There is a difference between what a team looks like on paper and what they look like on the court. In Illinois, this seems to be the dominant reality for the fighting Illini this year. A trendy pre-season pick for the upper echelons of the Big Ten, this squad built almost entirely out of players new to Illinois is struggling to survive the Big Ten.
Overall, Illinois is 11-5, but they are just 2-3 in the Big Ten. Some of the losses have been painful. Particularly a 16-point home loss to Penn State and a 13-point loss at Northwestern looked pretty bad (admittedly, Northwestern beat MSU…so maybe they are better than we thought).