit me. Having Jake out is obviously a huge loss. He does so many good things for us. Jake’s a great player to look up to. He just does every little thing.”
Ethan Brown is averaging 12.5 points and a team-leading 9.5 rebounds. Illinois outrebounded its opponents 127-54 in the two blowout wins.
Stojakovic scored 23 points last season when the Illini notched an 81-77 home victory over Texas Tech. JT Toppin had 35 points and 11 rebounds for the Red Raiders.
Toppin remains sidelined from the ACL tear in his right knee that he sustained nearly nine months ago. Not having its star player hasn’t prevented Texas Tech from starting off strong.
The Red Raiders opened with a 76-42 victory over Jackson State on Nov. 2 and then defeated Bethune-Cookman 76-58 on Thursday. They limited Bethune-Cookman to 27.3% in the first half and 36.4% for the game.
“I thought our defensive effort to start the game was awesome,” Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland said. “We were flying around and were competitive in the right ways. We didn’t play well over the course of 40 minutes though. I thought we had great stretches and did a good job with 14 offensive rebounds and second-chance points and our ability to turn them over was good, but we’ve got to play better.”
Cruz Davis and Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn share the Texas Tech scoring lead at 15 points per game. Damarion Dennis averages 13.5 and Josiah Moseley contributes 12.5 points and a team-best 8.5 rebounds.
The Red Raiders will likely have transfer forward Jamichael Stillwell on the court Tuesday after a Lubbock judge granted a temporary restraining order making him eligible to play. Stillwell is one of the many players who competed in the 2022-23 campaign who went to court seeking a fifth season, citing the NCAA’s new five-year eligibility rule.
Stillwell played two seasons at junior colleges, one season at Milwaukee and last season for UCF when he averaged 11.6 points and 8.2 rebounds.
