Illinois followers, rejoice: The total Illini males’s basketball schedule for the 2022-23 season can be unveiled on Thursday after
the whole Illini girls’s basketball slate was launched on Wednesday. Beat author SCOTT RICHEY breaks all of it down:
Girls’s basketball
Auld Lang Yikes
It may not be a cheerful new yr for Illinois. Not with Caitlin Clark and Iowa coming to Champaign on Jan. 1. The Hawkeyes’ All-American guard and reigning Huge Ten Participant of the 12 months led the nation in scoring (27.0 factors) and assists (8.0) final season. She solely scored 18 in final yr’s sport in opposition to the Illini in Iowa Metropolis, Iowa, however flirted with a triple-double with eight rebounds and 7 assists throughout an 82-56 win for the Hawkeyes.
Unfold them out
The order of Illinois’ Huge Ten slate isn’t unfavorable. Video games in opposition to final yr’s league leaders are distributed moderately evenly all through the schedule. The hardest stretch begins because the calendar flips to 2023, with the house sport in opposition to Iowa adopted by one other 4 days later in opposition to Northwestern after which a visit to Ohio State three days after that. Every week through which first-year coach Shauna Inexperienced will discover out the place her staff stands within the league.
Down the stretch
February might be a problem, and never simply because it consists of street video games in opposition to Michigan and Maryland. Depend on these two groups contending for the convention championship. That’s simply two of the 4 video games, nonetheless, the Illini will play away from State Farm Heart within the ultimate month of the common season. Journeys to reverse ends of the convention — Nebraska on Feb. 9 and Rutgers on Feb. 26 — mark the opposite two street video games.
Males’s basketball
Early problem
Who Illinois attracts in its pair of early December Huge Ten video games is very anticipated. It’s a steeper problem in the event that they bracket the Dec. 6 Jimmy V Basic sport in opposition to Texas (introduced Wednesday as a 6 p.m. tip), however even when they’re each performed between the New York Metropolis showdown with the Longhorns and a Dec. 17 house date in opposition to Alabama A&M, dealing with Huge Ten contenders in early December gained’t be an excellent situation.
Particular occasion
The Illini received a daytime sport final season in opposition to Purdue as a part of a slate of video games to have fun Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Final yr’s 11 a.m. tip time didn’t damage attendance — a sellout crowd was available for the double-overtime thriller on a Monday — and the intrigue round this yr’s staff will most likely draw an analogous crowd. A mid-January matchup with Indiana or Michigan (particularly in Champaign) seems like a plan.
Drawing inspiration
A Huge Ten match title two seasons in the past paired with final yr’s shared regular-season title principally means Illinois is again. Brad Underwood’s Illini, in fact, thrive on being ignored. The “no person believes in us” trope can burn scorching as motivation. So it is going to be attention-grabbing to see if there are any schedule quirks that may stoke these fires. Like within the 2020-21 season, when the ultimate three video games and 5 of the final six have been on the street.