14. Illinois (5-1)
An unmistakable shift has happened in Champaign under Brad Underwood’s leadership and there’s another sort of shift this season there as well. The Fighting Illini have a roster packed with talent and it’s got more international flair than ever before. This team impressed with a nice win over Texas Tech last week and are now starting to get all of their talent healthy an on the court.
Unfortunately, the first loss of the season came their way, as Illinois fell 90-86 to Alabama in Chicago on Wednesday night. The Illini came out on the wrong side of a great matchup despite 26 points from Andrej Stojakovic and 22 out of Kylan Boswell. There were no struggles on Saturday in Illinois’s 98-58 win against Long Island to close out the weekend. Stojakovic had another 20-point performance as the Illini shot 63% from the floor as a team.
All things considered it’s an acceptable start for Illinois, who are finally starting to get healthy and split their pair of tough games in the opening weeks of this season. Stojakovic, one of those players who missed time early, is really coming into his own and it’s only a matter of time before another great performance out of this frontcourt. Right after Thanksgiving comes the next big challenge, as Underwood’s group heads to New York to face a strong UConn team.