Illinois Basketball: 3 reasons why Illini are pretenders in 2019-20

1. Playing the right team at the right time

While the Illini have picked up impressive, quality wins throughout their conference slate, their notable wins have not aged well.

Let’s take a look at the biggest wins of the season for Illinois:

12/11: 9-point win over Michigan at home (lost 6/10 since)

1/5: 26-point win over Purdue at home (lost 3/4 since)

1/8: 1-point win over Wisconsin on road (lost 3/5 since)

In addition to these three games, the Illini also have wins over Michigan and Purdue after their first matchups. In other words, they beat them while they were cold.

The one exception to this would seem to be a three-point win over Rutgers at home. However, the Scarlet Knights were at a major disadvantage, as their superstar and leader, Geo Baker, did not play due to injury.

The logic is simple: the Illini beat teams that look good based on their ranking at the time, which has helped them build a solid résumée. What goes unseen are the subsequent cold stretches that these teams go on, which is an indicator of two things:

1. The ranked team that the Illini beat was overrated, as shown by the losing that followed

OR

2. The Illini have reaped the benefits of a little bit of luck in their schedule, as they have happened to play just about every Big 10 opponent at a time in which they were getting cold

Now, a win is a win, regardless of how you get it or who you get it against. But in today’s college basketball, a league in which there is an absence of any real “great” teams, winning against a team that has a number attached to its name, regardless of their prior or future performance, is enough to earn you hype and recognition.