Yep, it is worth remembering that our 2020-21 team started out with a lot of hype and then had the following streak of games to also wind up 6-3 in Big Ten play and also with 5 losses in mid- to late January:
--- Illini are ranked #13 but lose at Rutgers and fall to #18)
12/26 - (ILL #18) W 69-60 vs. Indiana. WAY too close for comfort and needed an Ayo dagger.
1/2 - (ILL #15) W 66-58 vs. Purdue. Again, I remember thinking why can't we blow these teams out?!
1/7 - (ILL #12) W 81-56 at Northwestern. This one was close in the first half, and it looked like we finally clicked when we pulled away.
1/10 - (ILL #12) L 66-63 vs. Maryland. Enter the annual T*rps meltdown.
1/16 - (ILL #14) L 87-81 vs. #21 Ohio State. SUCH a frustrating game if you will remember!
We then fell to #22 in the country, we were 9-5 overall and 5-3 in the Big Ten and we beat Penn State at home in the next game in a bit of a "Thank God this isn't a FULL meltdown yet" type game.
It was only when we beat #7 Iowa exactly 3 years ago to the day in Champaign that we looked like we had this thing figured out. We went on a 7-game winning streak before the loss in East Lansing, and we proceeded to end the season with three road wins over ranked teams. Obviously we all want a better NCAAT showing than that squad had, but I could seriously see this team going on a similar type of run. I think if TJ never gets suspended/this situation never comes up, we have probably only lost at Purdue since Braggin' Rights and nobody is worried.