As Northwestern and Illini basketball prepare to tangle tomorrow night, you have two programs headed in polar opposite directions. Momentum could obviously change next season, but at this point, the inertia is so strong in both directions that it’s at the program, not just the team level.
Since the start of the 2015-16 season, NU is 38-17 (.690 winning percentage) overall, 15-13 (.536) in B1G play while Illinois is 28-30 (.483), and 12-16 (.429) in the league. The program that’s never made the NCAA Tournament (you might have heard that fact/stat once of twice or one zillion times already this season) or even the B1G Tournament semi-finals has been kicking some ass here and there and taking a few names.
NU is currently projected an #8 seed in this publication’s latest bracket projection.
It’s Actually a Rivalry Now
Meanwhile the school with five Final Fours, 17 B1G titles, 11 Sweet Sixteens, nine Elite Eights, 30 NCAA Tournament appearances and the 1915 National Championship, is winless on the road with a 20+ point second half deficit in every away showing this season. Illini basketball will be fortunate to finish the season above .500 while Northwestern might just win 25 games or more.
The program with a cathedral of college basketball, which just had a $170 million upgrade might just lose at a mid-major to low-major type facility by 25-30 points tomorrow night and absolutely no one who’s paying attention would be shocked one bit by that result. Northwestern basketball eagerly anticipating their voyage into uncharted and exciting territory, while Illini basketball….has a ladder:
#Illini team managers now prepping inspirational ladder. One step at a time. pic.twitter.com/8JcQmHG31a
— Illini Report ?? (@IlliniReport) January 24, 2017
The college hoops world in this state has turned upside down.
“In fact, in Rand McNally, they wear hats on their feet and hamburgers eat people.”
It’s clear that Northwestern made a great decision in hiring Chris Collins, and Illini basketball made a horrendous one in hiring John Groce, and that’s how we got here.
https://twitter.com/PaulMBanks/status/828008144777392128
Prediction: Northwestern 74, Illini basketball 58
For NU, the magic number is four; get four more wins and you’re at 22 (two more than the school single season record). No way a power five conference team with 22 victories gets left out of the dance.
In the 30 seasons from 1981 through 2010, the #Illini finished above .500 in B1G play 26 times. This doesn't have to be the new normal.
— The Tomfoolery of Professor John Frink (@Frustrated_Fan) February 4, 2017
For Illini basketball, the magic number is seven. After this one, you probably will only have to endure seven more games of the John Groce era. He is 32-51 in B1G play over his five seasons at Illinois, just 21-19 at home in league play. Unless you believe in “alternative facts,” the numbers don’t lie and the debate to let him or go or not has become a non-debate.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, Bold and the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication, appears regularly as a guest on CGTN America, WGN CLTV News and KOZN.
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