Illinois vs. Arizona: 2019-20 college basketball game preview, TV schedule
On Sunday evening the No. 24 Arizona Wildcats host a hungry Illinois team hoping for an early-season signature win. The Wildcats are also looking to bounce back after a disappointing 2019, here’s a preview of the game.
TV Schedule: Sunday, November 10th, 9:00 p.m. ET, PAC-12 Network
Arena: McKale Center, Tucson, Arizona
On Wednesday night, a pair of teams that are hoping to rebound after disappointing 2018-19 seasons, when the No. 21 Arizona Wildcats (1-0) welcome the Illinois Fighting Illini (2-0) to the McKale Center. The home-standing Wildcats finished last season at 17-15 and 8-10 in a Pac-12 that we all know by now was quite the laughingstock, at least early in the season. The Illini finished near the bottom of the Big Ten at 12-21 and only better than Nebraska and Northwestern in the conference. This will be the biggest test for both teams so far this season.
Amid the FBI investigation, Sean Miller was able to wrangle one of the top recruiting classes in the country with guards Nico Mannion, Josh Green and center Christian Koloko. Other big additions for the Wildcats are a pair of guards, grad transfer Max Hazzard who joins the team after starring at UC-Irvine and Kentucky transfer Jemarl Baker, who found out last week that he would be eligible immediately. Mannion led the wildcats in their exhibition against Chico State with 10 points, six assists and five rebounds, Green added 11 points in the win.
In their opener, a win over Northern Arizona, Freshmen Zeke Nnaji led four Wildcats in double figures with 20 points and four rebounds. The star freshmen Green and Mannion combined for 19 points, seven rebounds, and six assists.
Illinois got the best news of the summer when freshman point guard Ayo Dosunmu decided to bypass the NBA and return to school. Then coach Brad Underwood landed a top-50 recruit in 7-0 center Kofi Cockburn to help anchor down his frontcourt. In addition to those two, Underwood also returns his next three leading scorers from last year, junior Trent Frazier, sophomore Giorgi Bezhanishvili, and senior Andres Feliz who combined for 34.5 points last season.
Like Arizona, the Illini had one exhibition game, defeating Lewis University 83-50. They had five players in double figures, led by Cockburn who had a team-high 16 points and 11 rebounds. This game will be their third in six days to begin the year and their second straight road game, after they beat Grand Canyon 83-71 on Friday, after being taken to overtime by Nicholls State in their opener, before getting an 87-80 win.
In the win over Nicholls State, it was Feliz who led the team with 23 points and 11 rebounds, Cockburn also registered a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds, Dosunmu added 21 points and seven rebounds. But, for a team that led by as many as 20 in the second half and by 12 with less than five minutes to play, needing overtime couldn’t have felt good for Underwood and his team. In the win over Grand Canyon, it was Cockburn and Feliz leading the way, the young freshmen had 23 and 14 while Feliz added 21 points, six rebounds, and four assists.
Key matchup
The key matchup in this game has to be the two point guards, Mannion and Dosunmu. The Illini point man has the experience on the freshman distributor from Arizona, and it was the Illini sophomore who had the better opening night with his 21-point effort. These two teams are hoping to return to the NCAA Tournament and if they do, the point guards should be a big reason why, and this is a good chance to see two premier young point men go head-to-head.
Prediction
This is easily the most important non-conference game on the Illini’s schedule and the best chance for Brad Underwood to get a signature win outside of the Big Ten. I think this one will be a bit closer than some may expect, as I don’t think Trent Frazier will go 0-9 from the field as he did in the opener, but the freshmen from Arizona are supremely talented and if Nnaji builds off his opening night the Wildcats will be even tougher.
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In the frontcourt, the battle will be interesting with Illinois’ young guns Cockburn and Bezhanishvili going up against Arizona’s veteran duo of Chase Jeter and Stone Gettings. While I do think this could be a close encounter, in the end, I think the No. 21 Wildcats pick up a single-digit victory at home.