The Illinois basketball team begins the trek to win the Big Ten Tournament on Thursday against the Penn State Nittany Lions.
The official tip-off will begin on Wednesday with No. 12 Wisconsin taking on No. 13 Ohio State at 4:30 p.m. CT. This should be the start of one wild ride in a conference tournament that I honestly believe just about any team could make a run in this year.
Some teams need to make a decent run in the Big Ten Tournament as well. It wouldn’t hurt the Illini to win a few games to help NCAA tournament seeding.
As of right now, despite being a No. 7 seed, Illinois has the sixth-best odds to win the conference tournament. We are starting the week off at +1300, right behind Northwestern which stands at +1100. Purdue, Indiana, Michigan State, and Maryland round out the top four in that order.
Illinois basketball could be boom or bust in the Big Ten Tournament
As the season went long, it felt like the Illini could beat any team in the country at times. But then there have been other times when it felt like we could lose to just about any team in the country.
I mean, let’s look back at some games. Illinois beat both Texas and UCLA, which is incredible to think about. We were only up 38-37 with 10 minutes to go in the Alabama A&M game as well. It has been a wild ride.
The Big Ten Tournament won’t be much different. I could see Illinois losing in the first round, but I could also see us getting hot and winning the whole darn thing. The Illini are a nightmare for Las Vegas line setters.
Let’s take a look at the bracket. The first game is at 4:30 p.m. CT on Thursday. We take on Penn State. I am hoping the old adage of it is tough to beat a team three times in a row comes true. Illinois was swept by the Nittany Lions in the regular season, and the games weren’t close. We lost the first game by 15 points and the second game by 12 points.
The 2023 #B1GMBBT bracket is set!
— Big Ten Men's Basketball (@B1GMBBall) March 6, 2023
Who’s taking home the 🏆❓ pic.twitter.com/8JzmrtN4UF
If we take care of business against Penn State, in-state rival Northwestern awaits. Illinois split the season series with the Wildcats. Northwestern won the first battle by 13 points, and we got the best of them by four points the second time around. Let’s not forget, Illinois was down by 18 points at halftime in that second game too.
Illinois would then, likely, take on Indiana in the penultimate game. There were two matchups between the Illini and Hoosiers this season, and Indiana took both of those games. The first game was by 15 points and the second game was by three points.
The final game could be against a variety of teams, but for this, let’s just say No. 1 Purdue gets to the championship matchup. Illinois only played one game against the Boilermakers this season, and we dropped that contest by five points. We were down by 21 at halftime in that game as well.
So, just looking at the road ahead, Illinois is 1-6 against the teams we are projected to play to win the Big Ten Tournament. Hopefully, we have the losing out of the way, and we can improve that record to 5-6 by the end of this weekend.