If you judge Illinois basketball by its long-term history, a 6-seed and an NCAA Tournament win are an average season for us.
If you compare the Underwood era to the Groce era or the post-Dee/Augie Weber years it feels like we're in the golden age of Illinois basketball again.
So we're generally in a good place. We aren't quite matching peak Henson or the early 2000's with the Self-built teams, but we are among the top programs in the Big Ten and we're generally spending time in the Top 25 every year. We're not outplaying our NCAA Tournament seeds but Illinois basketball never does.
Despite all of that, I can't shake a feeling of dissatisfaction. The reason is because the floor and the ceiling for Illinois basketball have been raised dramatically over the last few years.
Our biggest problem historically has been that we couldn't sustain great recruiting. Slush Fund, Bruce Pearl, and Self leaving for Kansas were all major setbacks. The story was that other schools could "buy" players and we couldn't do it without being caught. So we were never more than a second-tier or third-tier basketball program. Maybe something like 17th-25th overall in the sport.
I think right now that Illinois has the resources to be a top-tier or second-tier basketball program. Maybe we're not one of the absolute blue bloods, but we're only a small notch below that. I'd put us around 9th-16th overall in the sport. The SEC and the Big Ten are the two dominant leagues in college athletics. I don't have the exact figures for coaching salary, NIL, or overall fan support but I think just looking at the amount of orange in the stands at any neutral site that we're competitive with the very top programs in the country. We can consistently land multiple guys in the 25-50 ratings because of NIL now whereas before we were just hoping to get multiple guys in the top 100. The talent is there.
I think Brad Underwood has done an admirable job of navigating the changing landscape of college basketball. His teams are consistently competitive and I'm not making this thread to complain about any recent results. (Even if I were, there are other threads for that.) I do think the bar needs to rise a bit going forward. What does that look like?
Illinois basketball is in a much more favorable place now than where we've been historically for my adult life. We can finally harness the resources of our awesome fanbase and I think it's ok for fans to raise their expectations going forward.
If you compare the Underwood era to the Groce era or the post-Dee/Augie Weber years it feels like we're in the golden age of Illinois basketball again.
So we're generally in a good place. We aren't quite matching peak Henson or the early 2000's with the Self-built teams, but we are among the top programs in the Big Ten and we're generally spending time in the Top 25 every year. We're not outplaying our NCAA Tournament seeds but Illinois basketball never does.
Despite all of that, I can't shake a feeling of dissatisfaction. The reason is because the floor and the ceiling for Illinois basketball have been raised dramatically over the last few years.
Our biggest problem historically has been that we couldn't sustain great recruiting. Slush Fund, Bruce Pearl, and Self leaving for Kansas were all major setbacks. The story was that other schools could "buy" players and we couldn't do it without being caught. So we were never more than a second-tier or third-tier basketball program. Maybe something like 17th-25th overall in the sport.
I think right now that Illinois has the resources to be a top-tier or second-tier basketball program. Maybe we're not one of the absolute blue bloods, but we're only a small notch below that. I'd put us around 9th-16th overall in the sport. The SEC and the Big Ten are the two dominant leagues in college athletics. I don't have the exact figures for coaching salary, NIL, or overall fan support but I think just looking at the amount of orange in the stands at any neutral site that we're competitive with the very top programs in the country. We can consistently land multiple guys in the 25-50 ratings because of NIL now whereas before we were just hoping to get multiple guys in the top 100. The talent is there.
I think Brad Underwood has done an admirable job of navigating the changing landscape of college basketball. His teams are consistently competitive and I'm not making this thread to complain about any recent results. (Even if I were, there are other threads for that.) I do think the bar needs to rise a bit going forward. What does that look like?
- More scrutiny on assistant coaches. If they aren't elite at x's-and-o's or recruiting, then let's upgrade. We're don't need to be a friends-and-family operation.
- If we've identified key guys on the roster that we want to return, we shouldn't be getting outbid by other programs. We should be a destination, not a stepping-stone. It's fine to try and upgrade at some positions over existing guys but we shouldn't have to do involuntary large-scale roster overhauls.
- We have reloading years, not rebuilding years. We should be able to field a team that is in the Top 25 at some point every season. Some years may be peak years where you are most competitive, but the floor is an NCAA Tournament bid every year.
- We need to reclaim the home court advantage. We have a great neutral-court advantage because our fans travel well, but our home court performances have been weak. Our home court advantage factor on KenPom is 118th in the country, which is not impressive.
- We need to start winning more NCAA Tournament games. Probably should be averaging 2 NCAA Tournament wins per year, so 10 NCAA wins over the next 5 years compared to 6 NCAA wins over the last 5 years.
- Keep winning trophies and hanging banners. We've probably been at the top of the Big Ten over the last 5-6 years (neck-and-neck with Purdue.) This is excellent and I think we can sustain it even with a larger Big Ten.
Illinois basketball is in a much more favorable place now than where we've been historically for my adult life. We can finally harness the resources of our awesome fanbase and I think it's ok for fans to raise their expectations going forward.
