Illinois Basketball: Illini will take a hit if Minnesota game is canceled

Some bad news has hit the men’s Illinois basketball program.

The Illini, who are coming off a tough two-point loss to Iowa, had a home game against Minnesota scheduled for Tuesday. That game is now off for the time being.

According to a tweet from the men’s basketball Twitter account, the Illinois game against the Gophers has been called off due to COVID-19 health and safety protocols within the Minnesota program. The tweet also mentions that they are working on getting the game rescheduled.

This is the first game for the Illini that has been disrupted due to COVID-19 since the contest back on December 29, 2021, against Alabama A&M. Illinois had some issues with the illness, and the game had to be called off. It wasn’t rescheduled either.

Illinois basketball not playing a Big Ten game could negatively affect Big Ten standings.

In the Big Ten, there are no cupcake games. But the contest on Tuesday against Minnesota was going to be the closest thing to a cupcake game we had this season in the conference.

Illinois had already gone on the road and took down the Gophers by 18 points earlier this year. This was supposed to be a nice victory that would move the Illini up in the Big Ten standings.

As of right now, Purdue is the runaway Big Ten regular season champion. But, behind them, there is a ton of teams looking to earn the coveted double-bye in the Big Ten Tournament. To get this spot, you need to finish in the top four in the conference.

Rutgers sits at No. 2 in the Big Ten at 8-4. Just one game back of the Scarlet Knights is six Big Ten programs, including Illinois.

With the standings so close, every game matters. If the Illinois and Minnesota game doesn’t get played, that is a huge blow to the Illini. This game could easily be another tally in the win column, which would help boost our standing in the conference.

Getting hurt by games getting canceled isn’t anything new to the Illinois basketball program, though. During the 2020-21 campaign, despite finishing a half-game ahead of Michigan in the Big Ten, the Wolverines were given the Big Ten regular season title. Michigan played three fewer Big Ten games due to COVID-19.

Hopefully, these two teams and the Big Ten can figure out a date and time to play this game. Every contest matters in this tight race to the finish.