Illinois Basketball: Keys to success for the Fighting Illini in 2019-20

4. Start the non-conference slate hot.

Illinois’ 2018-19 season was doomed very quickly. The Fighting Illini started the campaign at just 2-7 with losses in several huge opportunities for high-major victories. With regards to this coming season, the team will need to avoid that rough start in order to maintain their NCAA Tournament hopes. The Illini have enough talent to skyrocket up the national rankings this season and taking advantage of their early non-conference games will be vital to success. On the whole, Illinois’ non-conference schedule is not particularly difficult but there are a few games that are definitely worth mentioning.

Most notably, after starting their season at home against Nicholls State, the Illini will quickly take a two-game road trip out west. On Nov. 8 and Nov. 10, respectively, Illinois will take on Grand Canyon and Arizona. These are two of the most raucous environments in all of college basketball and will be difficult contests. The Illini will have a talent advantage over the Antelopes but the Wildcats are widely regarded as a preseason top-25 team. Illinois will hopefully leave this trip at 2-1 and standing at 3-0 would put the entire nation on notice early.

Later in the non-conference schedule, they will take on Miami (FL) at home and then Missouri on the road in the Braggin’ Rights game. Neither of these opponents looks poised for monster seasons but they are high-major games with plenty of potential postseason implications. Illinois will need to put its early-season demons from last season away and start strong in this campaign in order to live up to the hype of being a potential NCAA Tournament team.

You can see Illinois’ full season schedule here.