Illinois Basketball Clinches Fifth Straight Ten Win Conference Season

Illinois Basketball Clinches Fifth Straight Ten Win Conference Season

Illinois has done it! First off, Brad Underwood has finally beat Maryland on the road. That means that the Illinois head man has now won at every Big Ten Road arena. In addition, Illinois now sits at 10-4 in the Big Ten in conference play. Though there are 6 games left, that means that Illinois has clinched its fifth straight ten-win conference season. That is quite impressive. Even though the Big Ten recently changed their schedule to include 20 games, Brad Underwood has brought an unprecedented consistency to Champaign.

There can be doubts and boxes that Brad has to check off in his time in Illinois. However, it is quite impressive given the roughly decade-long spell in the middle to the bottom of the Big Ten Conference.

What it means for this season

Illinois Basketball has a 1-and-a-half-game lead on second place in the Big Ten. Unfortunately, Purdue seems to be in a league of its own atop the conference. However, it is safe to say that Illinois leads the pack of the “others”. Wisconsin Basketball is currently in a downward spiral. Northwestern Basketball has just lost their starting 2-guard to a season-ending injury. However, Michigan State is a close second to Illinois and has a rather favorable end of the schedule outside of their matchup at Mackey Arena.

Illinois Basketball will now travel to Penn State to hopefully grab revenge after three losses to the Nittany Lions last year. In addition, Illinois Basketball will host the Purdue Boilermakers on March 5th. However, outside of that matchup, the games are all very winnable. Brad Underwood will hopefully have another year of at least 13 Big Ten wins.

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