Illinois Fighting Illini to face Xavier Musketeers in NCAA Tournament’s first round

MILWAUKEE (WLS) — University of Illinois basketball fans are geared up for March Madness as NCAA Tournament matches got underway Thursday.

The Fighting Illini take on Xavier University Musketeers Friday in Milwaukee.

ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7. Click here to watch

For many of the young freshmen from Illinois, Thursday’s practice was their first experience of this level of competition. Kasparas Jakucionis, the Lithuanian guard, confessed that he only recently started following the tournament, within the last few years.

However, Jakucionis did watch Wednesday night as Xavier rallied to beat the Texas Longhorns to earn the first round date with the Illini.

The Musketeers are no easy match up. They’re older, obviously more experienced and have some momentum coming off a play-in win

Despite their limited exposure, the Illini team exudes confidence. Dealing with injuries for a significant portion of the season, they remain optimistic that their peak performance is yet to come.

In Big Ten games, the Fighting Illini hold a 13-9 record, while in non-conference matchups, they stand at 8-3. Illinois leads the Big Ten in scoring with an average of 83.8 points per game and boasts a shooting percentage of 45.0%.

The Musketeers are 13-8 against Big East teams. Xavier is the best team in the Big East scoring 15.2 fast break points per game.

Illinois scores 83.8 points, 12.6 more per game than the 71.2 Xavier allows. Xavier has shot at a 46.9% rate from the field this season, 4.7 percentage points higher than the 42.2% shooting opponents of Illinois have averaged.

Jakucionis is scoring 15.0 points per game with 5.6 rebounds and 4.6 assists for the Fighting Illini. Will Riley is averaging 15.4 points and 5.4 rebounds while shooting 48.8% over the last 10 games.

Ryan Conwell is shooting 41.7% from beyond the arc with 3.0 made 3-pointers per game for the Musketeers, while averaging 16.7 points. Zach Freemantle is averaging 18.7 points and 6.6 rebounds over the last 10 games.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.