Illinois Basketball: 5 reasons Illini fans should be optimistic about the future
5. Steady improvement
Mediocre is what I would call the Illinois basketball program from 2007 through 2016. We were a mediocre team looking for answers, and no one seemed to have a single dang one.
Brad Underwood was then hired, and as previously mentioned in the first slide, things started to improve. There has been a steady improvement for the Illinois basketball team since.
Year one for Underwood wasn’t great on paper. Illinois finished 14-18 and was a first-round out in the Big Ten Tournament. We had zero big wins that season and, actually, the Illini only played four ranked opponents.
Despite having a worse record, 12-21, the second year under Underwood seemed to go much better. We faced nine ranked opponents and even knocked off No. 9 Michigan State. This win was in the middle of a four-game winning streak. You could see glimpses of greatness from this team. We also won in the first round of the Big Ten tournament.
The improvement from year one to year two was solid. From year two to year three, the improvement was a leap. Illinois went from 12 total wins, which include one in the Big Ten tournament, to 21 regular-season victories. This would have been Illinois’ first NCAA tournament berth since 2012-13. The Illini even finished the regular season ranked No. 21 in the nation, the first time finishing in the AP Top 25 since the 2005-06 campaign.
Sadly, the season was canceled due to COVID-19. But the cancelation of the season made the Illini even hungrier to get to the next campaign. Illinois came into the 2020-21 season ranked No. 8 in the nation and got to as high as No. 2 in the country by season’s end. They won 24 games this year and managed to get to the No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
Next. Illini thank you letter to Trent Frazier. dark
I know it was a disappointing ending to what seemed like a sure-fire Final Four run. But you can’t stray away from the fact Illinois continues to see a steady improvement as a program. Each year we get better and better. I trust what Underwood is doing with this program, and there is no reason not to be optimistic about the future of Illinois basketball.