22. Illinois (13-6)
Basketball is a game of inches. A few shots falling one way or another can have a drastic effect on a season, but for Illinois it feels more like not living up to their potential. Whether it be injuries, illness, foul trouble, or unforced errors, something is keeping this young and intriguing group of players from reaching their full potential, and another misstep is really going to tank their season.
We saw them in action back on Sunday, falling 80-78 in a close one at Michigan State, the current Big Ten leader. Foul trouble severely limited Kasparas Jakucionis, but fellow freshman phenom Will Riley had 19 points in the tough loss. Star center Tomislav Ivisic then missed Thursday night’s game at Maryland with an illness and the results weren’t pretty, as Maryland won 91-70 in Champaign. A deplorable performance by the Fighting Illini did include a 21-point, 7-rebound, 7-assist effort from Jakucionis at least.
When healthy and on the court together, Illinois can do great things, but we just haven’t seen that in any consistent manner. The analytics are still great for this team and the talent is there, they’ve just shot really poorly in recent weeks and thrown away multiple winnable home games. Sunday’s matchup at Northwestern is almost a must-win, though there are a number of somewhat easier games in the near future for this team, who really need to settle into a new groove.