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player ready...CHAMPAIGN — The Orange Krush was ready for Morez Johnson Jr. on Friday night at State Farm Center.
The Illinois student section printed giant AI photos of Johnson, wearing a clown face and a jersey that read traitor on the front, and they waved them at Michigan as the Wolverines warmed up for the top-10 showdown.
Johnson, however, was ready for Illinois.
The 6-foot-9 sophomore out of Thornton, who transferred to Ann Arbor after one season at Illinois, carried No. 3 Michigan in the first half with 13 of his 19 points. He added 11 rebounds. Michigan 7-foot-3 center Aday Mara took over from there, scoring 15 of his 19 points after halftime to lead the Wolverines to an 84-70 victory over the No. 10 Illini.
Michigan (27-2, 17-1) won the Big Ten regular-season title outright with the victory after securing a share of it with its 77-67 win over Minnesota on Tuesday. The Wolverines celebrated their first outright conference crown since 2014 with the trophy in the locker room after the game.
Illinois coach Brad Underwood said he thought Michigan brought the “physical punch” to the game better than the Illini did, and a lot of that had to do with the Wolverines formidable frontcourt, starting with Johnson.
Johnson said his room was a little hot the night before the Illinois game, but otherwise he slept well. He was excited about playing the Illini more than bothered by any of the noise around it.
“See, I don’t really get into all that personal stuff like that,” Johnson said. “I saw all the stuff on Twitter. Somebody leaked my phone number this morning, so I got a bunch of everything. I just do a good job of ignoring everything. I come in here and play basketball. I know all of that outside noise is like literally nonsense. It doesn’t matter at all. So I think that’s probably what it is.”
Multiple former Illini players were in the house, including Meyers Leonard, Brandon Paul and Luther Head, to cheer on the biggest home contest of the season. But they watched the Illini’s upset effort fizzle out.
The Illini cut it to 53-48 on freshman Keaton Wagler’s 3-pointer with 13:09 to play, but they wouldn’t get any closer.
Michigan graduate forward Yaxel Lendeborg helped keep Wagler in check in the first half, when Wagler had just six points. Wagler turned it on in the second half, finishing with 23 points and three assists, but he also had four turnovers.
Lendeborg added 16 points, seven rebounds and four assists.
“Yax was up for the challenge,” Michigan coach Dusty May said of his defense. “He loves guarding point guards. And when he switches, we have a big body … switching onto a big man. … They’re really, really good at punishing a matchup, and because of our lineup versatility, I don’t think they did it as well as they typically do.”
Illinois (22-7, 13-5), which has two games left in the regular season before the Big Ten tournament, has lost four of its last six games. But none was as telling of the challenges the Illini could face in making a deep NCAA Tournament run than Friday’s game against a likely No. 1 seed.
Underwood said he saw complacency from his team Friday, noting the Wolverines played harder and nastier.
“Kylan Boswell can do everything Yaxel can do,” Underwood said. “We’ve seen that. We’ve got to get back to post-Nebraska mindset on the defensive side. Just getting gritty, nasty. … It all starts with Kylan and Tomi (Ivišić). Just demand it in practice. This group wants to win. They care a lot, so that’s not going to be a problem.
“The lesson was learned. They took the belt off and beat our behinds with it.”
That started with Johnson, who May said was a force from the tipoff.
Johnson scored Michigan’s final seven points of the first half to help the Wolverines to a 38-31 lead at the break. The Illini kept it close for much of the half, but the Wolverines showcased their ability to answer in quick spurts, scoring 10 fast-break points.
After Wagler completed a four-point play to give Illinois a 16-11 lead, Michigan went on an 11-0 run and didn’t trail again.
Underwood said he thought Johnson was the best player on the court in the first half.
“I don’t have any emotions,” Underwood said of watching Johnson’s play. “He’s a good player. That’s the new world (with the transfer portal).”
Johnson, the 2024 Mr. Basketball of Illinois, averaged seven points and 6.7 rebounds per game as a freshman in 2024-25 for the Illini but transferred to Michigan in the spring as Illinois rebuilt its frontcourt. He entered the game averaging 13.2 points and 7.2 rebounds this season.
He said afterward that there was no bad blood between him and his former teammates, even joking with Ivišić outside of the Michigan locker room, asking, “Where’s my hug?”
Lendeborg wore a Johnson jersey during warmups to show his support for his teammate and said he could tell he was “super locked in.”
“The message was just we all love Rez,” Lendeborg said. “Should have never let him go.
“We put a lot of effort into this game, just for Rez as well. The championship and Rez. It means a lot to him, and it means a lot to us.”