The 2025 Illinois basketball season has been solid so far in Champaign. The Fighting Illini dominated the Missouri Tigers in a statement game before Christmas, 91-48, making history in the Braggin' Rights rivalry. Illinois took control of the game against the Tigers from the jump and won the annual Braggin' Rights rivalry game in St. Louis, setting the Illini well before Big Ten play really gets going in January.
As the Fighting Illini celebrated the win, Andrej Stojakovic ran up and hugged Illinois basketball head coach Brad Underwood and said, “Merry fu***** Christmas, coach.” Even as the Fighting Illini were holding up the massive trophy, Zvonimir Ivisic half-heartedly encouraged his twin brother, Tomislav Ivisic, to “break it.”
The Illini gave its head coach an early Christmas present with its best defensive game of the season, and it couldn't have come at a better time. It was Illinois' first game since losing to Nebraska at home, where they looked awful on defense, and Underwood called out the team for their effort. They had to sit with that loss for nine days, and clearly took out their frustration on the Tigers after Nebraska.
The Tigers shot an abysmal 28.6% from the field. Underwood and his staff clearly preached that defensive mindset since the Nebraska loss, and everything went together nicely in this game.
“We've shown glimpses defensively of what we could be and had stretches,” Stojakovic said. “Tonight, I feel like we made a huge step forward in our defensive game. We're just going to keep improving. I'm not going to put a ceiling on it, but I think if we continue to play with that type of intensity and focus on the game plan, our defense is going to get better, and hopefully we keep seeing better defensive numbers as we go on.”
The Illini played deep drop coverage, switched less, plugged gaps with its great length, contested 3-pointers, and denied Missouri at the rim with eight blocked shots.
“That's what we've been trying to do all year,” Underwood said. “That's what we've gotten away from. We need to be an elite two-point defense. We need to protect the rim. We need to protect the paint and keep teams out of there. We have enough size and length to contest threes and understand teams are going to make some.”
