The women’s Illinois basketball team has been playing well lately, but the biggest issue for the team reared its ugly head on Sunday.
The Illini wrapped up the 2024-25 regular season on Sunday with a home game against another NCAA tournament team in Michigan. The Wolverines were down three points going into the fourth quarter, and then things went off the rails for the Orange and Blue.
A 30-18 fourth quarter thrashing gave Michigan the win. What went wrong for the Illini? Well, there were multiple issues, but the biggest issue is the ability to reach back and get points when needed.
Sure, Michigan scored 30 points, but a lot of that was due to Illinois fouling down the stretch. The ability to put points on the board when needed was what really hit the Illini hard.
Illinois had a 65-59 lead with 3:43 left in the game. From that point on, we only scored four more points. This has happened a few times this season. This is when players like Makira Cook and Gretchen Dolan would help the program.
Cook and Dolan both were in the top five in scoring for Illinois, averaging 11.9 and 10.5 points per game respectively. The shocking part is, both players only played eight games for the program in 2024-25.
Illinois has been shorthanded for the vast majority of the season. Not having these two big scorers has hurt us this season, and it just happened to bite us at a bad time in the Michigan game.
I also believe a big turning point in the game against Michigan was when Berry Wallace got called for a charge. She ended up making the bucket, but it was called off due to the foul. There was 2:41 left in the game, and the shot would have tied it back up at 67-67. Instead, Michigan got the ball back up two points and then hit a three-pointer.
Illinois basketball could have a tough road in the Big Ten Tournament
After the loss to Michigan, the Illini are going to drop a couple of spots. It looks like we are going to be slotted into the No. 7 seed in the Big Ten Tournament.
The winner of the No. 10 vs. No. 15 seed will advance to take on the Illini. I believe that will be Nebraska vs. Rutgers. Illinois has beaten both teams this season, taking down the Cornhuskers by nine points and Rutgers by four points in overtime.
If Illinois can get through that second round matchup, we will then take on No. 2 seed UCLA. The Bruins, which are the No. 2 team in the country, beat us by 15 points a little over a week ago. They are legitimate national title contenders.
The end of the 2024-25 regular season was a bit disappointing, but Illinois is still poised to do some damage in the postseason. Look for the Illini to make some noise starting Thursday, March 6, at 5:30 p.m. CT/6:30 p.m. ET.