Illinois Basketball: Illini road woes expected with young team

The struggles of the Illinois basketball team have been real this season, but there are reasons for the struggles.

I am not setting aside the fact that, at times, this program has looked really bad at the game of basketball. There was a six-game stretch in the middle of the season where Illinois dropped every game including one at home to Florida Atlantic.

While the team has looked ugly at times, they are starting to show some improvements. Over the last six games, the Illini are 3-3 which included a win over No. 13 Maryland. This team that is comprised, mostly, of freshmen and newcomers is starting to figure things out.

One area that Illinois continues to struggle in is road games. With a new team that is finally getting more familiar with each other, the road contests still seem to be a bugaboo. If you just look at the schedule, you will see the Illini have only played six road games, according to ESPN. That isn’t the case, though.

Illinois had three road games during the Maui Invitational. They played one game up at the United Center against Ohio State. And then the Illini had the Braggin’ Rights game in St. Louis. I add all of those contests in as road games because we don’t have the home court advantage that we would normally have at the State Farm Center.

So, if you add those games in as road contests, Illinois is currently 0-11 on the road this season. They are 7-4 in true home games as well. Not winning a road game this season could be a realistic expectation. The road games to finish out the year are against Ohio State, No. 24 Wisconsin, No. 17 Purdue and Penn State. Illinois can knock off any of those teams, but the one that I would expect us to win the most is against the Nittany Lions.

On the surface, this season looks awful for the Illinois basketball team. You aren’t wrong to be frustrated with the results so far. But, if you break down the schedule and see that we have tremendous road struggles, it all starts to make sense.  A young team who doesn’t have experience playing together will struggle on the road. That is just a fact.

With four road games left, hopefully, this team can avoid being skunked. They are starting to play well together, so I wouldn’t be shocked if they pulled off at least one road win this season.