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Illinois Basketball: 4 ways the Illini beating Duke will impact the future

By Rees Woodcock

Mar 1, 2020; Champaign, Illinois, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini head coach Brad Underwood looks on during the first half against the Indiana Hoosiers at State Farm Center. Mandatory Credit: Patrick Gorski-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 1, 2020; Champaign, Illinois, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini head coach Brad Underwood looks on during the first half against the Indiana Hoosiers at State Farm Center. Mandatory Credit: Patrick Gorski-USA TODAY Sports /
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COLUMBUS, OHIO – MARCH 05: Head coach Brad Underwood of the Illinois Fighting Illini watches his team in the game against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Value City Arena on March 05, 2020 in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images) /

2. Validity within the program

A huge win over No. 10 Duke on the road is a great thing for many reasons. But the impacts it will have on the future are going to be even greater than the impacts today. One of those impacts is the validity of the Illinois basketball program.

I think it is fair to say that the Brad Underwood era didn’t start well in Champaign. A 14-18 record was followed up by a 12-21 slide that had many fans worried. But, while all of this losing was happening, Coach Underwood was still able to bring in the talent.

Illinois’ coaching staff was able to snag Ayo Dosunmu from the class of 2018. A top 40 recruit and the No. 1 player in the state of Illinois was convinced to come to Champaign to play for the Illini. Coach Underwood was then able to snag another top 50 player in the big man Kofi Cockburn from the class of 2019.

The crazy part about landing both Ayo and Kofi was the fact Illinois wasn’t winning. They had a total of 26 wins in two seasons and these two players joined and stuck with the team. Why did they come to Champaign?

The promise of winning.

Winning started to happen in 2019-20 with Illinois sneaking into the top 25 while beating No. 5 Michigan, No. 9 Penn State and No. 18 Iowa. An NCAA tournament was imminent before the pandemic hit, but even with all of that, we didn’t have “that win”.

When I say “that win” I mean a win that puts us on the map. A proving ground victory. While those other three ranked wins were nice, there wasn’t “that win”.

On Tuesday night against Duke, Illinois got “that win”. They went on the road, albeit without fans, and took down a top 10 Duke program. This win validated everything that Coach Underwood has been building. This win validated the program. That is why it is such a big win for the future.

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