Illini Basketball 2025-2026

Second place is 1st loser · Jan 25, 2026

Newsflash....

In the NCAA Tournament, you have one day in between games. If you want to advance, you have the be able to prepare in one day. Just as well get used to it and get good at it.

Scoregasm · Jan 26, 2026

Brad Underwood has now won at every Big Ten arena that was part of the conference during his first eight seasons at Illinois.

Fly Illini Fly! · Jan 26, 2026

https://twitter.com/x/status/2015887197690347608

lstewart53x3 · Jan 26, 2026

Would love to see this list for past 5 years, I bet we’re quite a bit higher now:

https://twitter.com/x/status/2015825109550772535

mysterio2525 · Jan 26, 2026

we have scored less than 73 points only 1 time this year (uconn). i fully expect us to score above 70 rest of the year.

I appreciate how lucky we are to have an offense like this. keep it rolling!

RabidDawgClassic · Jan 26, 2026

Fly Illini Fly! said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/2015458390059745368

RabidDawgClassic · Jan 26, 2026

Scoregasm said:
Brad Underwood has now won at every Big Ten arena that was part of the conference during his first eight seasons at Illinois.

He had already done that before Saturday (2019-2020)

Win at USC and UCLA this year and he’ll have collected em all.

lonelytylenol · Jan 27, 2026

status check-in for tier 1 (top 5) matchups

[9-0] Nebraska Cornhuskers

W	@Illinois Fighting Illini
W	Michigan State Spartans
1/27	@Michigan Wolverines
2/01	Illinois Fighting Illini
2/10	Purdue Boilermakers

[8-1] Illinois Fighting Illini

L	Nebraska Cornhuskers
W	@Purdue Boilermakers
2/01	@Nebraska Cornhuskers
2/07	@Michigan State Spartans
2/27	Michigan Wolverines

[8-1] Michigan Wolverines

1/27	Nebraska Cornhuskers
1/30	@Michigan State Spartans
2/17	@Purdue Boilermakers
2/27	@Illinois Fighting Illini
3/08	Michigan State Spartans

[8-1] Michigan State Spartans

L	@Nebraska Cornhuskers
1/30	Michigan Wolverines
2/07	Illinois Fighting Illini
2/26	@Purdue Boilermakers
3/08	@Michigan Wolverines

[7-2] Purdue Boilermakers

L	Illinois Fighting Illini
2/10	@Nebraska Cornhuskers
2/17	Michigan Wolverines
2/26	Michigan State Spartans

Observations

1. The schedule seems very backloaded this year - so many remaining matchups among the top 5 teams.
2. Purdue is the only top 5 team with only 4 top 5 games. And 3 of the 4 are at home.
3. All other top 5 teams have 5 top 5 games. Nebraska has the advantage of 3 home, 2 road, while the other 3 teams have 2 home, 3 road.
4. Nebraska finishes their top 5 games on 2/10 - much earlier than everyone else.
5. Avoiding losses against teams outside of the top 5 may be decisive, in terms of a conference title. Purdue and Michigan are behind the curve, in that regard.

Fly Illini Fly! · Jan 27, 2026

Scoregasm said:
Brad Underwood has now won at every Big Ten arena that was part of the conference during his first eight seasons at Illinois.

Brosky · Jan 27, 2026

Kenpom today: Michigan #2, Mich. State #4, Illini #5, Purdue #8, and just for fun, Wisky #40 and Washington #48.

BWA · Jan 27, 2026

mysterio2525 said:
we have scored less than 73 points only 1 time this year (uconn). i fully expect us to score above 70 rest of the year.

I appreciate how lucky we are to have an offense like this. keep it rolling!

Just randomly picked 2014 for comparison. We scored 73 or more exactly 1 time against a power conference team. 74 in a loss against Indiana.

Man those were dark times

Fighter of the Nightman · Jan 27, 2026

Scoregasm said:
Brad Underwood has now won at every Big Ten arena that was part of the conference during his first eight seasons at Illinois.

Didn’t we actually win quite handily at Mackey in 2020, too?

EDIT: Delete, lol, I’m so late to this party.

HereSoIDontGetFined · Jan 27, 2026

As a fun (far) future hypothetical, I imagine some team hiring Tyler Underwood as an assistant coach, and fans of that team saying, "great recruiter, did you know he recruited Keaton Wagler?"

89illini · Jan 27, 2026

Ivisic brothers featured on next episode of The Journey today.

sharpshot16 · Jan 27, 2026

mysterio2525 said:
we have scored less than 73 points only 1 time this year (uconn). i fully expect us to score above 70 rest of the year.

I appreciate how lucky we are to have an offense like this. keep it rolling!

But Tyler is a nepo-baby that doesn't deserve to run this offense

2 years ago you guys called me crazy for reporting that Tyler had NBA offers... Not to be an assistant, but to be on a few different staffs.

Also hey everybody sorry I've been absent! Hope all is good around here.

Dan · Jan 27, 2026

Joel Goodson · Jan 27, 2026

Dan said:

frickin' awesome!

3nDGuy · Jan 27, 2026

lstewart53x3 said:
Would love to see this list for past 5 years, I bet we’re quite a bit higher now:

https://twitter.com/x/status/2015825109550772535

Because I was bored.. here are the numbers from the start of the 20-21 season.

Kansas 36
Purdue 31
Illinois 29
Michigan St 27
Duke 24

This exercise was a reminder of how bad the ACC has been the last 5 years.

RabidDawgClassic · Jan 27, 2026

Fighter of the Nightman said:
Didn’t we actually win quite handily at Mackey in 2020, too?

EDIT: Delete, lol, I’m so late to this party.

Yes!!! I beat Fighter to a stats-related post! Just dub me co-poster of the week already!

Deep · Jan 27, 2026

Dan said:

Very cool stuff

BalloonsTheElephant · Jan 27, 2026

sharpshot16 said:
But Tyler is a nepo-baby that doesn't deserve to run this offense

2 years ago you guys called me crazy for reporting that Tyler had NBA offers... Not to be an assistant, but to be on a few different staffs.

Also hey everybody sorry I've been absent! Hope all is good around here.

I see it this year. He has the shooters to make it work and it has been obviously extremely efficient. Last year we didn't have the personnel to make it work and when threes didn't fall we also rarely adjusted, and I don't know if it would have mattered much if we did.

This roster has been much better for the game Tyler wants to play.

ChiefGritty · Jan 27, 2026

3nDGuy said:
Because I was bored.. here are the numbers from the start of the 20-21 season.

Kansas 36
Purdue 31
Illinois 29
Michigan St 27
Duke 24

This exercise was a reminder of how bad the ACC has been the last 5 years.

So that's 5 full seasons and up to mid-January of a 6th season.

In the 5 full seasons from 2013-14 plus up to mid-January of 2019, by comparison, we won only 6 games against ranked opponents, and when we won that weird Madison Square Garden game against #13 Maryland on January 26th, 2019, it was our first ranked victory in almost three full years.

7 years ago yesterday, a game we entered at 19-32 (5-21) through 1.5 seasons with BU, no tournament in seven years, hadn't had a winning record in the Big Ten since it was 11 teams, the tide started to turn.

Cherish it.

Calvin · Jan 27, 2026

Deep said:
Very cool stuff

Yeah, great work all around in the content and production. Thought it was great to hear Underwood first brought it up with Tomi and everything went so well from there.

ChiefGritty · Jan 27, 2026

Wins Over AP Ranked Opponents This Century By Season:

1999-00: 4
2000-01: 6
2001-02: 3
2002-03: 2
2003-04: 3
2004-05: 10
2005-06: 3
2006-07: 1
2007-08: 1
2008-09: 4
2009-10: 5
2010-11: 1
2011-12: 3
2012-13: 4
2013-14: 3
2014-15: 1
2015-16: 2
2016-17: Zero
2017-18: Zero
2018-19: 2
2019-20: 3
2020-21: 8
2021-22: 4
2022-23: 5
2023-24: 2
2024-25: 5
2025-26: 4 and counting

gary? · Jan 27, 2026

ChiefGritty said:
Wins Over AP Ranked Opponents This Century By Season:

1999-00: 4
2000-01: 6
2001-02: 3
2002-03: 2
2003-04: 3
2004-05: 10
2005-06: 3
2006-07: 1
2007-08: 1
2008-09: 4
2009-10: 5
2010-11: 1
2011-12: 3
2012-13: 4
2013-14: 3
2014-15: 1
2015-16: 2
2016-17: Zero
2017-18: Zero
2018-19: 2
2019-20: 3
2020-21: 8
2021-22: 4
2022-23: 5
2023-24: 2
2024-25: 5
2025-26: 4 and counting

love it, and i have no qualms with brad through to the b1g tournament. second weekend in the ncaas this year, please! just another sweet 16 and then anything else is gravy

Illini Basketball 2025-2026

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