9. Illinois (23-7)
When they’re on their game, Illinois can hang with just about any team in the country. They really found themselves during a 12-game winning streak earlier this year but ran into some rough luck with a series of overtime losses, sinking slightly in the Big Ten standings. Last Friday they ran into the Michigan buzz saw and got their largest loss of the season, but there’s still time for the Fighting Illini to get back on the horse.
Illinois was only on the court once in the last seven days, but it was a pretty emphatic performance in front of their home crowd. The team’s last game in Champaign of the season became an 80-54 win over Oregon on Senior Night. Beyond impressive work on defense, the Illini also got 21 points and 12 rebounds from Andrej Stojakovic off the bench while David Mirkovic added 19 points and 7 rebounds.
The total body of work has been impressive out of the Fighting Illini, but the team isn’t exactly hitting their stride right now. While the offense remains outstanding for the most part, Illinois does have four losses in their last seven games and are still fighting to get the triple bye in the Big Ten Tournament. They’ll have one last chance to grab that with a road trip to Maryland on Sunday before heading to Chicago to begin the postseason.