INDIANAPOLIS — When Michigan visited Champaign in late February for a top-10 matchup against Illinois, the Orange Krush student section was ready for Morez Johnson Jr. The orange-clad fans were relentless every time Johnson touched the basketball. The student section held up a cardboard cutout of Johnson painted with a clown face.
Illini fans hold a grudge with the best of them.
But it was Johnson — a former Illini and a Chicago-area native — who had the last laugh. His Wolverines held Illinois at bay for an 84-70 win at State Farm Center that clinched the Big Ten regular-season title for Michigan.
That remains the only meeting between the conference rivals who are both in Indianapolis this weekend competing in the Final Four. A lot has to go right for both teams, but there’s a real possibility of an Illinois-Michigan national championship game Monday.
Illinois plays Connecticut in a national semifinal at 5:09 p.m. Saturday, followed by Michigan-Arizona.
The conference featured six teams in the Sweet 16 this year and four in the Elite Eight.
“The Big Ten is really physical,” Johnson said Friday. “There’s a lot of different teams in the Big Ten, you’ve got to scheme for every team, and this year in the playoff run it showed us how good the Big Ten really is.”
This is the ninth time that two Big Ten teams have reached the Final Four. It hasn’t happened since 2015, when Wisconsin and Michigan State made it. Michigan and Illinois met in the semifinals in 1989, with the Wolverines pulling out a two-point win in a game that featured 33 lead changes.
Only once have two Big Ten teams met in the championship game. That was in 1976 — 50 years ago — when Indiana beat Michigan for its first title under Bobby Knight. It marked the last undefeated season in Division I men’s basketball.
More recently, the Big Ten is still searching for its first champion since Michigan State won the tournament in 2000. That’s despite eight Big Ten teams reaching the title game since then — including Illinois (2005) and Michigan twice (2013, 2018).
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Which brings things back to the present day. An all-Big Ten matchup in Indianapolis would be a dream-come-true for the conference.
It also would be quite a development for Johnson, the Wolverines 6-9 sophomore forward. A Riverdale native who played at St. Rita for three years before transferring to Thornton as a senior, Johnson was committed to Illinois for three years before he arrived on campus. He played more than 17 minutes per game as a freshman for the Illini last year.
Yet, he decided to enter the transfer portal after just one season. To add insult to injury for Illini fans, he landed with coach Dusty May and the rival Wolverines.
Asked about the Illini on Friday, Johnson didn’t have much to say about his former team.
“It’s good for them, but I’m focused on Arizona,” Johnson said. “I haven’t really paid much attention.”
He’ll have to pay attention if both teams advance to Monday night’s title game. Johnson did, however, provide effusive praise for his new coach. May brought Florida Atlantic to the Final Four in 2023, and now he has taken Michigan from last place in the Big Ten two years ago to the pinnacle of the sport.
Johnson primarily played around the rim last year at Illinois. In an era of positionless basketball, May has allowed the big man to expand his game. He knocked down 33 3-pointers this season at a 36% clip. He’s also not afraid to drive to the basket from the outside.
“It’s amazing having a coach that’s like super confident in you,” Johnson said. “We definitely talk about it when we’re watching film and stuff like that. ‘I should’ve shot that.’ But I’m trying to get to the greatest shot. I’d rather kick it to a guy if he’s open.”
Johnson will have plenty of family in town for the game. But this is a business trip.
“I pretty much haven’t talked to no one out here besides my teammates,” Johnson said. “I’ve been focused on the game. I haven’t seen my family or anyone like that yet.”
Buying in
Illinois became a top-10 team this season on the strength of its versatile offense, but its defense is a major reason it is in the Final Four.
The Illini held their last three opponents in the tournament — VCU, Houston and Iowa — to fewer than 60 points, their first such three-game stretch this season.
Illini forward Ben Humrichous said the success has come from players sticking to their defensive principles: Don’t give up layups, protect the paint and rebound.
“What’s been great with this team has been our buy-in to that process, even to the small fundamentals with the way that we start every possession, in a stance with a great presence, using our size and our length to where the teams have to think about the size and length that we provide each possession,” he said. “Our buy-in from our players, the way our coaching staff has relayed that message and emphasized its importance, I think, has been a big part of why we’ve been so successful defensively.”
Illinois guard Keaton Wagler noted after the Elite Eight win over Iowa that the Illini allowed just one two-point field goal from the Hawkeyes in the second half. Iowa shot 6-for-26 from the field, 5-for-18 from 3-point range and 10-for-12 from the free-throw line after halftime.
Wing Andrej Stojaković said the Illini are remembering to play on the defensive end like they do on offense. And they’ll need to do that consistently against a UConn team that came back from 19 points down to beat Duke in the Elite Eight.
“The aggressiveness we have offensively, just trying to repeat that energy on the other side of the floor,” Stojaković said. “We’re a lot more aggressive on the ball. Earlier in the year, we were one of the lowest teams in the country in terms of fouling, so just being able to be more aggressive and being able to take more of those fouls, knowing we have room for that.”
Old dog learns new tricks
UConn forward Alex Karaban, who played on the 2023 and ’24 champions, is attempting to become the first non-UCLA player to win three national championships. Eight UCLA players accomplished that feat during the John Wooden dynasty in the late 1960s and ’70s, and the last ones were Larry Farmer and Larry Hollyfield in 1973.
Tarris Reed Jr. refers to his veteran teammate as the “old dog” of the Huskies.
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“Everybody knows that old dog that just won’t die,” Reed said. “He’s been around and is hard to kill. That’s like AK right now. He’s that legend in college basketball and has been around for a while. It’s going to be tough to put him down. If he’s the guy leading your team, it’s going to be tough to take us down.”
Coach Dan Hurley called Karaban the Huskies’ “babysitter.”
“It’s like hiring a babysitter for your team,” he said. “He just babysits your team for 40½ years. I mean, he’s the best babysitter. I guess now we’re paying him in NIL.”
What’s in a name?
Illinois’ 7-2 center Zvonimir Ivišić is called “Big Z” by teammates and fans. Who gave him the nickname?
“That’s Coach Cal,” he told the Tribune, referring to John Calipari, his former coach at Kentucky and Arkansas.
Does Ivišić know anything about the original Big Z?
“Who’s that?” he asked.
Ivišić was informed the name belonged to former Chicago Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano, who was dubbed “Big Z” in Chicago by former manager Dusty Baker.
“Sorry, I don’t follow (baseball),” Ivišić said, adding he likes the nickname.
Ivišić said he won’t try to patent the nickname, as Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams is currently trying to do with the “Iceman” nickname that originally was given to NBA Hall of Famer George Gervin. Crisis averted.
Real-world issues
UConn’s Hurley has a message for his players that could be a universal message.
“Get your face away from the phone and get in the real world,” Hurley said. “Get off Twitter. Get off Instagram. Stop reading the comments. That’s probably why it doesn’t bother me when people have things to say (about me). I don’t live in that world. My world, and the world I think is the best world to live in, is the real world — interacting with people, putting your phone down.”