Penn visits No. 3 Illinois on Thursday night at State Farm Center in Champaign, and the biggest change is that Illinois will do it without David Mirkovic. He remains out after an emergency appendectomy on Oct. 31, leaving the Fighting Illini to open this matchup a step short in the frontcourt.
That is why this game is drawing attention now. Tipoff is set for 8:30 p.m. ET, and Penn is walking into a ranked opponent that already played its first regular-season game on Nov. 2. For Illinois, the absence of Mirkovic changes more than a single rotation spot. It affects how the No. 3 team can line up its size, how often it can stay big, and how much pressure falls on the rest of the front line.
Penn has enough perimeter threat to make that absence matter. Its leading scorer averaged 16.4 points and 7.6 rebounds last season, made 43.2 percent of his 3-point attempts and had a 44-point game. Power, who played at Duke and Virginia before landing at Penn, started all 30 games and averaged 35.0 minutes, while Michael Zanoni made 38.7 percent of his 3-pointers, averaged 11.8 points in 30 starts and played 28.7 minutes a night. Zanoni also had a 30-point game, which gives Penn more than one guard who can punish a defense if it helps too hard inside.
That matters because Illinois is still expected to lean on Tomislav Ivisic and Zvonimir Ivisic in the matchup, and the cleanest way for Penn to bother that plan is to stretch the floor. If Penn can hit enough shots, Illinois has to decide whether to protect the basket with its remaining size or chase shooters away from the arc. Tomislav Ivisic averaged 10.4 points and 5.6 rebounds last season, started 33 of 34 games, shot 48.3 percent from the field and made 31.3 percent of his 3-point attempts, so Illinois still has a skilled big who can shape the game at both ends. But without Mirkovic available, the margin is thinner, and that is the detail that turns a home opener against Penn into something more than a routine early-season date.
The real question now is not whether Illinois is favored at home. It is how much the missing frontcourt piece changes the shape of the game once Penn starts pulling its bigs away from the basket.
