Illinois fans given another reason to dream about a return trip to the Final Four

The Illinois Fighting Illini and their fans are still riding the high of a postseason run to the Final Four, made even better by the return announcements of beloved players.

While enjoying the pleasure of a highly successful season, they're all also looking toward next season, and the run that it could include.

The cherry on top? It's not only the Illinois fanbase that believes the Illini could make a return to the national semifinals.

Rob Dauster, the co-founder and host of The Field of 68 podcast, expressed an adamant belief that the Fighting Illini, alongside a few other teams, should already get ready to punch their tickets to the Final Four.

Rob Dauster and Jeff Goodman have high hope for Illinois

"We can talk about all the winners of the transfer portal, but the real headline winners of the offseason, to me, are that Florida, Duke, Illinois, [and] UConn are running this thing back," Dauster said while talking about next season.

Of course, the Florida Gators and the Duke Blue Devils didn't make it to the Final Four last year, but UConn is the very team that sent Illinois home before losing to the Michigan Wolverines in the National Championship.

Despite the Wolverines looking to defend their title run, Dauster and Jeff Goodman, his co-host, hardly mentioned the team while talking about the teams that would make it to the Final Four.

It undoubtedly doesn't hurt that Illinois head coach Brad Underwood worked so flawlessly in the transfer portal, picking up Stefan Vaaks, as well as earning the returns of star players like Andrej Stojakovic and David Mirkovic, as long as they don't head to the NBA Draft.

Of course, the season is still months away and a lot can change, even once the season tips off, but this is still extremely exciting for the Illini, and fans have every reason to dream of another deep run.

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