2. This is Tomislav Ivisic time
In the previous slide, I touched on how Purdue will be playing Illinois without someone like Zach Edey. This will be the first time in a long time that we haven’t had to go up against that monster.
Do you know what that means? It is time for Tomislav Ivisic to dominate. If Edey was still around, Ivisic would have a hard time with the physical play of the Purdue big man. Thankfully, he has moved on to the NBA, and now Ivisic can work his magic.
The only worry that I have is with Trey Kaufman-Renn. He can hold his own at 6-foot-9, and Kaufmann-Renn is physical. While Ivisic has four inches on him, Kaufmann-Renn will use his size to bully around in the paint.
What is great about Ivisic is that he can pull someone like Kaufmann-Renn or whoever Purdue throws at us out to the three-point arc. Ivisic can go out and set screens and roll to the bucket. He can also screen and roll out to the three-point arc for a nice shot from deep. That really puts the opposing defender in a bind.
Ivisic has been extremely effective for the Illini this season and in the last two big wins in particular. Illinois is going to need him to come up big against Purdue so we can head into the Big Ten Tournament on a three-game winning streak.