Illinois Basketball: Can the Illini hot start carry over into Big Ten season

The women’s Illinois basketball team has started off playing some solid basketball this season managing to go 5-1 through their first six games.

Illinois hasn’t exactly played the toughest of competition to begin the year, though. Their biggest win has probably come against Austin Peay by 14 points. Their lone loss came at the hands of in-state foe Illinois State by 16 points. So, while the start looks nice on paper, there is some hesitancy with recent trends.

Last season, the Illini started the year 4-2 but ended up falling short of expectations. They were 10-20 for the season with a Big Ten record of 2-16. The year prior, Illinois started 4-2 as well but couldn’t sustain momentum as the team finished 9-22 on the season and 0-16 in conference play. Will this be the year that the Fighting Fahey’s buck the nasty trend and start being a force in the Big Ten?

I think there is a lot of talent on the court for this team. Petra Holesinska is the leader of this program right now. She is a junior on the team and is averaging 17 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game. This team as a whole has some solid experience as well.

Ali Andrews and Brandi Beasley are two pieces to this team who will help the Illini get back to being competitive again. Both of them are seniors and are big contributors to the team.

Andrews is averaging 11.5 points and 4.3 rebounds per game this season. She has started the season off well. Beasley has only suited up for three of the six games the Illini have played this season. She was in concussion protocol the first part of the year, but they are starting to feed her more minutes each game. When she is fully up to speed, then I expect this team to take off.

The new faces will go a long way in getting this program to a respectable level again too. Freshmen Kennedi Myles and Jada Peebles have both started every game this season and have put up big numbers. Myles has averaged 10 points, which is third on the team, and 8.5 rebounds, which leads the team, per game this season. Peebles has also added 9.4 points, 1.5 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game.

So, the big question remains; can this Illinois basketball team get back to winning on the court? Can they have non-conference winning shift over to victories in the Big Ten? I think with the experience they have mixed in with the talented freshmen that have been added, that this team is poised for a solid year. Watch for this Illini team to win 5-8 Big Ten games this season.