Baylor vs. Illinois: 5 biggest storylines for 2020-21 matchup
In one of the biggest games of the college basketball season, two top-5 teams in Baylor and Illinois will go head-to-head in Indianapolis.
With undefeated records on the line and an opportunity to cement themselves as the top threat to Gonzaga’s status as the number one team in college basketball, Illinois and Baylor will meet in the nightcap of the Jimmy V. Classic on Wednesday, Dec. 2 in a showdown of top-5 teams and national championship contenders.
After having the start of their season postponed due to COVID-19 issues, the Baylor Bears are coming off an extremely successful – and impromptu – two-game series in Las Vegas over the weekend, dominating Louisiana-Lafayette (112-82) and Washington (86-52) to begin their schedule. Their start is already better than last year’s dominant season, where the Bears fell to Washington in the second game of the season.
Head coach Scott Drew’s squad was, arguably, the best team in college basketball last season. After entering the season ranked 16th-nationally and suffering that disappointing loss to Washington, the Bears rattled off 23-straight victories en route to becoming the number-one team in the nation for a full month.
They struggled towards the end of the year, going 3-3 in their last six – but still finished the season at 26-4 overall and 15-3 in the Big 12. Their streak last season included some of the best wins in all of college basketball, with victories over Villanova, Arizona, Butler, Texas Tech, West Virginia, and Kansas.
The Fighting Illini, meanwhile, looked nearly unstoppable in their opening two games of the year, romping North Carolina A&T (122-60) and Chicago State (97-38) – but nearly ran into a devastating upset in the third tilt, outlasting a good Ohio squad in the final seconds, 77-75. Like Baylor, this year has also been a better start for the Illini than last, where Nicholls took them to overtime and Arizona blew them out.
Unlike the Bears, however, preseason expectations were not that high for Illinois last year. They entered the season unranked and went 9-5 in the first 14 games – but a seven-game winning streak that included premier Big Ten squads like Wisconsin, Rutgers, and Michigan saw the Illini enter the AP Poll for the first time in Brad Underwood’s tenure.
Like Baylor, Illinois also struggled to end the season. A four-game losing streak sent the Illini out of the poll before a four-game winning streak placed them back in at 23rd. Their first game back in the poll saw them lose to Ohio State – but they followed that up with a season-ending two-point victory over a nationally-ranked Iowa squad.
Obviously, without a doubt, both teams were NCAA Tournament caliber last season. Illinois had the potential to reach, at least, the second weekend, while the Bears were a popular Final Four choice. And now, both teams have begun this season with national championship talent and expectations.
Those expectations are completely understandable. The Illini return 70.3% of their minutes and 68.3% of their scoring from last season, while Baylor returns even higher marks – 72.6% of their minutes and 75.8% of their scoring return from last year’s dominant squad. Entering this tilt, Baylor is currently ranked second in the AP Poll, which was their spot in the preseason poll – whereas Illinois has climbed from eighth to fifth.
Arguably, this is the biggest game of the regular season thus far – even more significant than yesterday’s Duke/Michigan State and Kansas/Kentucky’s tilts – and even today’s Gonzaga/West Virginia showdown that precedes this game. This is the first top-5 battle of the year, and it could feature – by the season’s end – the champions of the two best conferences in basketball this year.
There are, obviously, a number of storylines to highlight heading into tonight’s showdown, and it is impossible to name every single one of them. This game is huge, to say the least – and, in order to prepare, here are five of the storylines I feel are notable enough to keep in mind heading forward.