MILWAUKEE -- Ty Rodgers has operated behind the scenes for the Illinois men's basketball program throughout the 2024-25 season after his decision to redshirt was announced hours before the Nov. 4 season opener against Eastern Illinois.
Rodgers has been a constant in practice. A constant at the end of the bench during games. Also unavailable to the media throughout the regular season and quick to head for the locker room exit last week in Indianapolis after both of the Illini's Big Ten tournament games.
So the veteran guard, who started all 38 games last season for the Illini en route to their run to the Elite Eight, knew he'd be a popular subject Thursday afternoon during the open media availability before Illinois' shootaround at Fiserv Forum. Rodgers won't play when the sixth-seeded Illini (21-12) face 11th-seeded Xavier (22-11) at 8:45 p.m. Friday in the first round of the NCAA tournament, but his story is still part of his team's journey this season.
How Rodgers chose to discuss his decision to redshirt, though, was his prerogative. It's something the Saginaw, Mich., native and Thornton graduate said he didn't want to speak about publicly.
What this season has done for him and his work with strength and conditioning coach Adam Fletcher, however, he was happy to discuss.
"I've been able to work on myself and really just help my teammates," Rodgers said. "I feel like I've been able to lead in different ways I haven't in the past. I think it's been able to help me, and I've been able to help everybody else.
"Mentally, I'm in a better place. Physically, I've been working with Fletch. I've been able to do a lot of things I think will be able to help me for next year."
Xavier is Illinois' first NCAA tournament opponent that started in the First Four during Brad Underwood's tenure as the Illini coach. But he doesn't see that as giving the Musketeers some outsized advantage after they beat Texas 86-80 late Wednesday night in Dayton, Ohio.
"I think you've got your practices in," Underwood said. "You know who you are. We've had 102 practices this year. So I think everybody's pretty eager. I think there's an excitement level here that's pretty cool. ... But, yeah, that was a heck of a game (Wednesday) night and two really, really good basketball teams. Xavier did what they did. They just kind of walked them down at the end."
Not knowing it would be Xavier on the opposite bench until late Wednesday night wasn't a factor for Underwood. Illinois did some generic prep earlier in the week, but the short turnaround between finding out the Musketeers were their opponent and Friday's game doesn't bother the Illini staff.
"In past years we have been a big two-day prep team," Underwood said. "We got away from that this year. We've done a lot more one-day preps in terms of what we've gone over with our players, not giving them too much information. I felt like a little bit in the past we've killed them with numbers and too much information sometimes, so we backed off that.
"It's not tremendously different. The one thing that it forced our coaching staff to do, and what we did, is I've watched three or four games on both. Then we tried to find similarities that we could talk about in practice. Worked on it from that standpoint. I'd be lying if I said we didn't cover a little bit of Texas and a little bit of Xavier's stuff in practice. We just never told our guys what was what. We just covered their actions."
Illinois was able to use its practices this week on Sunday and Monday with a light day Tuesday to continue re-establishing the chemistry that was built early in the season. The Illini didn't get back to 100 percent full strength until the lead-up to the Big Ten tournament last week when Morez Johnson Jr. was cleared to return after breaking his left wrist on Feb. 15.
"The start of the season, when we were healthy, we were playing really good," Illinois center Tomislav Ivisic said. "I think we started to build team chemistry between everyone. We had some unfortunate sicknesses, injuries and that just moves you away from the court. You can't focus on the game and practices. It was a hard time. But recently everyone was at practices. We had a lot of time to prepare and getting back to the chemistry we started building preseason, and we're still improving, working on it a lot. I would say that it's growing day by day, and we're in a way better situation than we were."
Xavier didn't make it to Milwaukee until around 3 a.m. Thursday after beating Texas. Rest and recovery was the primary focus the rest of the day save for the team's obligatory press conference and shootaround Thursday afternoon at Fiserv Forum.
Otherwise, Xavier coach Sean Miller let his team rest. The Musketeers will get more of that Friday since they won't play Illinois until 8:45 p.m. -- roughly 48 hours after their First Four game tipped.
Miller and the Xavier coaching staff, however, eschewed rest and got to work on the game plan and scouting report to face the Illini. Preparation that actually started Sunday since the Xavier coaches knew who they'd play if they beat the Longhorns.
"We don't just start watching Illinois the minute we beat Texas," Miller said. "We start watching Illinois on Sunday. We have multiple coaches assigned to Illinois, and we become as familiar as if we're getting ready to play them sooner rather than later. So that when that first game ends and you are victorious, you can seamlessly move to that next opponent."
Miller has come away enamored of Illinois' offense during his prep for Friday's game. The number of playmakers and three-point shooters the Illini can boast -- overlapping skills for many of them -- stood out to the Xavier coach the most.
"I think you start to really fall in love with their offense, watching it, because it's the modern game," Miller said. "I think they're a very good passing team. They look for each other. They're balanced scoring. Not too many teams really sit there with five players in double figures. And, obviously, we respect the Big Ten as a conference. When you average over 80 points a game in that league, from an offensive perspective, you have a lot of things you do well.
"They shoot the three-point shot about as much as anybody in the country when you think about the percentage of shots they shoot, and they can do it not with a couple guys. It just seems like they have five, six, seven different players on a given night that can make threes, which is always really dangerous."
Kylan Boswell is already prepared to draw Xavier guard Ryan Conwell as his defensive assignment Friday night. The 6-foot-4 guard, who stared his career at South Florida and had a breakout sophomore season at Indiana State before transferring to Xavier, is averaging 16.8 points as the Musketeers' second-leading scorer.
The area Conwell leads Xavier, however, is as a 42 percent three-point shooter. While he only made one three-pointer in Wednesday's win against Texas, he's had 14 games with at least four three-pointers and set a season and career high going 7 of 11 in the Musketeers' Big East tournament loss to Marquette.
"I've been watching him," Boswell said. "He's one of the best guards I'm going to go against, for sure. Elite shooter off the bounce. He's a great playmaker for his team. For me, I like those challenges. Always tests me as an individual and as a player. I've been watching a lot of film on him and will be ready for the game."
Kasparas Jakucionis' season has featured a series of highs and lows.
Scoring 20-plus points in six straight games as November turned to December obliterated the previous Illinois program record of consecutive 20-point games by a freshman (it was two). His 10 20-point games this season are also a freshman record, topping Cory Bradford's eight during the 1998-99 season. The flip side is the turnover trouble the 6-6 guard has faced throughout the season. Jakucionois has had five or more turnovers in 11 games this season, including six each in Illinois' two Big Ten tournament games.
What Jakucionis is trying to do, however, as his NCAA tournament debut approaches Friday against Xavier, is not try and put too much pressure on himself to have to do it all.
"I think that to win, and to win in especially these games, we need everybody," Jakucionis said. "We need everyone to be involved every possession. Everyone needs to do their job on the defensive end and the offensive end. I think one player cannot do anything in this type of competition."
Underwood had made it a point to discuss what he's called the abruptness or urgency of the end with his team -- both throughout the season and in the last several days. It's something the Illini got a taste of last week in Indianapolis after their Big Ten tournament quarterfinal loss to Maryland.
An end to a potential tournament run Illinois didn't expect and one that will be permanent if its repeated this weekend in Milwaukee. The Illini could look forward to the NCAA tournament after getting blown out by the Terrapins. Now, there's only the end of the season -- win or loss.
"It's the beauty of this tournament," Underwood said. "You're a little bit off, and you go home. Everybody's good. Every opponent's a challenge. You've got to go play well. I think our guys understand that. I think it's why we've tried to play the best schedule that we can possibly put together so these guys are hardened a little bit. We've been on big stages, and we've been pretty solid in that, so I think we'll rise to that challenge."
Those conversations have resonated with the Illinois players. A scant few Illini have experienced that sudden end to a season in the NCAA tournament. Most of the players on the roster can only imagine it in theory, with the loss to Maryland in Indianapolis an imperfect parallel.
"That's definitely our sample size right there," Illinois guard Tre White said of the Big Ten tournament loss. "That feeling hurt. It kind of put it into perspective because right after the game it was like, 'Damn, that could have been our last game of the season.' We all got together and all want to do the same thing. We just want to try and keep this going."
Landing in Milwaukee for the first round (or two) of the NCAA tournament was a boon for Illinois fans. It's an easy drive from Champaig. And an even easier one from Chicago and the significant alumni population in the most heavily populated area of the state.
Don't be surprised if there's also a serious showing from the Kentucky fan base. Especially since first-year coach Mark Pope offered to foot the bill. Pope made the offer to cover Kentucky fans' gas money during his Monday radio show. The only caveats are proof of a ticket have to be shown, and no one in the travel party can be of recruitable age.
Plenty of Wildcats faithful have apparently taken Pope up on his offer before third-seeded Kentucky (22-11) tips off against 14th-seeded Troy (23-10) at 6:10 p.m. Friday at Fiserv Forum. The winner between Kentucky-Troy gets the winner of Illinois-Xavier on Sunday.
"I'm on purpose not keeping count because I want to reduce my stress level before tournament play," Pope said Thursday afternoon in Milwaukee of his offer to cover gas money. "But that was not the smartest thing I've ever done."
Scott Richey