Illinois Basketball: 5 games that could be crucial to the Illini season

CHICAGO, IL - MARCH 13: Illinois Fighting Illini head coach Brad Underwood chats with his team during a Big Ten Tournament game between the Northwestern Wildcats and the Illinois Fighting Illini on March 13, 2019, at the United Center in Chicago, IL. (Photo by Patrick Gorski/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

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MADISON, WISCONSIN – FEBRUARY 18: Head coach Brad Underwood of the Illinois Fighting Illini looks on in the first half against the Wisconsin Badgers at the Kohl Center on February 18, 2019 in Madison, Wisconsin. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) /

Illinois basketball fans get to watch the team play a meaningful game just 20 days from today.

It is exciting to think the Illini will tip-off their season in less than three weeks. I have been waiting for a while to see the basketball team lace up the sneakers. On top of just having the team back in action, they should be decent this year as well.

I will come out with schedule predictions later on. I am usually too optimistic about the outcome of games for the Illini, so my predictions tend to be way off. The five games that I am pointing out in this write-up are based on the worst-case scenario, though. These games could end up being huge if Illinois struggles at times this season.

Illinois has had troubles with winning games over the last decade. We have only made the NCAA tournament once in the last two coaching regimes. Illinois didn’t even sniff the postseason last year. Despite this season likely being different, I wanted to point out some games that could sway this team either in favor of the postseason or in favor of their bubble bursting.

Here are five games that could be crucial to the Illini season.

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