Iowa @ Illinois preview
Lucas Oil Stadium
Last Meeting ( Jan 29, 2021 ) Iowa 75, Illinois 80
Illinois and Iowa are ranked among the nation's top five teams, and they will conduct a showdown Saturday in a highly unlikely place for the programs -- the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament.
No. 3 Illinois landed a spot in the tournament semifinals for the first time since 2010, and the No. 5 Hawkeyes have reached this stage for the first time since 2006.
It figures to be a high-octane battle with the second-seeded Fighting Illini (21-6) featuring stellar guard Ayo Dosunmu and the third-seeded Hawkeyes (21-7) revolving around standout big man Luka Garza.
"We know who we're going up against -- one of the best teams in the country," Garza said after scoring 24 points Friday in the Hawkeyes' 62-57 quarterfinal victory over Wisconsin. "So we've got to be focused, we've got to be ready."
Dosunmu isn't interested in seeing the team's tournament run conclude on Saturday.
"We don't really have room for error," Dosunmu said after posting 23 points Friday in the Fighting Illini's 90-68 quarterfinal win over Rutgers.
"We're two games away from accomplishing our goal we set months ago -- all-in to win a Big Ten championship. At this point in the season, we're laser focused and we showed we want to win a Big Ten championship very bad."
Iowa has won eight of its past nine games while Illinois has taken 12 of 13.
One of the Illini's triumphs was an 80-75 home win over the Hawkeyes on Jan. 29. Dosunmu scored 25 points and Trent Frazier added a season-best 24 for Illinois while Garza and Joe Wieskamp tallied 19 apiece for Iowa.
"In that game, my fault, we played too much zone," Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said of the meeting in Champaign. "Now part of the reason we did that was because they are a very difficult team to guard man-to-man. They have a lot of weapons."
McCaffery expressed concern over how to deal with Dosunmu, who looked strong against Rutgers in his second contest after a three-game absence caused by a facial injury.
Dosunmu has made 15 of 21 field-goal attempts in the two games, and he said the injury had a hidden benefit.
"Getting that week off definitely gave my body time to recover," Dosunmu said. "I think I've got much more speed and strength. I feel great. It is the month of March. It's win or go home. It's the best month of basketball, so I'm excited to be here."
Dosunmu's mindset seems to be rubbing off on his teammates.
"I think everything Ayo does is contagious," Illini coach Brad Underwood said. "I think everything he does is a pretty good representation of what we want to be."
Illinois big man Kofi Cockburn contributed 18 points and 12 rebounds against Rutgers. It was his 16th double-double of the season, tied for the fifth most in school history.
Meanwhile, Iowa will strive for a better shooting performance on Saturday after it was a substandard 2 of 20 from 3-point range against the Badgers.
"It was ugly, I'm not going to lie to you," said Jordan Bohannon, Iowa's all-time leader with 356 career 3-pointers. He was 1 of 6 from beyond the arc on Friday.
--Field Level Media