The Illinois basketball team has gone from being one of the most feared programs to one of the biggest head-scratchers in the country.
It wasn’t that long ago that many pundits were mentioning the Illini as one of the top programs in the nation. We were young and powerful with a mean frontcourt and one of the best guards in the country handling the rock.
Just a little over a month later, Illinois is in no man's land. Since January 11, we are 5-6 and have only won back-to-back games once. There were three double-digit losses in those six contests, and honestly, Illinois nearly blew a 16-point lead to UCLA for loss No. 7.
In the mix of all of the losses has come illness and injuries. Kasparas Jakucionis went down with a left arm injury. Tomislav Ivisic, Tre White, and Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn have all been sick at various times throughout the past month too.
And then the big injury happened. Morez Johnson Jr. put up 17 points, five rebounds, two steals, and two blocks in the disappointing loss to Michigan State on Saturday. Shockingly, the loss, and Terrence Shannon Jr.’s jersey being upside down, weren’t the worst things to come out of that game.
After the loss, Brad Underwood announced that Johnson was going to be out. He has a broken wrist, which will likely end his freshman campaign. In addition to Johnson being out, fellow big man Tomislav Ivisic is questionable for the Wisconsin contest.
Illinois basketball can respond by rallying or we could continue the downward spiral
One of the scary parts for Illinois fans is the fact that we don’t have a cushion for any of the bad news coming down the pipeline. This program isn’t sitting pretty for the NCAA tournament so we can falter as we get organized and adjusted with the new lineup.
The Illini need to win games down the stretch to get a solid NCAA tournament seeding. There are five games left on the schedule, four of which are against top 15 programs.
With everything that has happened, Illinois has a legitimate chance to lose the next five games and finish the 2024-25 season 17-14 overall and 9-12 in the Big Ten. That is a scenario I didn’t think was possible at one point, but I would argue it is as likely as Illinois winning three out of the final five games.
My hope is that the injuries and odds against the Illini will be a rallying cry for the program. It should be a world-against-us mentality. That is what I want to see against No. 11 Wisconsin. We need to fight back and play good basketball to right the ship.
In my eyes, Illinois has two choices starting on Tuesday night. We can have a woe-is-me attitude and pack things in. That is option No. 1. The other option, option No. 2, we can fight, play smart basketball, and use our strengths to take down some big dogs. I sure do like the second option better. It all starts with the Badgers. Let’s see what option Illinois chooses.