Illini Power Rankings: It Is Happening Rather Quickly

About a decade ago, I went back to Champaign to speak to a journalism class at the University, ostensibly to proffer wisdom but, in reality, to attempt to encourage gaggles of teenagers to continue to pursue a field that is endlessly fascinating and deeply rewarding but also is unsteady and unpredictable enough to terrify even the most constitutionally fortified parent into wondering exactly what they're pouring their 20 grand into every year. The kids, as always, were great--engaged, sincere, curious, in all the right ways. I always learn a lot more from them than they do from me.

Toward the end of our back-and-forth, one kid, who had been quiet throughout class up to that point, stood up and raised his hand. He was instantly unmissable--6-foot-3, handsome, with a shy, earnest grin. He asked one of the best questions of the day: "You said we should promote our work on social media, but how do you stay positive doing that with all the negative stuff on there?" (I didn't have a good answer then, and I still don't.) But all I could think about when he was asking the question was: Uh, holy cow, that's Jaylon Tate.

Longtime Illini fans may remember Jaylon Tate as the Chicago Simeon teammate of future NBA players Jabari Parker and Kendrick Nunn on a team that won two state championships. But they also may remember him, frankly, as a deeply frustrating player whose inconsistent play at point guard helped torpedo the final years of John Groce. Tate always played hard, but the inherent ceiling on his game ultimately became an avatar for the limitations of the John Groce era– likable, hard-working teams that just didn't have the talent required to take the next step. As a player, Tate absolutely drove me crazy, for reasons that weren't his fault at all but were nevertheless real. I thought about him, and what his shortcomings represented, constantly.

And then he was standing in front of me, in class, not a player, not a symbol of John Groce's inability to turn the corner, not as someone who I'd yelled at through the television screen for four years. He was just a kid. A nice kid--a smart kid. I did my best to answer his question and then wished him good luck in the game that night. There was no way I was going to schedule a trip to Champaign when there wasn't an Illini game that night. He played three minutes and turned the ball over once in a miserable 74-47 loss to Indiana. We fell to 12-16 with the loss. It feels a lot longer ago than a decade, doesn't it?

I had also forgotten, until I sat down to write this whole thing right now, that he would be arrested about two weeks later. (The charges were later dropped.)

I mention this whole story to:

a) Compliment Jaylon Tate as a person, he was impressive, I liked him;
b) Note almost immediately that we don't really know anyone;
c) Remember just how far this program has come over the last decade;
d) Remind everyone that these really are just kids;
e) Note the total absurdity of thinking so much about these players, these humans decades younger than us, that we have a million opinions about them and their games, just from obsessing watching them on television, but then, in the midst of it all, you can sit in a classroom with them for two hours and not recognize them until they stand up and you realize that they are tall.

One month ago, I had no idea who any of the players on this current Illini team were other than Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn, and even then I wasn't sure how to spell his first name. Now, just seven games into a season that is starting to look extremely promising, I obsess about each of them so much I caught myself thinking, while in traffic the day after Thanksgiving, "I'm so glad Tomislav has a better haircut than his brother." It is unhealthy how much we all these young men rattle around our brains, we're all doomed to it the rest of our lives and I wouldn't want it any other way.

With the Big Ten schedule (sort of) starting this Friday night in that rinky-dink excuse for a gym in Evanston, this seemed like as good a time as any to update our semi-regular Illini Basketball Power Rankings. (The first installment ran before the season opener against Eastern Illinois.) As always, these rankings are ridiculous, uninformed and written primarily as a nervous tic. There may be nothing, other than perhaps the potential impending return of smallpox, that I think about more than the Illinois men's basketball team. My name is Will Leitch, a contributing editor at New York magazine, a regular columnist at The Washington Post, national correspondent for MLB.com and author of seven books, including the novels How Lucky, The Time Has Come and the upcoming Lloyd McNeil’s Last Ride, which comes out next May and I would not be against you pre-ordering, were you to feel so inclined. I also write a free weekly newsletter about parenthood and living through these tumultuous times that you might enjoy: You can find it here. I am (somehow, still) perhaps best known as being the founder of the late sports website Deadspin, though I’d prefer you think of me as “former Daily Illini sports editor” and "forever Mattoon Green Wave."

Thank you for letting me scratch this itch once again.

11 and 12. AJ Redd, Keaton Kutcher.
Jason Jakstys officially redshirted three weeks ago, so I don't have to include him any longer. Thus, we begin with the walk-ons, the human victory cigars, though it should be noted that each of these guys have played only one fewer game than Jake Davis has. They have a total of four points on a combined seven shots, which is essentially the ratio I want from my walk-ons. If anything, they should shoot more--that's nothing worse than getting your walk-ons in but having someone, like, Aaron Cosby chuck up a whole bunch of shots instead. The Chicago State game on December 29 is probably their last chance at any real playing time this season, though I'd love for things to get out of hand enough against Missouri to sneak them in. Fun trivia question: How many games has AJ Redd appeared in during his Illini career? The answer? Would you believe 16? It's true! That's exactly as many as Brandin Podziemski!

10. Carey Booth.
Booth started 19 games for Notre Dame last year. Booth sure hasn't looked like a guy who has started 19 games for a major college program. He looks more like one of those unpolished freshmen who you hope grows into something over the next four years but will probably transfer before that ever happens. He's 4-for-15 from long-range, he gets knocked off the ball anytime he tries to guard anyone and, frankly, doesn't look like he has much idea what he's doing half the time. I know he's a project, but he's also a sophomore and a former four-star recruit. He would seem to be in the exact right situation for him: He's a tall guy, with NBA bloodlines, who can shoot and run. And yet he can't stay on the floor longer than a couple of minutes. He's the one player on this team who hasn't made me excited even once this year, and I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't see the floor again until Chicago State. I had thought he might be a stealth starter by the end of the year. I no longer think that.

9. Jake Davis.
Anybody else get bummed out when he came out with the man bun against Arkansas? The wild orange hair was distinctive and telegenic; now he just looks like another bearded white shooter guy. I was actively surprised to see him on the floor so early against the Razorbacks, but the 3-pointer he drained was a beauty; his stroke is pure. He looked plenty overmatched anytime he tried to do anything else, though, picking up a whole bunch of fouls really fast and basically making me worry that Adou Thiero guy was going to plow into him and send Jake Davis shards splintering in all directions. If Humrichous gets in a cold spell or something, I can see tossing him in for a few minutes, but I still can't shake the feeling that he committed to Illinois way too early, before he could have possibly known how many people would be transferring in over him.

8. Tre White.
I understand why Ty Rodgers is redshirting, and why he'll surely be transferring when the season is over. But I still miss him. I love a good glue guy, and at his best, Rodgers was the consummate glue guy; he was always in the right place at the right time. I delight in watching him cheer on this team from the bench, even if it still feels weird and very the-way-college-basketball-is-now. But another reason I miss him is that White--the guy who was brought in ostensibly as a Rodgers upgrade--hasn't really clicked yet. Right now, he's doing some of the Rodgers things (rebounding, defending guys roughly his size) but he's not doing much of the stuff he was supposed to add, mostly shooting (he's 4-for-14 from three) and cutting to the hoop. The cutting seems the key to me: With all these shooters on the wings and in the corner, with Ivisic drawing out the center and KJ driving the lane, the Illini offense is begging for a dude who just rushes the basket, and so far, White hasn't taken much advantage of that. Also, he dribbles way, way too much: In the Alabama game, he walked himself into multiple turnovers for no clear reason. White isn't a creator, and the Illini don't need him to be. There are so many opportunities that are going to fall in his lap on this team. I'm hoping he starts taking them.

7. Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn.
There aren't many players more viscerally exciting to watch score on the Illini than DGL, but that excitement is part of the problem. This is a team loaded with guys who can score easily, almost effortlessly, and DGL's points always come with so much effort; his hustle is inspiring but also a sign that someone of his size is always going to have to work that hard just to score in the first place. That hustle does make a big difference, though, particularly on a team that can get a little too casual sometimes. DGL's job on this team is to come in when we're in a funk, score a big basket to end a run and get everybody back on track. I bet it wins us a tough Big Ten road game at some point, and then he transfers at the end of the year to, like, DePaul or something. We'll smile every time we see him in highlights too.

6. Morez Johnson Jr.
The fouls are a problem, and they're probably going to remain so all season: He is a freshman big man, after all. But that's just about the only way he looks like a freshman big man. I think I've been most impressed by how actively irritated he seems when someone else grabs a rebound, like they took the last fry out of the bottom of the bag. But he does it in a smoother way than most rebounding fiends do; he's very much in control that makes him feel older and more experienced than he is. Notice how much the defense tightens up when he enters the game; that little run they made late in the Alabama game happened right when he came in. It is extremely difficult to score when he and Boswell are in the game at the same time, which is a handy trick to pull out of your bag when you have a team that can shoot like this. Morez would put up All-Big Ten numbers if it were 1998. But he may be even more valuable right now.

5. Ben Humrichous.
Did you realize he leads the team in 3-pointers attempted? By a good margin too: Will Riley's six behind him (despite hitting just as many, 18). Humrichous has a gorgeous stroke, and you understand why Underwood is sticking with him; he's going to get so many opportunities on this team to just drain wide open treys, it's kind of absurd. That said, I'm seeing more limitations than I was expecting from The Next Dalton Knecht. He's bigger than Luke Goode, but defensively, he looks, well, kind of like Luke Goode; taller, thicker, sure, but not a guy who can guard anyone off the dribble. He can get pushed around underneath too. Size-wise, Humrichous should be able to hold up a little better, but against Arkansas, he got knocked sideways by those tanks blitzing the middle like everybody else did. Right now, I kind of only trust him to shoot wide-open 3-pointers. Fortunately: There are many of those to be had, and he's going to hit a ton of them.

4. Will Riley.
You could tell, early on, which broadcasters were doing their homework and which ones had just shown up and looked at the stat sheet real fast pregame. Riley was, up until the Arkansas game, the team's leading scorer, but he still doesn't quite seem as key to this team as the four guys above him. He is, essentially, a luxury item--and what a luxury item he is. I don't remember the last time I saw someone score so easily, like the hoop he's playing on is just a few centimeters wider than everybody else is. If he just scores like that the rest of the season--and I see no reason to think he can't--he'll be invaluable, but you can see signs of other skills he'll be adding on along the way as well. He's quicker, and more committed, defensively than I was expecting, and I find it telling that Underwood already trusts him to bring the ball up the court when we're getting pressed. If you're looking the easiest way for this team to upgrade from "we're really good, this is clicking, this team might even be as good as last year" to "uh, holy crap, this team could win the national championship," it's Riley continuing to add to his game as the season goes along. Also, I guarantee you he is already your kid's favorite player. My heart starts beating a little faster every time he touches the ball. Doesn't yours?

3. Kylan Boswell.
Boswell's offense really hasn't quite clicked yet, and he still isn't quite vibing with KJ the way you'd like him to. It's not so much that they don't work together as much as their games don't quite complement each other; KJ needs freedom to try some weird stuff, and when Boswell's in with him, the ball tends to get a little sticky. (It would help if Boswell were better than 7-for-31 from 3-point range.) That'll improve as the season goes on, and the reason it'll improve is all the reps they'll get. It turns out that you really do need both these guys on the floor at the same time, because Boswell's defense ... it might be amazing? Illinois has played two teams with top-shelf guards, and Boswell has not only shut them both down, he has done so almost quietly--he makes you forget opposing superstars are even in the game at all. Boswell also has something you rarely see in defensive specialists: He's cocky about it. (I love how he steals the ball, like he's a magician who won't show you his trick.) He's like a shutdown corner, able to eliminate your best player and force you to beat him with one hand tied behind your back. He needs to figure out his place in the offense. But he's second on this team in minutes and should remain so: I don't know how, in tight games, you could possibly take him off the floor.

2. Kasparas Jakucionis.
You just gotta let his freak flag fly. I don't love how often he gets trapped underneath the basketball, but Underwood should have that mostly coached out of him by the end of the year and, besides, half the time there's going to be a shooter out waiting to bail him out anyway. Everything else--particularly now that he's comfortably calling his own number offensively--is aces. I kind of can't believe he's 18: This is a freshman point guard? He's actually younger than Skyy Clark was two years ago, when we handed him the keys even though he played like the kid on your daughter's middle school team who refuses to pass it and keeps shooting the coach dirty looks every time she tells her to do something. Underwood keeps saying he can't take any credit for KJ, that he just sort of arrived this way, and I think that says something about them both: That Underwood trusts him implicitly, and that KJ is going to have all the room he wants to cook. Again, I'd like him and Boswell to mesh a little better than they are right now. But let's not get it twisted here: Illinois has a future NBA starting point guard, right now, and he gets better every game. We're going to be pointing at him and saying, "hey, that guy went to Illinois" on NBA Christmas Day games to our relatives for the next decade and a half.

1. Tomislav Ivisic.
He's not the best player on the team. He's not the best NBA prospect on the team. (Though I wouldn't be surprised to see him there someday.) But I think he's currently the most irreplaceable player on the team. Everything we do is based around having a center who can draw out the man guarding him--this is actually why I wouldn't mind seeing more Ivisic-Morez combos, almost with Morez as the cutter–and Ivisic is the perfect guy for that. The key, of course, was all those shots that fell against Arkansas: If he can shoot like that, this team may be unguardable. And while he's not a true rim protector, simply by being 7-foot-1 he can divert enough shots to make a difference, and he's a better rebounder than I had been expecting. (He also has some sharp elbows if he needs them.) He's just so essential to this all working, on both ends of the court.

That's where Illinois is right now: They have a 7-foot-1 guy who just hit six 3-pointers to beat a John Calipari team on national television, and he's not even among the top three NBA prospects on the team. All we need is to get him a little more comfortable with the culture to show some more personality--he's got a little Giorgi B in him, you can tell--and you'll start seeing his jersey pop up everywhere. He's not the flashiest player, obviously, and he's not the best. But he's the most important. This team has the potential to be a Final Four team, maybe even a national championship team. It really does. And it might be Ivisic, more than anyone else, that they can't live without. I love watching this team so much. Already. Don't you?

 Will Leitch is a contributing editor at New York Magazine, columnist for The Washington Post, national columnist for MLB, and the founder of the late sports website Deadspin. Subscribe to his free weekly newsletter and buy his novels “How Lucky,” and "The Time Has Come” from Harper Books. And pre-order his next book, "Lloyd McNeil's Last Ride," which will be released on May 20, 2025.