Miami basketball versus Illinois is good opportunity in 2019 Big Ten/ACC Challenge

After playing perennial  Big Ten doormats Nebraska and Rutgers in four of the last six Big Ten/ACC Challenges the Miami basketball program will travel to Champaign, Illinois for the first time to play the Fighting Illini in the 2019 challenge.

The game between the Miami basketball program and Illinois is scheduled for the first night of the 2019 Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Clemson and Minnesota will play the other game, opening night. The challenge has lost some of the luster it used to have. The Hurricanes play their season opener November 5 versus Louisville.

Miami leads the all-time series with the Fighting Illini 2-1. The Hurricanes won the two most recent meetings. Miami prevailed  63-59 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 2013 and won 70-61 in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge in Coral Gables on December 2, 2014. Illinois’ lone victory was 86-76 in Coral Gables in 1968.

The 2019-20 basketball season will be one of transition and hopefully improvement for the Miami Hurricanes. Ebuka Izundu and Anthony Lawrence III graduated. Following a season-long suspension and one that would have sidelined him for between seven and eight games next year, Dewan Hernandez moved on to the NBA.

Illinois is not the program it once was. The Fighting Illini have had only one winning season in the past four years. Their last NCAA Tournament appearance was the loss to the Hurricanes in 2013. For a school known for football, Miami has had far greater success over the last decade than Illinois.

Illinois does have rising sophomore guard Ayo Dosunmu. Dosunmu is a potential lottery pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. As a freshman in 2018-19 Dosunmu averaged 13.8 points per game. 4.0 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.3 steals per game. Miami has its own star guard with rising junior Chris Lykes back at point guard.

The 5’7 Lykes put up bigger numbers than Dosunmu this past season. Lykes averaged 16.2 PPG, 2.7 RPG, 3.2 APG and 1.3 SPG. Lykes will likely be joined in the backcourt by returning senior Dejan Vasiljevic and Oklahoma junior transfer Kameron McGusty, The Hurricanes are bringing in a much-needed star recruiting class.

Guards Isaiah Wong and Harlond Beverly are likely to push the three expected Hurricanes starters. Up front, Miami adds freshman Anthony Walker and Florida graduate transfer Keith Stone. Miami’s lineup up front will depend on what Hurricanes head coach Jim Larranaga and his staff elect to do.

Stone will challenge returnees Sam Waardenburg, Rodney Miller and Deng Gak for starting spots in the frontcourt. Waardenburg averaged 5.3 PPG and 3.5 RPG in 32 games played with 11 starts in 2018-19. Gak missed all but eight games because of a season-ending knee injury. Miller took the year off to work on his game.

Miami will almost definitely use a three-guard lineup with Waardenburg, Miller, Gak and Stone in the rotation up front. Walker will likely provide minutes behind the other four. Players are not redshirting as often in basketball as football. Larranaga hs redshirted Waardenburg and Miller in the past few seasons.