By admin 
Fully appreciating Kylan Boswell’s work is a bit like watching Harry Dean Stanton on the big screen or Steve Cropper in the studio: you have to have an idea of what you’re looking for.
For example, a look at the stats reveals nothing special about Boswell, who is averaging 10.6 points and shooting just 34.4 percent from the floor on a team that, honestly, could really use another steady shooting hand from the perimeter to use.
And while Boswell is best known for his defense, even that dimension of his game doesn’t always jump out from the screen or the box score. He is averaging just 0.9 steals and 0.2 blocks this season.
Still, he’s arguably in the running with guard Kasparas Jakucionis — who is an early favorite for Big Ten Freshman of the Year and projected as an NBA lottery pick — for Illinois’ team MVP.
“We knew defensively what we were getting with Kylan,” Illini coach Brad Underwood said Sunday after Illinois’ 80-77 win over Missouri. “He went up against one of the better guards in the SEC today, who has played great, in (Anthony) Robinson and just…non-impact. We felt like we could really get into him and put pressure on him could do, and no one does that better than Bam.”
Always on the attack.
Kylan Boswell was relentless on the court – on the glass and at the rim.#IlliniPerformanceStat X #InvescoQQQ pic.twitter.com/puwprqnhrI
— Illinois Men’s Basketball (@IlliniMBB) December 22, 2024
Underwood gets no argument from Alabama’s Mark Sears (zero points), Arkansas’ Boogie Fland (eight points on 2-for-12 shooting), Wisconsin’s John Tonje (5-for-15 shooting) or Mizzou’s Robinson (two points on 0 -12). for-3 shooting), all of whom have undergone Boswell’s full-body treatment this season and learned – the hard way – the meaning of his nickname.
The latest development for Boswell, however, has taken place on the other end of the floor, where his field goal shooting is still a work in progress, but where he has found another way to contribute: translating his physical game from defense to offense .
Against Missouri, Boswell made 12 free throw attempts, converting 11 of them to help the Illini slip past the Tigers. It was the third straight game — and the fourth in Illinois’ last five minutes — in which Boswell shot at least seven free throws.
“The offense, to me, is just more open,” Boswell said when asked what has changed for him since arriving at Illinois in a trade from Arizona in the offseason. “You don’t have to deal with pack-the-line schemes anymore, things like that. And then the coach has put his big emphasis on going downhill, being a strong guard, getting fouled and getting to the line easily .buckets, easy points for us.”
Boswell’s free throw percentage averages 75.9 percent, but he’s shooting 86.5 percent over his past six — just as he’s increased his frequency to get there. It’s become something of a theme: when the Illini need a lift, Boswell comes with a boost.
Inch for inch and pound for pound, the 6-foot-1, 205-pound Boswell is one of the Big Ten’s best rebounders (4.5 per game). He’s been playing more and more on the ball (3.5 assists per game), taking some of the burden off Jakucionis and freeing up his first-year teammate to explore other ways to attack as a scorer. Boswell’s top five performances, according to John Hollinger’s GameScore metric, came against the Illini’s top opponents: Wisconsin, Arkansas, Missouri, Alabama and Tennessee.
“So the leadership, the experience, we knew we had to lean on that,” Underwood said of Boswell’s immediate expectations in Champaign. Production gradually followed. Underwood called it a “first semester” type deal and noted that Ben Humrichous and Tre White — both first-year Illini transfers, like Boswell — have been forced to make their own adjustments.
And now, with a full week between games and free from schoolwork over the holidays, the Illini gathered on the practice floor to work out the remaining kinks ahead of the Big Ten stretch run, a thought that delights Underwood.
Imagine Boswell being able to translate his crisp free throw to the floor as the Illini start to get comfortable with each other and find their individual niches on offense. To fulfill Underwood’s grand vision of advancing past last season’s Elite Eight appearance and into the final weekend zone of March Madness, Boswell and the No. 24 Illini (8-3) will have to discover versions of their best selves.
“And those days are coming,” Underwood said.