Good Morning, Illini Nation: Know the Foe — Jackson State

To subscribe, click here Sign up for our daily basketball newsletter here Welcome to Good Morning, Illini Nation, your daily dose of college basketball news from Illini beat writer and AP Top 25 voter Scott Richey.

Hell offer up insights every morning on Brad Underwoods team and college basketball at large: The rest of Illinois' 2025-26 schedule should be published in the next two weeks.

Why it takes the Big Ten increasingly longer each offseason to get this done remains a mystery.

Until then, we'll take a look at the other teams the Illini will face this season: Jackson State When the Tigers are on the schedule: Nov.

3, State Farm Center Last years finish: 16-18, 14-4 Southwestern Athletic Conference (Second) Most important returning player: Daeshun Ruffin was a four-star recruit in high school ranked just outside the top 50 in the Class of 2021.

The No.

1 player in the state of Mississippi in the coming out of Callaway High School in Jackson, Miss.

Injuries, though, have kept the 5-foot-11, 155-pound guard from getting a full season to show why.

Ruffin played just 25 games across two seasons at Mississippi before returning home to Jackson State where a torn ACL sidelined him for the entire 2023-24 season and kept him out most of the first two months of the 2024-25 season.

Healthy in the new year, Ruffin averaged 15.7 points, 4.2 assists and 3.5 rebounds as the Tigers just missed out on a SWAC tournament title and NCAA tournament appearance.

Best offseason acquisition: Jackson State coach Mo Williams (yes, that Mo Williams that played 13 years in the NBA and won an NBA title in 2016) landed two of the top four players in the state of Mississippi in the Class of 2025.

One of them is his son, Mike, who won state titles at Germantown (Miss.) and Jackson Academy (Miss.).

The other, 6-6 forward Kendrick Simmons, was a four-time state champion at Booneville (Miss.).

Projection for 2025-26: The Tigers are among the favorites in the SWAC again this season and have a strong contingent of guards, led by Ruffin and Dorian McMillian, that could make it happen.

The frontcourt is a serious question mark, though, and dependent on transfers Devin Ree (Louisiana Tech) and Dionjahe Thomas (Southern) stepping into prominent roles..

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