Maryland at Illinois: how to watch, listen, game preview

Ahmed Ghafir
Jan 23
3 min read

Maryland (14-5, 4-4) at #17 Illinois (13-5, 5-3)

When: Jan. 23, 2025 | 8 PM CT (9 PM ET) | State Farm Center

TV: FS1 - Jason Benetti (pxp) & Bill Raftery (analyst)

Radio: One Maryland App | 105.7 FM (Baltimore) | 980 AM (DC) | SiriusXM channel 84

Betting: Maryland +8.5 | O/U: 158 (DraftKings)

Maryland will look to get over its road struggles when they take on 17th-ranked Illinois on Thursday night in search of their first true road win this season.

Maryland holds a 15-8 lead in the all-time series, are 6-2 all-time in Champaign and have won six of the last eight against the Illini. The road team won the two matchups during 2023-24, and one year later, head coach Kevin Willard will hope his team can replicate that success.

Illinois is coming off their fifth loss of the season after falling, 80-78, at 12th-ranked Michigan State on Sunday to snap a three-game road win streak while four of their five losses against ranked teams so far this season.

The Illini have stayed with the same starting five in all but two games this season with freshman guard Kasparas Jakucionis, who sits 15th in the league in scoring and has posted 20 or more points in seven games. The midseason All-America selection is also averaging over two made threes per game while shooting over 45% from three and 50% from the field in conference play.

But he’s far from alone with eight different players scoring at least 20 points for Illinois this season, the most by any Big Ten program in 20 years, as they sit fifth nationally in points per game (86.8).

Arizona transfer Kylan Boswell is one of four to start every game this season and he posted a career-high 22 points at Indiana, his first 20-point game of the season, along with the seventh triple-double in program history in the Dec. 29 win vs. Chicago State.

Tre White is averaging over 13 points over his last ten games while shooting over 45% from the field this season. 7-foot-1 sophomore Tomislav Ivisic, who played three seasons at SC Derby in Montenegro, has posted seven double-doubles this season and sits top ten in the conference in rebounds (8.5) while nearly averaging a double-double with 13 points and 8.5 rebounds per game. Ben Humrichous, a former portal target for Maryland last offseason, has drilled at least one made three in every game this season. Meanwhile, freshman wing Will Riley has been the spark off the bench for the Illini coming off a game-high 19-point game vs. Michigan State while averaging 11 points on the season. The freshmen trio of Jakucionis, Riley and Morez Johnson have been as advertised for the Illini after averaging 31.2 combined points, the third-best mark in the nation among power conference teams.

For a Maryland defense that has watched its defense had its ups and downs through conference play, an uncharacteristic trend under Willard, Thursday marks arguably their toughest test of the season. Thursday also marks yet another pivotal stretch with a lackluster NCAA Tournament resume paired with their struggles away from College Park with the four road losses by an average of 4.3 points.

After suffering a two-point overtime loss vs. Northwestern, Maryland got back on track with a 69-66 win vs. Nebraska on Monday night despite a late comeback attempt from the Huskers.

Meanwhile, Julian Reese enters Thursday three rebounds away from tying Donta Scott and Tom McMillen for eighth-most in program history and ten points away from tying Bob Kessler for 32nd-most.

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