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

2. Their losses are not pretty

Of Illinois’ five losses this season, two have come against ranked opponents.

One, a 20-point loss to Michigan State, can be justified, as the Spartans are one of the best home teams in the country, and the Illini were by no means expected to win.

Let’s talk about the other four losses:

– 11/10, 21-point loss to Arizona

The Wildcats were ranked in the Top-25 at the time, but have since fallen out of the rankings, with bad losses to Oregon State, St. John’s, and Arizona State. Additionally, the Illini blew a seven-point lead, letting the Wildcats go on a 15+-point run in the second half.

– 12/2, 1-point loss to Miami (FL)

I still don’t know how this happened. The Illini went down by 20+ points in the first half, falling just short at home (!!) to a Miami team that is at the bottom of the ACC.

– 12/7, 1-point loss to Maryland

On the surface, this isn’t a bad loss. However, when you consider that the Illini lead by 14 at the break, only to put up a minuscule 19 points in the second half, this was an avoidable and unacceptable loss.

– 12/21, 7-point loss to Missouri

This is the worst of the four. The Illini lost to a Mizzou squad that lost to Charleston Southern, Oklahoma, and Texas A&M. The Illini got little production aside from Dosunmu and Cockburn, showing an ugly side of the team in which the supporting players were completely unable to produce.

These four losses prove that the Illini are disaster-prone. A true contending team beats the teams that they are supposed to, and holds their own against teams at their level. Unfortunately for the Illini, they have only figured out the second half of that equation.