1. This could be the worst season in the history of Illinois basketball
The Illinois basketball team isn’t good this year and that is a harsh reality to deal with. That doesn’t mean we don’t have some good players, but they just aren’t coming together to put wins on the board.
Like previously mentioned, Illinois is now 4-8 on the season after a bad loss to one of their biggest rivals in Missouri. This was the Braggin’ Rights game and the only thing we had to brag about after the game was holding Mark Smith to five points and six rebounds. Beyond that, things were extremely ugly for the Illini.
Ever since Illinois started playing at least 20 games in a season, the worst record to-date was in 1973-1974 when the Illini finished 5-18 overall and 2-12 in the Big Ten. That was the final year of Harv Schmidt as the head coach of the Orange and Blue.
While it is sad that this could end up being the benchmark, the Illini still have some games they can win so they don’t go down as the worst team in Illinois history. We have 19 games left in the season, but nine of those contests are against ranked teams. That is such a tough schedule.
Let’s say we lose all of the ranked games, which would be nine, and then win half of the non-ranked games, which would be five. That would make us 5-14 to finish and 9-22 for the season. In my book, that would make this Illini team a top five worst team in program history. This might be a bleak outlook, but it is one that we are on pace for. Something needs to change.