Brad Underwood Unsure if Illinois Guard Kasparas Jakucionis Will Play at Indiana

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – As Indiana prepares for Illinois, one major factor hangs in the balance.

Illinois coach Brad Underwood said Monday he does not know whether star freshman Kasparas Jakucionis will play Tuesday at Indiana. Jakucionis suffered a left forearm injury Jan. 5 at Washington and has not played the last two games at home against Penn State and USC.

Jakucionis played 36 minutes against Washington and finished with 18 points, six assists and five rebounds in the 81-77 win. Through 14 games, the 6-foot-6 guard is averaging a team-high16.4 points, along with 5.6 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 1.3 steals per game while shooting 49.6% from the field, 41.4% from 3-point range and 87.5% from the free throw line.

Illinois has had mixed results without Jakucionis. At first, the Illini didn't skip a beat as they blew past Penn State with a 91-52 Wednesday at home. But they followed that up by stumbling to an 82-72 home loss Saturday against USC, which was coming off an 82-69 loss Wednesday at Indiana.

Illinois was favored by 13.5 points against USC, but it shot just 37.1% from the field and committed 15 turnovers. Underwood inserted Will Riley, a 6-foot-8 freshman, into the starting lineup without Jakucionis. Riley scored seven points in both games, though he shot a combined 5-for-18 from the field.

Underwood commented Monday on how his team has adapted to losing Jakucionis.

“We got a lottery pick that didn’t play so everybody gets a little bit out of – their role gets a little bit different and that can’t happen," Underwood said. "You just have to do it longer and harder, but your role can’t change. We had guys trying to do too much and not staying within what has been very successful for us."

"We were fine in the Penn State game, and a lot of times you can handle that initial one okay, and the second one, it’s sure not gonna be that easy. But I thought we had guys do some things uncharacteristically and we were just flat and put it all together and you get the USC game. So we’ve gotta get back, whether KJ’s in the lineup or not, we gotta get back to elevating each other on the offensive side and playing much, much harder on the defensive side.”

More information will be known on Jakucionis' status against Indiana when the Big Ten availability report is released Tuesday afternoon. Tipoff between the Hoosiers and Illini is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET Tuesday at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall and will stream exclusively on Peacock.

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