2026-2027 Season Predictions Thread

[Dan]

FDU
Penn
at Texas Tech
Sam Houston
at Duke
Eastern Illinois
Winthrop
Western Kentucky
UConn (Chicago)
at Minnesota
Penn State
Missouri (St. Louis)
Seattle
at Wisconsin
Purdue
Ohio State
at Northwestern
at Maryland
Nebraska
at Indiana
USC
North Carolina (Nashville)
UCLA
Michigan State
at Michigan
at Purdue
Northwestern
at Oregon
at Washington
Wisconsin
at Rutgers
Iowa

 

[Illwinsagain]

27-5. 17-3 B1G regular season champs.

 

[FeelYourPaign]

I'm worried about the early season injuries and that gauntlet from mid-January to mid-February
9 - 3 non-con
15 - 5 conference, conference title
24 - 8 regular season total

 

[Marthgiela]

I'm worried about the early season injuries and that gauntlet from mid-January to mid-February
9 - 3 non-con
15 - 5 conference, conference title
24 - 8 regular season total

I pretty much predict the same although idk if 15-5 will get us a conference title, maybe a shared one. Probably looking at a 2-3 seed unless we get healthy early enough to win a few more premier noncon games.

 

[Second place is 1st loser]

The early season injuries are going to alter the preconference record immensely.

I see an L for our early season games. I know Tech is missing Toppin, but they were missing him much of last year too and that's a very tough place to play.
8-4 non conference
14-6 conference

22-10 overall

To be clear, this is ENTIRELY contingent on injury statuses. If Mirk doesn't come back until mid-January (or beyond) and Z/Drej are in the protocol beyond early next week, we're going to go from a strength (a bunch of returning players and experience) to having to figure things on the fly.

There needs to be a caveat to this question that Z and Drej are good to go by next week and Mirk is good to go by December. I just don't see us winning any of the "marquee" games, especially those on the road.

 

[21ChampaignSt]

Agree that we'll have some sluggish games early on as Mirk acclimates to his bigger role, coming off an injury and as we adjust to a new offense without Keaton's steady hand. Badly want to say we'll win the natty but I do have questions about our defense still. However, back to back Final Fours solidifies us as one of the premier programs in all of CBB.

25-7 (15-5)
Conference champs
2 seed
Final Four

Mirk - All B1G 1st team
Andrej and Vaaks - All B1G 2nd team
Coleman - All freshman
Brad with his first B1G CoY award

 

[wncillini]

Agree that we'll have some sluggish games early on as Mirk acclimates to his bigger role, coming off an injury and as we adjust to a new offense without Keaton's steady hand. Badly want to say we'll win the natty but I do have questions about our defense still. However, back to back Final Fours solidifies us as one of the premier programs in all of CBB.

25-7 (15-5)
Conference champs
2 seed
Final Four

Mirk - All B1G 1st team
Andrej and Vaaks - All B1G 2nd team
Coleman - All freshman
Brad with his first B1G CoY award

Heavy overlap for me with this total picture. Something won't go right so ill pick mirk never gets back to full strength but vaaks ends up first team. We get surprise contributions from JJ and and he bridges 85% of the gap of mirk down low but we make up for it in other areas. Back to back FF are hard enough without losing your pre season All American to big chunks of practice and season so ill go with losing in elite eight to uconn...again.

Ill be disappointed the luck cards didnt fall our way with health but overall content with the year as a whole.

 

[Det_Illini_fan]

Feels like a nut kick to say that with this roster and the vibes/chemistry going into the offseason, that we’d be anywhere worse than 27-5. That record last year would have been barely good enough for a 1-seed and we’re considering ourselves along those lines. But the injuries and heavy-hitter non-conference schedule we have lined up at the time when our All-American contender is out makes the pessimist in me think we’ll free fall a bit in ranking and climb our way back once Mirk is healthy. But if a healthy JT Toppin makes TTU a clear contender by end of the season. Same applies to us with Mirk.

Hoping, as I am every year, that we can finally win it all

 

[Fly Illini Fly!]

The early season injuries are going to alter the preconference record immensely.

I see an L for our early season games. I know Tech is missing Toppin, but they were missing him much of last year too and that's a very tough place to play.
8-4 non conference
14-6 conference

22-10 overall

To be clear, this is ENTIRELY contingent on injury statuses. If Mirk doesn't come back until mid-January (or beyond) and Z/Drej are in the protocol beyond early next week, we're going to go from a strength (a bunch of returning players and experience) to having to figure things on the fly.

There needs to be a caveat to this question that Z and Drej are good to go by next week and Mirk is good to go by December. I just don't see us winning any of the "marquee" games, especially those on the road.

1) Mirk should be back before mid January.

2) It’s been a long time since we’ve lost ALL of our marquee non conference games.

 

[ChiTown]

Without Mirk playing in some of our early season games,there’s going to be some frustrating games with lack of consistent rebounding and low post presence.

 

[NarrowJ]

 

[Kernal12]

I foresee a bumpy road in November and December ... my guess is that we lose three games (10-3) in 2026 ... leading to lots of hand wringing on this board. Mirk eventually comes back and gets his conditioning, staff figures out the right combinations to play, and we go 15-4 in 2027 regular season for 25-7 overall.

I think the expectations for Mirk are a bit too high ... like Tomi last year I think he's going to struggle when he comes back trying to find his conditioning and rhythm, I'm hopeful he finds his groove sooner but at least by March.

 

[Det_Illini_fan]

View attachment 52193

This is the way! My wife nearly always beats me in bracket challenges even when I follow CBB closely. Because I pick Illinois even when we’re not a great seed. She started asking if I knew the other teams were likely to win it all, why I pick Illinois still.

Because I will never not pick the Beloved! Doesn’t matter if it’s a money challenge or not. Only ever Illinois in March/April

 

[RollChief]

Give me 26-6...

In the non-con, I honestly don't see a world where we lose to TTU without Toppin, even with the insane home-court advantage in Lubbock. UConn is going to be an absolute battle again and UConn is going to show up ready. I think we need to have a B+ game or better to beat them, and we'll need an A game to beat Duke. Give me 1.5 o/u losses in the non-conference. I like the thought that we can split UConn and Duke but I'm not as confident without Mirk.

In the conference schedule, give me 4.5 o/u on losses. I think we're probably going to outperform that. I think how lucky of a home/away draw we got has been stated but may be understated.

I also put together some overall record probabilities based on KenPom odds below:

OVERALL REGULAR SEASON RECORD PROBABILITY:

Probability of going 25-7 or better in the regular season: 61.8%
**Notes: last year's one-seeds went 29-2 (Duke), 29-2 (Zona), 25-6 (Florida), 29-2 (Michigan)
last year's two-seeds went 26-5 (Houston), 25-6 (ISU), 23-8 (Purdue), 27-4 (UConn)
last year's three-seeds went 24-7 (Illinois), 25-6 (MSU), 28-3 (Gonzaga), 27-4 (Virginia)

 

[Fly Illini Fly!]

FDU — W
Penn — W
at Texas Tech — W
Sam Houston — W
at Duke — L
Eastern Illinois — W
Winthrop — W
Western Kentucky — W
UConn (Chicago) — L
at Minnesota — W
Penn State — W
Missouri (St. Louis) — L
Seattle — W
at Wisconsin — W
Purdue — W
Ohio State — L
at Northwestern — W
at Maryland — L
Nebraska — W
at Indiana — L
USC — W
North Carolina (Nashville) — W
UCLA — L
Michigan State — L
at Michigan — W
at Purdue — W
Northwestern — W
at Oregon — W
at Washington — W
Wisconsin — W
at Rutgers — W
Iowa — W