The Illini’s nonconference slate has practically come and gone, and Big Ten play will soon kick into full gear during the new year.
Assuming the Illini (9-3, 1-1 Big Ten) have little trouble taking care of Southern (4-8, No. 286 NET) on Monday in their final buy game, we can begin to zoom out and assess where this season’s squad is at from a résumé perspective after conquering a busy first two months that included seven high-major opponents, five ranked-on-ranked matchups and four neutral site clashes.
Per usual, Brad Underwood wasn’t shy at all with his scheduling and gave his team plenty of bites at the apple when it came to quality wins early in the season. And per usual, the Illini had mixed results in those big tests.
From a metrics standpoint — one of the most important factors for the committee when comparing teams in the modern era of college basketball — Illinois is in excellent shape. The Illini sit at No. 10 in the NET, No. 9 on KenPom, No. 10 on Bart Torvik and No. 11 on ESPN’s BPI. The computers are big fans of Illinois, and that usually bodes well when March rolls around nowadays.