Illinois basketball They are coming off a season in which they won the Big Ten Conference Tournament and finished one game short of the program’s first Final Four appearance in two decades.

Now, the Fighting Illini and coach Brad Underwood have retooled nearly their entire roster through the transfer portal, international players and highly-coveted high schoolers.

Illinois reloaded, but it looks like the pundits don’t know what to do with the prospects. Illini’s chose to finish fourth in the new-look Big Ten and they sit Ranked 24th in coaches poll and right outside Associated Press rankings.

Meet the Illinois basketball roster: Breaking down the Fighting Illini ahead of 2024-25 season

Here’s a breakdown: Illinois 2024-25 schedule including predictions for some of the likely season highlights by month.

November

November 4: Eastern Illinois

November 8: SIU Edwardsville

November 13: Oakland

November 20: In Alabama

November 23: Maryland-East Coast

November 25: Little Rock

November 28: vs. Arkansas (in Kansas City)

Games played against No. 2 Alabama and No. 16 Arkansas First of four games for the Illini against the SEC; Lost to Ole Miss 91-74 These are the first real tests for Illinois, including SEC favorite Bama advancing to the 2024 Final Four. The Illini should be no worse than 5-2 heading into Big Ten play.

December

December 6: At Northwestern

December 10: Wisconsin

December 14: Tennessee

December 22: Missouri, St. Louis, Mo. (Entrepreneurship Center)

December 29: Chicago State

Another pair of SEC games – incl. 12 Volumes in a return game at Champaign and Braggin’ Rights – highlighting the early end to the non-meeting season. Illinois’ first two-game Big Ten slate is relatively soft, so that should benefit a team that will take time to put together. Illinois should come out of this no worse than 3-2.

Fireplace

January 2: In Oregon

January 5: In Washington

The Illini have a slight offseason, but get out of it with their first Big Ten west coach hit against a division contender.

January 8: Penn State

January 11: USC

January 14: In Indiana

January 19: At Michigan State

January 23: Maryland

January 26: Northwest

January 30: In Nebraska

This is a nine-game stretch where we’ll find out if Illinois can challenge for the Big Ten title. They have a good mix of road tests (No. 18 Indiana and Michigan State) and big home games (No. 22 UCLA). If the Illini come out of this stretch with six or seven wins, you can expect them to be ranked at the top.

February

February 2: Ohio State

February 5: At Rutgers

February 8: In Minnesota

February 11: UCLA

The west coast’s first Big Ten team is coming to State Farm Center — and it’s one of college basketball’s traditional bluebloods, No. 22 Bruins. It should be something fun.

February 15: Michigan State

February 18: In Wisconsin

February 22: vs. Duke (Madison Square Garden)

February 25: Iowa

What a difficult process. The Illini will face four Big Ten teams (three at home) in the first half, along with No. 5 Duke in New York. Illinois needs to hold serve at home and earn another shot if it wants to emerge from February with a record of .500 or better in this run.

March

March 2: In Michigan

March 7: Purdue

March 12-14: Big Ten Tournament, Indianapolis.

Looks like the Big Ten’s schedule makers are predicting No. 13 Purdue and No. 24 Illinois Helping decide the Big Ten title. The Big Ten regular-season champions have finished with five or more losses three times in the last four seasons — and in a league where 10 schools had 19 or more wins last season, we should expect that to happen again. Illinois should split this final two and qualify for the Big Ten Tournament with a top-four seed and a double bye.

The ultimate Illinois basketball 2024-25 record prediction

Record: 20-11, 13-7

This prediction seems like a safe bet for a team that should succeed greater than the sum of its parts, given its coach and crop of talent. If Will Riley is ready for primetime and Kylan Boswell provides stability alongside impressive international talent and returning leaders like Ty Rodgers, this Illini team should surprise people in March.

This article was first published in Journal Star: Illinois basketball 2024-25 season prediction, schedule breakdown