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Sports Illustrated

Sport

Kevin Sweeney

Michigan’s Big Ten Title Feels Sweeter Thanks to Morez Johnson Jr.’s Illinois Exit

Morez Johnson Jr Illinois (Organization) Big Ten Michigan (Organization) Illini SI Ill Brad Underwood Basketball Aday Mara

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — It’s safe to say Morez Johnson Jr. got the last laugh.

The Top 10 showdown between Michigan and Illinois was once billed as a potential Big Ten men’s basketball title decider. Results in recent weeks (namely, the Illini hitting a few bumps in what had been a rather smooth conference road) nullified most of the stakes. Michigan was happy to clinch the outright Big Ten crown early, and NCAA tournament seeding is always a conversation.

What was at stake was old-school pride. Johnson, Chicago’s own and a monster recruit for Illinois last season, hit the portal and left for Big Ten rival Michigan. He attributes the decision to “career development,” though naturally in this era money is always assumed to be a factor. Illinois students lined up overnight and all throughout the day on an unseasonably warm day, 21-and-up beverages flowing, ready to boo that decision. And boo they did, applauding every missed warmup shot and jeering him in his pregame juggling routine.

But once the ball was tipped, it became obvious very quickly that Illinois lost this Big Ten breakup. Johnson, as many predicted he’d one day become in Champaign, has emerged as among the sport’s most physically dominant players, the heart of a frontcourt that makes even college basketball’s biggest teams look small. That was certainly the case Friday night, when a Johnson-led unit overwhelmed Illinois and helped dominate a team many had put in national championship conversations a few weeks ago in an 84–70 win. Clinching a Big Ten title on his old home court and getting treated to a celebratory water shower, trophy in hand? That could only make it sweeter.

BIG TEN CHAMPS! pic.twitter.com/rOUkxxwOax
— Michigan Men's Basketball (@umichbball) February 28, 2026

“Morez, from the jump ball, was a force,” Michigan head coach Dusty May said.

His first offensive possession featured Johnson launching his body into David Mirković (his replacement in some respects at power forward) and drawing a foul. There were plays just like that all night, overpowering the Illini front line on the glass and around the basket. Aday Mara, 7' 3", added gasoline to that fire in the second half, with game-changing stretches of shot blocking on one end and buckets around the rim at the other. Michigan eventually pulled away on the back of a three-point surge, but the game was dictated and won well before that by Johnson, Mara and 6' 9" forward Yaxel Lendeborg’s defense, toughness and physical edge.

“In the first half, everything was in the three-foot radius of the rim, and Morez just owned it,” Illinois head coach Brad Underwood said.

And to Johnson’s credit, what could’ve been an overly emotional night was handled with the maturity of a pro well beyond his years. Johnson didn’t play into the crowd’s jeers (though Lendeborg wearing a Johnson replica jersey pregame may have egged them on) and seemed on great terms with his former teammates, sharing long hugs with many in postgame handshake lines and laughing in the tunnel with Tomislav Ivišić postgame. Bad blood?

“Nah, that’s my boy!” Johnson said with a grin.

But between the lines, Johnson was ready for battle. Far more than his former teammates were. Underwood bemoaned his team’s lack of “nastiness” in this one and said his team’s two centers (Zvonimir Ivišić and Tomislav Ivišić) weren’t “even a factor on the glass.” It was impossible to watch his team’s performance and not feel like Johnson was Illinois’s missing piece, perhaps the nation’s “nastiest” big man. Few throw their body around with more sheer force and physicality than Johnson, and maybe no one in the Big Ten plays with a more consistent motor than he does. Illinois star Keaton Wagler (who Johnson hosted on his recruiting visit to Champaign) said the Illini were “bullied” by Michigan. And there’s no bigger basketball bully in the land right now than Johnson.

So while there's no such thing as an untouchable or unmovable player in the modern landscape of college basketball, Johnson (especially as a local recruit) feels like as close to one for Illinois as can be. You can take the emotion out as a decision-maker, like Underwood says he did, and also find it impossible to swallow the possibility of a night like Friday happening. The hard truth: Had Illinois found a way to keep Johnson, it might be the team lifting a trophy on this night.

“There’s no emotion,” Underwood said. “He’s a good player. That’s the new world. I love Morez to death. He’s a terrific, terrific young man. He left for the reasons that he left for, which you would have to ask him, but we do what we do in our program … he’s a next level guy, and he showed that tonight.”

May could be heard postgame telling Illinois coaches he hoped to see them in Indianapolis at the Final Four in five weeks. And Illinois certainly can still get there if it can find the same spark that made the Illini look so dangerous in late January and early February. These types of late-season tests are measuring-stick games though, and it was clear where the Illini stacked up relative to a team we know is a serious title threat. They’re not the first and certainly won’t be the last to get overpowered by Michigan’s size, length and physicality. That perhaps the final infinity stone in building what might be college basketball’s best team came to them from a conference rival makes the night all the more bitter in what could’ve been a celebratory affair.

And if it’s bitter now, just imagine what it could be like in early April, if Johnson is cutting down nets in maize instead of orange. That possibility, scarring as it may be for the Illini fans still upset by his departure, becomes more and more real by the day.