Illinois basketball is coming off one of the most lopsided Big Ten victories you will see in your life.

Last week, the Illini had a good run on the West Coast with a win against then-No. 9 Oregon and then escaped disappointment with a win at Washington.

That momentum continued this week as Illinois took on Penn State last Wednesday. Brad Underwood had his team ready for the Nittany Lions, and about five minutes into the first half, the Illini turned on the burners and put the game away.

A 91-52 win in Big Ten play is amazing. You don’t see that often, and the craziest thing is that Illinois was missing our best player.

Kasparas Jakucionis was sidelined with an arm injury. That should have made the game closer, but the rest of the Illinois team rallied and played well as a team. To win by 39 points without our best player is incredible. Can you imagine what this score would have been if Jakucionis had been healthy?

Illinois is back in action on Saturday against USC. Luckily, this isn’t a West Coast game as the Trojans travel to Champaign. The big question in this competition is whether Jakucionis will come back or not.

Well, Brad Underwood spoke about Jakucionis and his condition with the injury in a press conference on Friday.

In the video, Underwood classifies Jakucionis as a “game day decision” around the 3:38 mark. They’ll see what the star point guard looks like before Saturday’s game to see if he fits in.

It wouldn’t hurt for Kasparas Jakucionis to sit out one more game so the Illinois basketball team can have him healthy at a crucial time

Of course I would like to see Jakucionis back on the pitch straight away. He is a great player who helps the Illini win games. This kid is one of the best players I’ve ever seen come through the program.

However, we just saw Illinois beat Penn State without Jakucionis. Illinois is now back home and facing an underperforming USC squad.

The Trojans are 9-6 overall and 1-3 in the Big Ten. They have some good talent on the team, but they are not very good. Only one of USC’s nine wins came against a non-middling program.

This is a perfect opportunity to let Jakucionis rest one more game. Illinois doesn’t play again until Tuesday night, so that would essentially give the kid four more days of rest to recover.

Illinois will need him more on the road ahead than we did against USC. After the Trojans, the Illini will face Indiana on Tuesday in Bloomington. The Hoosiers have won nine of their last 10 games.

The Illini then travel to East Lansing to face No. 16 Michigan State the following Sunday. The Spartans are 13-2 and have a really good squad this season. Illinois needs to be at full strength.

Although I would welcome Jakucionis on the pitch at any time, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to give him a few more days of rest so that he can fully recover. Illinois has a lot of games coming up and we will need that future top 10 pick in the NBA Draft.