Illinois Basketball: 2022-23 season preview and outlook for Fighting Illini

Season Outlook

The last two seasons have been productive and successful at Illinois, with regular season and conference tournament titles in the Big Ten in recent memory. However, this is a program that has lost a lot of talent from those squads, and you can’t replace Ayo Dosunmu, Kofi Cockburn, or some of these other important pieces very easily. Fortunately, Underwood has done a pretty impressive job filling those holes.

Terrence Shannon Jr. and Matthew Mayer are two former Big 12 wings who should do well in this Illini starting lineup. This is one of the nation’s top recruiting classes, with Clark expected to blossom into a star and some of those other Top 100 pieces looking like important role players down the line. Let’s not forget that returning pieces like Hawkins and Melendez will look to take big steps forward with much more important roles this year.

Each of the last two seasons has seen the Illini rank as one of the better defensive programs in the nation and that’s something that should continue this season. They’ll add two impressive Big 12 wings who can play defense at a high level and are expecting Hawkins to take another step forward. One can argue that this many new and inexperienced pieces may cause some issues for the program, but the talent is clearly here to have a third-straight impactful season.

Fortunately for the Illini, the Big Ten looks down as a whole this season. It’s possible that they and Indiana are the only ranked teams at the start of the season, and many expect these two programs to be the top contenders for the conference crown. Replacing some of these lost pieces isn’t easy, but Underwood has been busy and has built what looks like another winner. The biggest question, beyond their supremacy in the Big Ten, is if this Illinois program could get the job done in the postseason after those recent failures in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.