Kentucky shares Illinois scouting report ahead of March Madness matchup

The time to celebrate Kentucky‘s win over Troy in the first round of the NCAA Tournament is over. Mark Pope earned his first postseason victory as head coach to get the monkey off his back while the Wildcats overcame early struggles to run away with it late. Can they do it in round two against Illinois? They’ll certainly have their hands full.

Ranked No. 11 in scoring, No. 2 in 3-point attempts and No. 2 in rebounding margin while sitting ahead of the Cats in KenPom with the No. 14 overall offense and No. 41 defense, there is a lot to keep track of with the team coached by Brad Underwood. They’ve earned nine Quad 1 wins on the year, headlined by victories over Arkansas, Wisconsin, Mizzou, Oregon, Indiana, UCLA, Michigan and Purdue before comfortably beating No. 11 seed Xavier in the first round.

Kasparas Jakucionis is the star at guard and a likely lottery pick (15.0 PPG, 5.7 RPG, 4.8 APG), while former five-star recruit Will Riley (12.8 PPG), Zvonimir Ivisic’s brother, Tomislav Ivisic (12.8 PPG, 7.7 RPG), Kylan Boswell (12.0 PPG, 4.9 RPG, 3.3 APG) and Tre White (10.5 PPG) are real threats.

Oh, and Orlando Antigua is on the opposing bench — a friend turned foe.

How are the Wildcats preparing for the second-round matchup in Milwaukee? They shared their scouting reports on Saturday.

Amari Williams: “Just how big of a team they are. We feel like — even their point guard is 6-6. Just having the size that they have is going to be a tough matchup, but we’ll be ready. … They’ve got good bigs, especially Ivisic. He’s able to stretch the floor like the (Troy) big yesterday, so just knowing that and knowing how to guard it is going to be big.”

Koby Brea: “It’s a really, really good team. They’re really physical and aggressive, shooting a lot of threes. Their offensive rebounding is off the charts, as well. They’re really good at that. It’s a top-25 defensive team. We’ve just got to be willing to make them take hard shots and just try to rebound as best as possible, make sure that we box out and get everybody off the glass. Offensively, just doing what we always do. Our game plan doesn’t really change much against any team. We stay true to what we’re doing most of the time. When we do that and execute the right way, then we come out with a pretty good chance to win.”

Lamont Butler: “They’re a really good team. Their point guard, 32 (Kasparas Jakucionis), he’s a really good passer and playmaker for the team. He can get downhill, get to the line. We’re gonna have a heavy focus on ball screen defense and everybody else around them. They have a lot of shooters and guys that can get to the rim. They’re really good offensively, so we gotta be able to disrupt them.”

Otega Oweh: “They shoot a lot of threes, kind of like us. We’ve got to guard the three well. They’re big. Their big is 7-1 and can shoot it. We’ve got to contest with a high hand, block them out. They love offensive rebounding.”

Kentucky will tip off against Illinois at 5:15 PM ET on Sunday, live on CBS.

Can the Cats advance to their first Sweet 16 since 2019?

KSR’s Photo Gallery from Saturday’s Media Opportunity