Beat #1 Kansas in preseason exhibition. Kept bragging rights vs. Hunter Dickinson.
Beat FAU in Jimmy V classic thriller
Obliterated Missouri to reclaim Bragging Rights
Responded to Shannon suspension with back-to-back 30 point wins
Finally won at Maryland for the first time in the Underwood era
Never lost by double digits
Never lost two games in a row
Every loss has a good explanation (Marquette, Tennessee, Purdue x2 = all 1/2 seeds; everyone sick for MD home loss; Penn State/Michigan St/NW road losses where we had late leads and almost won)
Beat a Minnesota team that made 14 3-pointers and scored 1.47 PPP
Kept winning streaks going versus Michigan and Wisconsin
Won at Iowa in "meaningless" game, ended their postseason hopes
Overcame three double-digit second-half deficits to win Big Ten Tournament against hot/desperate teams
26+ wins for the first time since 2006
Very rare avoidance of 1/4/5/8/9/12 side of bracket
Every single player over 12% minutes played has a 115+ ORtg. First season without fan scapegoat.
NBA lottery pick on roster
8th tallest KenPom average height; 10th most D-1 experience
Outside of going 32-1 before the NCAA Tournament, I don't know what else a team could do to inspire confidence and belief.
Any team can lose in March Madness. No matter what happened this season, we would have the "Underwood hasn't made the Sweet 16 and Illinois hasn't since 2005" monkey on our backs. If we do go down early, we'll have another 12 months to agonize over that. I'm ready to move on from "what if we lose?" to "what if we win?" This team has earned my belief and I'm going to give it to them.
It takes a magical season to alter the course of a team's history. This team had a long "to-do" list, and outside of finishing 2nd in the conference to the best Purdue team ever** they have pretty much checked every box.
