Illinois Basketball: Illini ready for another successful Big Ten season

The Illinois basketball Big Ten schedule was released on Tuesday, and honestly, it doesn’t seem that bad.

As usual, every team will play each other at least once. Things get kicked off with an early December game against Rutgers. A month later, the Illini resumes the 2023-24 Big Ten schedule by taking on Northwestern in Champaign.

The schedule, on paper, already seems like it won’t be the hardest Big Ten season in the world. I believe the conference finished with just two teams ranked in the final AP Top 25 in 2022-23.

I kind of judge the toughness of the Big Ten schedule by which teams Illinois plays twice. From what I have seen, the Illini will take on six programs two times in Big Ten play.

Rutgers and Michigan are two of those programs. They are the only two that didn’t make the NCAA tournament last season.

Illinois has to play Iowa and Maryland both twice, and they made it to the round of 64 and round of 32 in 2022-23, respectively.

I would say the two toughest teams will be Michigan State and Purdue. The Spartans didn’t finish the season ranked last year, but they were able to make a run to the Sweet 16. The Boilermakers were a No. 1 seed and finished No. 3 in the final AP Top 25 rankings. They also return big man Zach Edey.

There isn’t a team in the Big Ten that I can point to and say that team is a juggernaut this season. Purdue is the closest thing to that, and they will have some weaknesses on the perimeter.

Illinois basketball is trying to have another top finish in the Big Ten for the 2023-24 season

While some people still might remember the John Groce era of Illinois basketball, those days are far behind us. The Illini have seen sustained success, especially when it comes to Big Ten play.

Illinois now has four straight seasons of winning at least 11 games in conference play. The worst year was this past season when the Orange and Blue finished 11-9 in the Big Ten. This was still good enough to be in a tie for the fifth-best record in the conference, though.

In two out of the other three seasons, the Illini finished with the best record in the Big Ten. The other season, we were the No. 4 seed.

A successful program has been built and sustained by Brad Underwood. This level of winning is fun to watch. Hopefully, this season, we can take the next step and lock a spot in the Sweet 16. We will have to get through the Big Ten schedule first.