Illinois Basketball: Fighting Illini in disarray as a program

Illinois is once again in the news, and it’s not for a positive reason. What’s going on with the basketball program?

This wasn’t a good season for the University of Illinois basketball team. They finished with a 14-18 record and went 4-14 in the Big Ten. It’s continued a downward spiral for the Illini in recent years, thanks to constant defections.

It’s continued this season as well, with three players set to leave. Michael Finke, one of the team leaders will become a grad transfer. Joining him in the exodus is sophomore bench player Te’Jon Jones, who led the team in assists in just 20 minutes a game.

The surprising defection was Mark Smith, who left the team after just one season. His departure hurts more, considering that he was one of the best local products to commit in recent seasons.

Illinois has struggled to keep top players in the state from leaving but did snag one in Ayo Dosunmu, a top-30 prospect. But the drama involving his commitment may have done more harm than good down the road.

Another top-100 player from the local area in Talen Horton-Tucker was reportedly set to go Illinois before some alleged AAU Chicago beef caused him to go to Iowa State. Things kinds of things can have ripple effects, with Simeon High School (who has an elite basketball program in Chicago where Horton-Tucker played) possibly being hostile towards Illinois in the future.

The team has most recently gotten a couple of other commits for next season, but it won’t be enough to make the team a contender.

This can’t be what Head Coach Brad Underwood imagined when he left Oklahoma State a couple of seasons ago. With a solid history and a fertile recruiting ground, Illinois should be one of the better teams in the Big Ten.

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Yet the “fight” in the Fighting Illini hasn’t been there. And with a number of other teams in the conference having great recruiting classes themselves, Illinois is fading further and further into the background. For the program’s sake, some talent better be coming around the corner soon, or this can get truly ugly.