Also there were some circumstances that really took their toll. Not having Nunn hurt. I felt like groce have me hope early on because he could recruit decently. That quickly faded and I was already jaded after the last 10 years.That 2015 to 2018 stretch - end of the Groce Era through the Underwood rebuilding years - REALLY looks bad up there, too. That truly was an almost unimaginable depth as far as fan hopefulness and enthusiasm went! I think what added to our collective mental breakdown during this depressing stretch was the 2010-2015 stretch being particularly maddening. We would always climb into the top 25 and literally never once finished there. Every season seemed like one step forward and two steps back ... and that proved to be the case!
The least hopeful I have literally ever felt as an Illini fan was the end of the 2015 season. We were sitting at 19-12 before the BTT, and we actually had some nice wins (including at MSU and vs. #11 Maryland), so we at least had a shot at the Tournament if we won some games in the BTT. You'd think in an 8/9 matchup we could at least expect to be competitive, but we then proceeded to lose 79-58 to a Michigan team that had literally just had a plane incident and had to play us in their practice jerseys ... pretty much knew we were screwed under Groce after that, lol.
Compare that to the end of the 2019 season - an absolute shellacking (82-63) at the hands of Iowa at the United Center to end our season and give us our 21st loss of the year. I was at that game, and it was rough. However, I walked away from that game with immense hope for our program with Underwood finally getting his players another year and watching a freshman Ayo.
I feel ya on the 2015 game...I watched it with my friend why was a Michigan fun, yuck.
After that, I think Trent staying sustained us then ayo committing changed the game.