Big Ten Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2019-20 season

By Adam Childs | Sep 5, 2019

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - MARCH 17: Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany presents head coach Tom Izzo the championship trophy after the Michigan State Spartans beat the Michigan Wolverines 65-60 in the championship game of the Big Ten Basketball Tournament at the United Center on March 17, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) /

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CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – MARCH 14: Head coach Brad Underwood of the Illinois Fighting Illini gives instructions to his team against the Iowa Hawkeyes at the United Center on March 14, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) /

6. Illinois

The Illini finished just 12-21 last year but return a lot of talent to a team that was close in a lot of games. They are the trendy sleeper team in the Big Ten and if they continue to play fast and hard-nosed defense that Coach Brad Underwood likes they could hit those expectations.

They are led by Ayo Dosunmu who averaged 13.8 points per game as a freshman last year. Many have pegged him as a preseason All-Big Ten selection. He showed last year that he could score from about anywhere and they will need him to continue to do that if they expect to make the jump into the top half of the Big Ten.

Joining him is Junior Trent Frazier and sophomore Giorgi Bezhanishvili. The three of them make a pretty potent group that could lead the Illini this year. Dosunmu and Frazier are the ball handlers and shooters and Bezhanishvili has been great down low and he is big 6’9″.

About midseason last year the rumblings for Underwood’s firing were growing loud, but a late-season surge of better play and the return of this terrific trio now has his seat a little cooler and may give him some more time. But if he can’t get the Illini going this year it may be the end of his tenure in Champaign.

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