Illinois prepares to host Michigan on Friday in a top-10 battle — and Angel Reese returns to the court in Unrivaled.
Every Tuesday, Tribune writers will provide an update on what happened — and what’s ahead — for the Bulls, Sky and local college basketball teams. Want more? Sign up for our Tribune sports newsletter.
‘Enough is enough’
Illinois coach Brad Underwood hopes one good thing will come out of the stunning 95-94 overtime loss to UCLA on Saturday — that the No. 10 Illini wake up to what will happen if they’re not on their details in the weeks ahead.
“When’s enough enough?” Underwood asked reporters after the game. “Enough is enough. You do this in two weeks and you go home.
“It’s a tough loss. But the only one that gets much tougher than this is the one that happens in the NCAA Tournament, and then your season is over. That’s what we have to take from this.”
Illinois led by 23 points in the first half before allowing UCLA to fight back into the game and send it to overtime. Donovan Dent drove the length of the floor for the winning layup as time expired.
Underwood lamented missed free throws and defensive rebounds that have cost Illinois in some of their six losses. The Illini have lost three of their last five games — all in overtime. Their next test doesn’t get any easier: Friday against No. 3 Michigan.
“We’re right there,” Underwood said. “We’re as good as anybody in the country. I’m pissed off we didn’t get a freaking defensive rebound. That’s the toughness stuff you have to have to win. You lose a game because we don’t get a damn defensive rebound against a team that’s hungry.
“We’re plenty good enough. We can’t do anything about the injuries and the losses we have when we haven’t been whole. But the missed free throws and the defensive rebounding, that’s the stuff that just burns my rear end.”
Big Ten title watch
Michigan enters the final two weeks of the regular season with the Big Ten title in reach.
The Wolverines (25-2, 15-1) need to win two of their final four conference games to win the title outright. They can clinch a share Tuesday against Minnesota, and if they win that one, they can claim the outright championship Friday night in Champaign.
Michigan, which has lost only to Wisconsin and Duke this season, plays at Iowa and hosts No. 13 Michigan State in its final two games.
Illinois stays at No. 10 as Duke rises to No. 1 in the men’s basketball poll for a record 148th time
With their overtime loss to UCLA, the Illini (22-6, 13-4) made it significantly more difficult to claim a share of the title with just three games left. They would have to win out and would need Michigan to lose three games. After Michigan, Illinois hosts Oregon and plays at Maryland.
Michigan State, No. 12 Nebraska and No. 8 Purdue all enter the week with 12-4 conference records.
The No. 2 UCLA women claimed the outright Big Ten regular-season title Sunday with a win over Wisconsin to improve to 27-1, 17-0. The women head to the conference tournament next week in Indianapolis.
Angel Reese returns to Unrivaled
After nearly five months, Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese returned to the basketball court last weekend to participate in one of the final weeks of the Unrivaled regular season. Reese was a surprise late addition to Rose BC for a truncated outing in the 3-on-3 league.
She made her debut in a loss to Hive BC, tallying 13 points and eight rebounds in just under 11 minutes. Reese logged a longer stint in Sunday’s win over Laces BC, posting nine points and 15 rebounds in nearly 18 minutes. She came off the bench in both games.
It was the first time Reese had played competitive basketball since Sept. 3, when she played her last minutes of the 2025 WNBA season before being shut down because of a back injury. Despite being a member of Unrivaled’s inaugural season, Reese originally opted not to participate this season in part to preserve her health after suffering season-ending injuries in her first two years as a pro.
Rose BC qualified for the first round of the Unrivaled playoffs with Sunday’s win. If the team advances to the semifinals, Reese and her teammates would play March 2 at Barclays Center in New York, a recently announced relocation that reflects the success of the league’s Philadelphia games.
Number of the week: 1½
The Bulls have successfully submerged themselves in the NBA standings with a nine-game losing streak that predates the trade deadline. Through Sunday they were 1½ games ahead of the Milwaukee Bucks for ninth in the draft lottery order — and only 1½ games behind the Memphis Grizzlies.
This repositioning has improved the Bulls’ odds to land a top-four pick to 20.3%.
Week ahead: Bulls
- Tuesday: vs. Hornets, 7 p.m., CHSN
- Thursday: vs. Trail Blazers, 7 p.m., CHSN+
- Sunday: vs. Bucks, 2:30 p.m., CHSN
Week ahead: Best college games
- Tuesday: Northwestern men at Indiana, 6 p.m., FS1
- Tuesday: No. 1 Duke men at Notre Dame, 6 p.m., ESPN
- Thursday: Illinois women at No. 9 Iowa, 8 p.m., BTN
- Friday: No. 3 Michigan men at No. 10 Illinois, 7 p.m., Fox-32
- Sunday: No. 22 Minnesota women at Illinois, 1 p.m. BTN
- Sunday: DePaul men at Marquette, 3 p.m., FS1
- Sunday: Notre Dame women at No. 10 Louisville, 4 p.m., ESPN2
The Illinois and Notre Dame women have matchups against ranked teams to build their NCAA Tournament resumes over the final week of the regular season.
The Michigan and Illinois men meet in a much-anticipated game that could give the Wolverines the Big Ten regular-season title. No. 1 Duke heads to South Bend, Ind., for an early-week game against struggling Notre Dame.
What we’re reading this morning
- Can Rob Dillingham find his place in the NBA with the Bulls? ‘I’ve got an opportunity here.’
- How Chicago’s Destiny Jackson — a 5-foot-6 freshman — has grown into a crucial role for a young Illinois team
- Jaden Ivey’s injury concerns add another chapter to the Bulls’ confounding trade-deadline saga
- Column: Bulls were late to the tanking trend. That’s nothing new for this front office.
- 5 questions for Bulls to answer in final 27 games, including how high they can get in lottery order
Quote of the week
“Dre (Andrej Stojaković) was right there. All we were trying to do was force him to veer or pass, and he just got by us. It’s one of those situations, it’s hard because you don’t want to foul there. We knew the back screen was coming. We talked about it in the timeout. We had seen the play. But letting him get all the way to the rim was not on the game plan.” — Brad Underwood on UCLA guard Donovan Dent’s full-court drive in overtime to beat Illinois. Dent got through the Illini press, around a screen and blew by all five defenders for the layup.
