Tomislav Ivisic missed the last game for Illinois with an ailment. Unfortunately, head coach Brad Underwood confirmed on Saturday the versatile big man is not quite ready for a return to action over the weekend.

While meeting with the press, Underwood revealed that Ivisic was diagnosed with mono after the Michigan State game. The 7-footer battled through the illness for 28 minutes but struggled with his shooting and finished with 13 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds in the game.

After losing to Michigan State, Illinois returned home and was blown out in its first game without Ivisic in the lineup with a 91-70 loss at the hands of Maryland. Now, the Illini will try to get off its mini slide on Sunday against Northwestern without Tomislav Ivisic available.

Ivisic leads the team in rebounding (8.5) and blocks (1.2) and is also the Illini’s 2nd-leading scorer at 13 points per game. He is shooting over 50% from the floor and over 35% from 3-point range as part of the impressive 1-2 punch for Underwood’s squad alongside Kasparas Jakucionis.

After a hot start to the season and in Big Ten play, Illinois has now lost 3 of its last 4 to fall off the league-leading pace of Michigan State (7-0 in the B1G) and other contenders such as Purdue (8-2) and Michigan (6-2). We’ll see how Underwood is able to rally the troops in the face of some adversity.