With two more just around the corner, Arkansas finds itself 0 for 2 in marquee games after falling to Illinois on Thanksgiving Day.
Facing a 15-point halftime deficit, the No. 19 Razorbacks managed to get within single digits a couple of times, but never got closer than nine in the second half of their 90-77 loss to the Fighting Illini at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo.
Arkansas also lost to Baylor, which was ranked No. 8 at the time and is now No. 17, by five points in Dallas earlier in the month, but head coach John Calipari said the thorough beatdown by Illinois was different.
“The whole thing is getting them to play right,” Calipari said. “You may play right and lose, but you can walk away and say, ‘All right, we knew what we were doing. We went after it the way we wanted to. They made some shots that were tough shots.’
“That’s fine. That’s totally different than this. They took it to us and they were the aggressor the whole game, and that’s all we had talked about for 2-3 days.”
The game was decided in the first 7-plus minutes, as Illinois jumped out to an 11-0 lead and was up by 15 when Calipari called a timeout at the 12:36 mark of the first half.
While the Fighting Illini were bombing it from 3, knocking down 9 of their first 15 attempts, the Razorbacks couldn’t throw it in the ocean from beyond the arc. It eventually stopped taking them, but Arkansas missed all seven of its first-half attempts.
The Razorbacks eventually got into somewhat of an offensive rhythm by attacking the basket, largely keyed by Adou Thiero, but their top-10 defense was virtually non-existent the entire game. That allowed Illinois to answer every time it looked like the Razorbacks might make it a game.
When Trevon Brazile made a 3 to shrink the margin to nine points the first time, Ben Humrichous immediately drilled a deep 3 for the Illini. Arkansas actually had the ball with a 10-point deficit, but Johnell Davis couldn’t finish a tough layup and Zvonimir Ivisic couldn’t grab the rebound. A few moments later, Illinois got another deep 3 — this time by Kasparas Jakucionis.
The last gasp came with about 4 minutes remaining when Billy Richmond III came up with a steal and threw down a dunk on the other end to pull Arkansas within 80-71, but another Jakucionis 3-pointer was the dagger. The Illini’s star freshman scored 14 straight points to help them close out the victory.
“Sometimes you have to get hit in the mouth to accept the way you want to play is not going to work,” Calipari said on the UA’s postgame radio show. “Hopefully they felt like they got hit in the mouth.”
Defensive Breakdown
Illinois basketball coach Brad Underwood had to be thrilled with what he saw from his team Thursday afternoon. Not only did it put up 90 points, but it did so against a top-10 defense — a fact he mentioned both during and after the game.
The Razorbacks entered the day ranked No. 8 in adjusted defensive efficiency, according to KenPom. They were also top-35 in pretty much all of the traditional statistics: 59.2 points allowed (14th nationally), 37.0% field goal defense (25th), 26.8% three-point defense (35th), 17.7 turnovers forced (t-11th), 11.0 steals (t-14th) and 5.7 blocks (t-24th).
None of that mattered against the Illini.
In addition to giving up what was easily a season high in points, Arkansas forced only 11 turnovers. It notched a season-low 2 blocks and had just 7 steals, which was its second-lowest total of the year.
Illinois shot 52.6% from the floor, including going an impressive 15 of 31 (48.4%) from beyond the arc. That latter number is what upset John Calipari the most, as it was something he and his staff emphasized in practice leading up to the game.
A third of the Illini’s makes were from the corner, which was particularly frustrating to the Hall of Fame coach.
“We worked on taking away the 3, we didn’t do a very good job, did we?” Calipari said. “We left corners. We don’t ever leave corners. I mean, literally, left corners, and they made them.”
Battle of the Twins
Zvonimir and Tomislav Ivisic may be from Croatia, but they celebrated Thanksgiving like many Americans — by spending the holiday with family. The only difference was the 7-foot-2 twin brothers weren’t sitting around a table stuffing their faces with turkey.
Instead, they were on opposing benches Thursday afternoon and went head-to-head on the court in a real game for the first time in their lives.
Despite Zvonimir being four minutes older and blocking one of his brother’s shots at one point, it was Tomislav — known by his Illinois teammates and coach as “Tommy” — who got the better of his brother more times than not.
Before the first media timeout, Tomislav Ivisic had already knocked down a pair of 3s. That matched his season-high, but he wasn’t done. A 28% shooter before Thursday, he ended up going 6 of 9 from beyond the arc. He’s just the fifth 7-footer in college basketball history to make at least six 3s in a single game, a feat that hadn’t happened in 11 years before his brother did it against Troy earlier this season.
“We were supposed to be rotating to him,” Calipari said. “There were two or three times that we do something, he’s there and you’re guarding this guy and you got to rotate up and he’s got to rotate over and we really didn’t.”
More of a true big man than his brother, Tomislav Ivisic also grabbed 10 rebounds to notch his fourth double-double in seven games, plus notched a season-high 3 blocks. He also had 2 assists and 2 steals before fouling out in 30 minutes of action.
Those statistics are why Underwood said it was his best game of the year.
“Challenging shots, using his length, using his ability to go challenge shots is something we’ve been working with him on,” Underwood said. “Z does it very instinctive, Tommy plays more position. But to see him do that today, now he’s set an expectation and I can get on his rear end when he doesn’t. He was dominant today.”
It took a full half to get going, but Zvonimir Ivisic also got hot in the second half and finished with 13 points on 5 of 9 shooting, including 3 of 6 from deep. He also had 6 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 blocks in 22 minutes.
Through seven games, the Kentucky has easily been the Razorbacks’ best 3-point shooter. He is 16 of 29 from deep, which is an incredible 55.2%.
Richmond Provides Spark
He may not have had the most impressive final stat line, but Billy Richmond III was arguably Arkansas’ most important player Thursday afternoon.
The freshman gave the Razorbacks some very good minutes early on and was rewarded with the most playing time of his career. He played 31 minutes after previously never getting more than 22.
In the span of about 30 seconds midway through the first half, Richmond grabbed an offensive rebound and tipped it back in and then came up with a steal and transition layup.
“All Billy did was do whatever he could to help us win,” Calipari said. “Not trying to get more shots…he just did what he had to. He flies up and down the court. He passes up open jump shots and gets to the rim.”
Just as he has all season, he consistently ran the floor hard and played with great energy, diving on the floor for loose balls numerous times.
The result was Richmond finishing with 12 points on 6 of 9 shooting, 4 rebounds and 2 steals in the Arkansas vs Illinois showdown.
“I think Billy is…one of the best two-way players on the team,” teammate Johnell Davis said. “Once we see him doing his thing, we feed off him.”
Illinois coach Brad Underwood was thoroughly impressed with the freshman, describing him as an “elite open-court player.” His scouting report on Richmond was to let him shoot, but try to stop him from driving to the basket.
“I think he’s an elite defender, for a young guy to come up with the steals he does, get in the passing lanes,” Underwood said. “He’s what we call a head-rammer. He gets downhill and he’s got a great body, great physical tools, plays above the rim and there’s no doubt he’s going to impact that basketball team a lot.”
Expected Roles Flipped for Transfers
There was some hope that, even given the level of competition, Monday’s game against Maryland-Eastern Shore might be a launching point for Johnell Davis.
Considered one of the best prospects in the portal this offseason, the FAU transfer has been a disappointment for the Razorbacks so far.
Even with his recent outburst, Davis was averaging just 9.3 points and shooting 30.8% from beyond the arc — well below his 18.2 points and 41.4% from his final year with the Owls.
Unfortunately for the Razorbacks, he was back to not doing much offensively on Thursday. He scored just 3 points on 1 of 3 shooting. However, Davis did dish out a team-high 6 assists and notch 2 steals.
As concerning as it was, Calipari continued downplaying his struggles after the game, crediting Illinois’ game plan for some of them.
“They played in a way that they stayed out on him,” Calipari said. “They played that way, but he had six assists because of how they played him, so he played the way the game was being played. There’s going to be games where he has five and six threes because we’re flying up-and-down the court, we’re creating rotations, and he’s the guy that’s open.”
On the other end of the spectrum, Adou Thiero has been Arkansas’ best player — a notable achievement considering he didn’t do a whole lot of that at Kentucky over the last two seasons. He’s considered by some to be one of the most improved players in the country.
For those reasons, it wasn’t surprising to see him take over in the second half en route to scoring a career-high 26 points. Thiero was just 7 of 13 from the floor and missed both of his 3-point attempts, but relentless attacked the basket and got the free throw line, especially in the second half.
“Just a beast on both ends and we just gotta feed off his energy,” Davis said. “We just have to match his intensity.”
Thiero’s 21 free throw attempts are tied for the fifth-most in UA history. The only issue was that he made just 12 of them.
Up Next for Arkansas Basketball
Things aren’t getting any easier for the Razorbacks, as this was just the start of a challenging four-game stretch in which three games are high-major programs. They play Miami (Fla.) on the road and Michigan in New York City sandwiched around a home game against UTSA.
Up next is the trip to South Beach for the ACC/SEC Challenge matchup against the Hurricanes, who are 3-3 with a home game against Charleston Southern looming Saturday before Arkansas comes to town.
All three of Miami’s losses came in the Charleston Classic last weekend, as it dropped games against Drake (80-69), Oklahoma State (80-74) and VCU (77-70). It checks in at No. 74 in KenPom’s rankings.
Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT Tuesday and the game will be televised on ESPN2. The Hurricanes are doing a White Out.
Other Arkansas Basketball Tidbits
- The announced attendance for Arkansas vs Illinois game was 5,707. The T-Mobile Center has an 18,972-seat capacity, so it was only 30.1% filled.
- It was the first college basketball game CBS has ever broadcast on Thanksgiving Day. The Razorbacks won’t play on that network again until the NCAA Tournament because ESPN now owns all of the rights to SEC games.
- With the loss, Arkansas is now 1-6 all-time against Illinois. The lone win came in the 2023 NCAA Tournament, when the Razorbacks beat the Illini 73-63 in the first round on their way to the Sweet 16.
- Perhaps the most surprising performance for Arkansas was Boogie Fland scoring only 8 points on 2-of-12 shooting. The freshman was limited to 25 minutes because of foul trouble, but was also shut down by Illinois’ Kylan Boswell. “We paid a lot of attention to Boogie and didn’t want him to get going,” Illinois basketball coach Brad Underwood said. “Kylan has a knack for being able to take that away.”
- After a breakout performance in which he scored a game-high 21 points against Maryland-Eastern Shore on Monday, Karter Knox didn’t even attempt a shot in 7 minutes of action Thursday. His only statistics were 1 rebound, 1 foul and 1 turnover.
- In his first action since the first half of the Troy game, Jonas Aidoo played 11 minutes off the bench — all in the first half — and finished with 2 points and 3 rebounds. He missed the previous three games with an undisclosed injury.
Arkansas vs Illinois Highlights
Postgame Interviews
Arkansas vs Illinois Box Score
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