If Illinois Basketball Beats Purdue…

If Illinois Basketball Beats Purdue…

Oh boy, what if…

If Illinois basketball beats Purdue on Tuesday, there are several interesting scenarios that could play out. First off, it still irks me that Illinois let that game against Penn State slip. If the Illini closed out the final 50 seconds of the game, they would be standing at 14-4 in the conference. That would have meant that going into the game, they would be one game behind almighty Purdue. The stakes would have been a lot higher. Now, Purdue must lose against Illinois and at home vs a struggling Wisconsin team, for Illinois to share the title.

The focus remains on Tuesday night, however. Illinois will play their biggest home game since they hosted Iowa for the Big Ten Regular season Championship. If Illinois can channel that energy they did right before the pandemic started against Iowa, a fun night will be had. In that game on March 8th, 2020, Ayo Dosunmu electrified the State Farm Crowd and Kofi Cockburn blocked Luka Garza at the buzzer to grab the fourth seed in the Big Ten Tournament.

Parallels?

Hosting Luka Garza in the home finale back then, now hosting Zach Edey in the home finale? Illinois fans have to bring the juice to this game like they did during that game. On TV, that looked like the most electric crowd that Illinois has had in a while. The Animosity ran tough and the State Farm Center was buzzing. Illinois Basketball will now have its FULL roster to take on the mighty Boilermakers. All three of Purdue’s Big Ten losses this year have been on the road. If Illinois wants to confirm to the world that they are a championship-level contender, Tuesday is the night to show it.

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