Is Illinois Basketball's Jake Davis Ready for His Moment?

Jake Davis isn't No. 1 on the call sheet. He isn't the guy with the ball in his hands at the end of a tight game. But chances are, you've overlooked what he brings to the party at Illinois. Yes, there's the hair and there are the timely corner threes that make him a fan favorite, but Davis has already been more important to the Illini (15-3, 6-1 Big Ten) than you probably realize – and now he will have a chance to add even more value.

Illinois learned early this week that it would be without the on-floor services of Kylan Boswell, who suffered a right hand fracture in practice Monday, for roughly the next month. It's an enormous blow to the Illini – but not one that's unsustainable, if all the right pieces fall into place. Davis is one of those pieces.

Crazy enough: Tomorrow will be Kylan Boswell's first time missing a game in his college career.

Played all 35 games for Arizona his freshman year, all 36 his sophomore year, 35 at Illinois last year, all 18 so far this year.

The Champaign native came about two months away from… pic.twitter.com/rf87hpbGgw
— Glenn Kinley (@glenn_kinley) January 20, 2026

Boswell is a 2-guard, and even backs up at the point when Keaton Wagler is off the floor. He is a downhill-driving, foul-drawing playmaker on offense and a lockdown defender on the other end. In other words, he couldn't be a more different player than Davis. So how exactly might Boswell's injury open the door to a bigger – and potentially vital – role for Davis?

Why Jake Davis may be key in covering for Kylan Boswell's injury

Davis, who transferred from Mercer to Illinois ahead of the 2024-25 season, spent most of his first year in Champaign as an attraction and a solid three-point threat (22-for-64, 34.4 percent) who occasionally looked a little out of his depth – especially in Big Ten play. He was often praised by coach Brad Underwood, but savvy basketball fans weren't blind to some of Davis' limitations.

A year later, Davis is looking more like that player Underwood liked to describe: smart, competitive, always able to hold his own. Not only has Davis boosted his efficiency from three-point range (21-for-52, 40.4 percent) and rarely makes mistakes with the ball (his turnover percentage is a microscopic 3.1), but he also has more consistently handled the assignment on defense. Through roughly the first half of the season, he rates as a top-70 player in the Big Ten in EvanMiya's player ratings, just behind Andrej Stojakovic and Ben Humrichous – and even has a plus defensive rating.

You know it. You love it. Jake Davis three!

📺: @BigTenNetwork pic.twitter.com/EgZFYDQ0dR
— Illinois Men's Basketball (@IlliniMBB) January 15, 2026

Although Davis isn't built to lock up most Big Ten scorers, he moves his feet and anticipates well, and he understands spacing, which has made him particularly effective when the Illini go to their zone. Davis currently has the 26th-best plus-minus score in the Big Ten – better than those of not only Stojakovic and Humrichous but also Tomislav and Zvonimir Ivisic. In fact, Davis rates higher in the category than Purdue's Trey Kaufman-Renn and Indiana's Lamar Wilkerson, among others, and just behind Ohio State's Bruce Thornton and John Mobley Jr. Plus-minus isn't the perfect gauge of a player's abilities or productivity, but it very much confirms that Davis can hang – and may even be capable of more.

Could Jake Davis start at the 3 for Illinois?

We won't know for certain what Underwood has planned for trying to plug the gigantic void Boswell leaves behind until Wednesday's matchup with Maryland in Champaign (6 p.m. CT, BTN), but speculation – including our own – and common sense dictate that Mihailo Petrovic and Brandon Lee will soak up most of Boswell's minutes, and that Petrovic may even start, sliding Wagler over to the 2. Even if all those things turn out to be true, Davis has an opportunity ahead of him.

As one of the team's few healthy players who has been around since the start of last season, he has a leg up in terms of experience in the system and understanding expectations. As talented as Petrovic may be, his effectiveness has swung wildly between brilliant and blech. For his part, Lee – an extremely promising player – is a freshman who already has missed some time because of an early-season injury.

#illini fans should expect to see Jake Davis play more. Illinois head coach Brad Underwood said:

"He's tougher than hell. He'll fight you. A guy I wouldn't want to get into fight with in the parking lot."

"He's gained my confidence. If you do your job, I want to play you."… pic.twitter.com/tssf6YdUL5
— Carson Gourdie (@GourdieReport) January 3, 2025

It's possible that Underwood will decide to push Davis, who now brings legitimate stability to the floor when matched with any other four Illini, into the starting lineup. He will almost certainly choose to keep him on the floor at least a bit longer than he has typically played to this point this season. In any case, Boswell's presence won't be replaced by just one player.

"We've got guys like Jake Davis, we've got guys like Ben that have all started – Z, coming off a terrific basketball game and a guy that has started at times," Underwood said in his Tuesday press conference. "So it's just been kind of a next-man-up mentality, and whatever we need, we've been able to find with our depth, our bench, and I think that'll be expected to continue."