Hoosiers Face #8 Illinois on Sunday, DeVries Discusses Matchup
Hoosiers Face #8 Illinois on Sunday, Darian DeVries Discusses Matchup
CHAMPAIGN, ILL.–The Indiana Hoosier men’s basketball team plays the 8th ranked Illinois Fighting Illini (20-5, 11-3 in Big Ten) Sunday afternoon at the State Farm Center.
Per KenPom, Illinois ranks top-10 nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency (1st), offensive rebounding percentage (6th), and 3-point field goal rate (8th).
“They are just so big and balanced. They do a great job of exploiting offenses and they offensive rebound, so there’s really not much of a weakness with them,” said Indiana Head Coach Darian DeVries in a Friday Zoom call with reporters.
Illinois freshman guard Keaton Wagler leads the team in scoring at 19 points per game, but he has had eight games so far this season where he has scored 20 points or more. That includes a game where he scored 46 points against Purdue on January 24.
“He’s tough. They do such a good job of putting you in situations where you got to choose if you want to switch or if you want to commit two to the ball and then he makes the right decision when you put two to the ball. They have shooting everywhere too,” said DeVries.
Indiana is 17-8 overall with an 8-6 record in the Big Ten. DeVries says he wants his team to make a quality push for the NCAA Tournament. To do that, he knows his team will need fresh legs.
“This time of year, practice wise, you cut back quite a bit anyway as you’re getting into February. You do want to prioritize keeping everyone as fresh as possible so that on game day, you have everything you need to go compete,” said DeVries.
Hoosier senior guard Tayton Conerway has been battling an injury over the last four games. DeVries says they’ll continue to take it one game at a time with him.
“We’ll stick with what we’ve been going with here recently and try to get him back involved as that happens. Then those minutes will be distributed based on how we’re playing and how he’s playing. Then we’ll take it from there,” said DeVries.
Illinois has won the last two games in the series against Indiana as well as six of the last 10. Tipoff on Sunday is at 1 pm EST. Pregame coverage starts at noon on 93.1 WIBC.
After that contest, Indiana plays 13th ranked Purdue on February 20 at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette.
