Illinois Basketball: 4 observations from the Illini loss to Cincinnati

4. It is still really early

If you watched the past two games, I don’t have to tell you how bad Illinois has looked. I am going to tell you anyway, though. The Illini looked like a John Groce-era team in the last two contests.

Illinois couldn’t get anything going, and their defense eventually let them down in the Cincinnati game. Everything went off the rails, and now we have lost two games in a row and will likely be outside of the top 25 come next Monday.

With everything seemly going wrong for the Illini right now, I just have one thing to say.

It is still really early in the year.

I know, there are a lot of you who don’t want to hear that the season is young. The past two losses have some Illini fans sick to their stomach. But we are only four games into the 2021-22 campaign. That means we have 26 games remaining.

If Illinois comes out of the gates strong on Tuesday night against Kansas State and puts a hurting on the Fighting Bruce Weber’s, then the uneasiness about the Illini should subside.

Winning fixes everything. Illinois doesn’t look good right now, but we know that there is talent on this team and that they can play well at times. That is what gives me hope moving forward.

I know it seems like the end of the world that the Illini are 2-2 and just got blown out by 20 points, but let’s take a step back and realize we are only four games into the season. This team will learn from their mistakes, and don’t be surprised if Illinois comes out tonight and puts a hurting on the Wildcats.