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Illinois Basketball: 5 eye-popping improvements for Illini in 2019-2020

By Rees Woodcock

WEST LAFAYETTE, IN - JANUARY 21: Illinois Fighting Illini center Kofi Cockburn (21) reacts after dunking the ball during the Big Ten Conference college basketball game between the Illinois Fighting Illini and the Purdue Boilermakers on January 21, at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Indiana. (Photo by Michael Allio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
WEST LAFAYETTE, IN - JANUARY 21: Illinois Fighting Illini center Kofi Cockburn (21) reacts after dunking the ball during the Big Ten Conference college basketball game between the Illinois Fighting Illini and the Purdue Boilermakers on January 21, at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Indiana. (Photo by Michael Allio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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Illinois basketball
CHAMPAIGN, IL – MARCH 08: Kofi Cockburn #21 of the Illinois Fighting Illini breaks up a scuffle between Da’Monte Williams #20 of the Illinois Fighting Illini and Connor McCaffery #30 of the Iowa Hawkeyes during the game at State Farm Center on March 8, 2020 in Champaign, Illinois. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images) /

The 2019-20 rendition of the Illinois basketball team was one of the best we have seen in a long while.

We hit the 21-win mark in a season. That is the first time that has happened since the 2012-13 campaign where we also won 21 games and made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament. The Illini won 13 Big Ten regular season games. That hasn’t happened since we went to the national title back in 2004-05.

There were so many things this season that kept Illini fans going. It is sad to see everything end the way it has, but there are always things we can hang our hat on. Illinois improved as a team in so many areas this past season. I am not just talking about one side of the court or the other. Both offense and defense have improved greatly.

Illinois players who were already on the team started to develop more. Newcomers filled the gaps left by previous players. Everything came together like one nice puzzle. But there were some stats that stood out to me more than others. Some of the numbers that I looked at jumped off the page.

Here are 5 eye-popping improvements for Illini in 2019-2020.

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