I can’t believe it is already here, but the Illinois basketball team plays a real game on Monday.
It feels like years ago that the Illini were in the Elite 8 trying to reach the Final Four for the first time in nearly two decades. That team fell just short, but they gave the Illinois fanbase hope for the future.
After a wild offseason, the Illini have reloaded and are looking to make it back to the NCAA tournament and reach even greater heights this time around. But how will the 2024-25 Illinois basketball team finish?
The first game of the season is on Monday against a familiar foe. Illinois played Eastern Illinois last season and beat them 80-52. With so much new talent, I think chemistry issues will still be there in game one. Illinois will still come away with a double-digit win, though.
Illinois will start to come out of those chemistry issues in game two of the season. SIU Edwardsville struggled to get to .500 in 2023-24, and I don’t expect them to be much better this time around. I think Illinois’ pure athletic talent takes over, and things start to get figured out on the court.
An NCAA tournament darling last season was Oakland. They took down Kentucky in the first round and ruined a lot of brackets including my own. This isn’t the same Golden Grizzlies program, though. Jack Gohlke is now gone, and forward Trey Townsend cashed in and transferred to Arizona. Look for Illinois to thrash a depleted Oakland program.
This is going to be the first big challenge of the season for the Illinois basketball program. Alabama is a good team, and while this isn’t technically a home game, it is going to be played in Birmingham, Alabama.
The Crimson Tide are coming off a Final Four appearance this past season. The scary part about Alabama is the fact they brought back their best player, Mark Sears, and they added a plethora of talent around him. Joining Sears this offseason included three four-star transfer portal players, one of which is a familiar name in Cliff Omoruyi. Illinois played against him numerous times when he was with Rutgers. Alabama also added a five-star and three four-star top 50 recruits. This team is going to be loaded. I don’t like our chances. I think Alabama should be the favorite to win the national title.
Illinois quickly gets back on the horse with a game against Maryland-Eastern Shore. This will be a game where we fix things that went wrong against Alabama. The Hawks won nine games in 2023-24, so this game shouldn’t be a problem. I expect a blowout.
