CHAMPAIGN — Football and men’s basketball are the two pillars on which the entirety of Illinois athletics are built.
Those two pillars are in pretty rough shape. The Illini football team has made three bowl games in the last 10 seasons. Men’s basketball has made the same number of NCAA tournament appearances in that span.
Basketball’s drought, though, is a little longer. Brad Underwood’s first season at Illinois marked the fifth straight season without an NCAA tournament bid. By virtue of a shortened Big Ten season, the Illini didn’t even play into March.
Returning basketball to its status as perennial tournament contender and getting football to a consistency not shown since the mid-1980s to early ‘90s is at the top of Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman’s to-do list.