Pregame: Illinois at Nebraska, Thursday, January 30th, 7:30pm CT, FS1

It's already been mentioned here, but at 6'7", Brice Williams is definitely the guy to watch out for;

He's statistically similar to Desmond Claude (who is still haunting my nightmares) in that they're both older big guards that like to drive and get to the line. Brice Williams is #3 in the B1G for FTM per game, albeit he shoots 91% from the line.

I assume they're game-planning KJ guarding him, and they're going to try to get KJ into foul trouble early and eliminate him from the game. This is a game where Tre White and Ben may need to step up defensively more so than what occurred vs USC when Desmond Claude drove all over our guys.

RollChief said:

at 6'7", Brice Williams is definitely the guy to watch out for;

He's statistically similar to Desmond Claude (who is still haunting my nightmares) in that they're both older big guards that like to drive and get to the line. Brice Williams is #3 in the B1G for FTM per game, albeit he shoots 91% from the line.

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And he's 35.8% from 3 (so I'm probably ok with going over screens for him)

We have to account for Gary. He honestly scares me the most out of any of their players. Tough, athletic, physical forward. Good rebounder and slasher.

ptgrd23 said:

Ben has come out of his shooting slump. Need Riley to do same. Plus lockdown defense we played first half vs NW. This is a much weaker Nebraska team. Must win for Ilinois.

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I don’t think Riley is in a slump. Unless you’re saying he’s been in a slump all year…which I may agree with…

Know this is said a lot, but this is a must-win game if we want to keep the hope of a Big Ten Tournament double bye alive.

With Mast out, advantage us.