Big Ten Basketball: 2021 power rankings heading into conference tournament

Wins

*North Carolina A&T
*Chicago State
*Ohio
*Minnesota (twice)
*@ Duke
*Penn State (twice)
*Indiana (twice)
*Purdue
*Northwestern (twice)
*Iowa
*Wisconsin (twice)
*Nebraska (twice)
*Michigan

Losses

*Baylor (neutral site)
*@ Missouri
*@Rutgers
*Maryland
*Ohio State

Net ranking: 4

KenPom ranking: 6

AP ranking: 4

Reasons for Hope: Their ability to win without arguably their best all-around player. In Illinois’s last three games in which Ayo Dosunmu did not play, the Fighting Illini defeated two top 25 ranked teams on the road and won their last three games by an average of just under 15 points. On the season they have quality road wins against Michigan, Duke, and Wisconsin as well. They also beat various teams by 20 or more points as they defeated Minnesota by 27 and 31 points, Michigan by 23, and Northwestern by 25.

The Fighting Illini’s offense has been very efficient and productive this season as well. Illinois has scored 92 points or more this season five times this season. They have two very talented players in Dosunmu and Kofi Cockburn who have both played very well this season.

Reasons to be Pessimistic: Illinois is playing like a No. 1 seed for the NCAA tournament but they may have to settle for a No. 2 seed due to losing some games in which they should have won. Illinois should have beat Missouri as they outplayed the Tigers in the second half but lost by three. The Fighting Illini lost a high-scoring game to Rutgers by only three points again.

Then for the third time this season, they once again lost by three and this time it was to Maryland at home. No one is going to fault Illinois for losing to Baylor by 13 points which is not bad as the Bears are a top-three team. However, besides some losses, Illinois should be just fine moving forward.

Brief Overview of the Season

Illinois did not lose a ton of key players from last year’s team and they have been able to build on what they accomplished last year and use that experience to not only be a top team in the Big Ten but also to be one of the best teams in the country. The Fighting Illini did bring back a good amount of their core players from last season in Dosunmu, Trent Frazier, Giorgi Bezhanishvili, and Da’Monte Williams. However, the biggest impact player for Illinois has been sophomore Kofi Cockburn, who is second in the team in scoring and has stepped up his game while Dosunmu is out with an injury.

The Fighting Illini brought back their top two scorers from last season and even though Illinois started the season 5-3, they continued to improve as this season has gone on as they were young last season but talented and even though they didn’t win the Big Ten last season, they showed progress near the end of the season and beat some quality teams. They took the lessons from last season and took the momentum to persevere and thrive this season to be one of the top teams in all of college basketball.

Head coach Brad Underwood is in his fourth season as the head of the program for the Fighting Illini and he and his team look to take the program to another level but sharing the Big Ten regular-season title and or winning the Big Ten tournament and making a run to a Final Four appearance in the NCAA tournament. They will have another opportunity to prove that they are one of the top four teams in the country as they travel to play Ohio State on Saturday in hopes of defeating the Buckeyes.