Illinois Triumphs in High-Scoring Game Against Wisconsin

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00:00So fun game last night between Wisconsin and Illinois. Always love to see a game in the 150s,

00:08160s. That's what we got. What do you make of the big win for Illinois last night?

00:13Well, Illinois has so many assets on offense, Craig, and that's a real challenge for teams

00:20that are playing against them. You have to find a way to drag the whole operation down,

00:24because if you let one player pop off, in this case, Trey White, who had scored only

00:30four points combined in the previous two games, but he showed what he's capable of

00:35in that Wisconsin game. Yakuchonas, excuse me, is such a great point guard for a young player

00:43and is so difficult to defend that he gets his teammates high quality shots. It was a lot for

00:48Wisconsin to handle. They are 0-2 now in the Big Ten. Not the best start, but they struggled a

00:57little bit with their scheduling, because they had Michigan at home and Michigan was flying at

01:01that point, and Wisconsin did not handle it great. And then to have to go to Illinois,

01:06not an ideal circumstance for the Badgers in the scheduling. I think they'll recover from

01:11that when they get to January and February and start to play league games regularly.

01:16But Illinois, one of the most talented young teams in college basketball, continuing to show

01:22that they can handle quality opponents. Can you teach everyone the name of this player,

01:28Kasparis Yakuchonas? I hope I got that right. Go ahead, teach everyone who this guy is.

01:37He is an international recruit. They got a chance to get one of the really gifted young

01:46point guards. He will be probably a top 10 pick, maybe even top 5 in the NBA draft,

01:52because he has such a surpassing ability to run an offense, and he can make a shot,

01:58and he can handle, because of his size more than anything, he can handle defending his position.

02:03Josh Giddey is a player who came with great passing ability to the NBA,

02:09and has had a very successful run, but not a great shooter. Yakuchonas has that mastered,

02:15at least from college distance. We'll see whether he has NBA distance, but

02:19most of the guys who can hit from 21 can hit from 23.