2024-2025 Season Predictions

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#1      

21ChampaignSt

21ChampaignSt
21ChampaignSt
I'll go.

We get off to a bumpy start going 1-3 against our slate of major conference foes and struggling on the road early in the B1G. But after returning from back to back road games against IU and MSU in late January we start to put things together as we rattle off 6+ wins in a row.

We finish 3rd in the conference but by March we're playing like a top 10 team in the country. We enter the tournament with 22 wins, good enough for a 4 seed. We make it to the Sweet 16 where we come up just short against the #1 overall seed.

KJ goes pro as expected but we think we have a good shot at keeping Riley for another year if we can secure a big enough bag.
 
#2      
GrayGhost77
21ChampaignSt said:
I'll go.

We get off to a bumpy start going 1-3 against our slate of major conference foes and struggling on the road early in the B1G. But after returning from back to back road games against IU and MSU in late January we start to put things together as we rattle off 6+ wins in a row.

We finish 3rd in the conference but by March we're playing like a top 10 team in the country. We enter the tournament with 22 wins, good enough for a 4 seed. We make it to the Sweet 16 where we come up just short against the #1 overall seed.

KJ goes pro as expected but we think we have a good shot at keeping Riley for another year if we can secure a big enough bag.
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I could see most of that, but 22 wins will not get you a 4 seed. More like a 6-7 seed at best.
 
#3      
Calvin
No prediction yet, but generally young teams don't travel well. I'm expecting conference road games to be much tougher than what I perceive to be the consensus.
 
#6      
foby
FeelYourPaign said:
I'm going to say 23-10 overall, 13-7 in conference.
And yes, I know I've got some tinted (orange) glasses on.
But its what I believe
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To do that, we'd have to go 9-2 in non-con and that's great. But if we go 9-2 in non-con, then we might do a little better than 13-7 in the B1G.
 
#13      
OskeeLoyalty
FeelYourPaign said:
I'm going to say 23-10 overall, 13-7 in conference.
And yes, I know I've got some tinted (orange) glasses on.
But its what I believe
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Honestly, this kinda feels right to me. Our inexperience will cause us to fall to older or more consistent teams early on, but our talent will also help us close out some games down the stretch as we play better together with practice.
 
#14      
NarrowJ
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#15      
Grandpa
Start out slow, getting thumped a few times. Look average by the middle of the season. Win last 6 regular season games, win the BTT which cements our NCAA tourney spot. Win the NCAA tourney, thumping UConn badly in the semi-final.
Everyone here declares that Underwood is a genius, even the people who wanted him fired early. Many are proudly eating crow every meal for a week.
 
#17      
LvilleILL
Was a game off last year. Predicition is 22-9 (14-6 in conference). Think we take a loss early in blowout fashion (Bama), but get hot torwards the end of the season.

We get to the second weekend again. KJ is a top 10 pick, Will Riley comes back along with a good portion of our rotation and we are a preseason top 10-15 team for 2025-26.
 
#19      
Illini2010-11
Really no clue about record prediction (hoping obviously for another 20+ win season). One thing is certain, the Illini will be battle tested by the turn of the new year. This could be a very dangerous team come March.
 
#20      
DICKnaggie
LvilleILL said:
Was a game off last year. Predicition is 22-9 (14-6 in conference). Think we take a loss early in blowout fashion (Bama), but get hot torwards the end of the season.

We get to the second weekend again. KJ is a top 10 pick, Will Riley comes back along with a good portion of our rotation and we are a preseason top 10-15 team for 2025-26.
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If we get Riley and a good portion of our rotation back next year I would be over the moon, even with a mediocre showing this year.
 
#21      
mysterio2525
I nailed us getting a 3 seed and going to elite 8 last year, and that we would get a decent draw for once (I guess not including UConn).


So let's go with:
8-3 non conference (beat Mizzou but go 1-3 against bama,Duke, Tenn, ark)
13-7 in big ten conference
1-1 in big ten tourney
2 -1 in the NCAA for sweet sixteen as a 5 seed

24 -12 total
 
#22      
Illini John
I'll take a shot but I expect to be surprised one way or the other by the actual results.

8-3 Non conference
12-8 Conference
Finish 5th in Big Ten
Win 2 games in conference tournament
Go into NCAA tourney as a 6 seed
Win 2 games in NCAA tournament
 
#23      
PasadenaIllini
7-4 Non conference. I'm afraid that the scrimmage down South showed us that this team has a long way to go prior to being ready to compete with NCAA tournament level teams...and our non-conference schedule is a veritable murderers row unfortunately.

12-8 Conference

NCAA 8th seed.
Win 1 game NCAA Tournament
 
#24      
PleaseMakeABowlGame
Lol, these talks went from unanimous top 10 team in the summer to bubble team pretty darn quick

never really thought this team could be much of a true contender, the ole miss game showed the fax. these team's young, inexperienced, and chemistry is something that's going to be a challenge.

at the end think this is probably a similar result to 2023 at best. certainly offtrack with what this board was at in the summer (particularly after the riley commitment)...

but five straight tourney appearances (technically six) .
 
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#25      
aaeismacgychel
Really hard for me to predict this year with all the turnover and youth. My guess is we'll lose some games we have no business losing on paper, and we'll win some games that will similarly shock people who have already written us off for the year. Young teams with little time playing together are notoriously inconsistent. As such, I'm thinking something like this happens:

Non-con: 7-4 with a win against Duke and a vomit inducing loss to a not good Mizzou team
B10: 14-6 start off slow with a horrific loss to either Northwestern or Wisconsin in a streak where we lose 4 of 5 and 5 of 8 to Ark, NW, Wisky, Tenn, Mizzou, Chicago St, Oregon, Wash, where the national media claims us as for dead and a bottom half B10 team and several of our fans lambast the team. However, Illinois starts showing signs of something happening. First is the upset win on the road in P10 country and a winning streak going into Indiana where we do indeed rain a program record 23 threes on them. This is followed up by a loss @MSU where they bully us physically. But just as people are writing off Indiana as a fluke, this team rips through the easiest part of the B10 schedule looking faster, stronger, and more fluid, setting up the big rematch against MSU and this time we trounce them. We finish the season strong and yes, we beat Purdue.

BTT: We're coming together at the right time but I think we just fall short of another championship going 2-1

NCAAT: We win 1, maybe 2, but eventually we run into an older team with physical guards and they send us home. Put the players that stay next year are hungry, experienced, and ready for a deep tourney run.
 
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