Rayvonte Rice will miss more than a month -- five-to-six weeks, according to one report -- after breaking a bone in his left hand, a source confirmed to NBCSports.com.
He suffered the injury on Monday evening at practice.
This would be a disastrous loss for the Illini. Rice is their leading scorer (17.2 points) and rebounder (6.9 boards) for a team that is just 10-5 on the season and coming off of losses in their first two Big Ten games.
Illinois was already in a bad spot if they were going to try and make a run at the NCAA tournament. Doing so with their best player out until mid-February will be a tall task.
No. 11 Maryland will visit Illinois on Wednesday.