CHAMPAIGN — Don’t look now, but the Illinois men’s basketball team has an exhibition game in three weeks and begins the season in a month.
That means it’s basketball season. Or, almost. The Illinois men’s basketball team had its annual media day on Friday afternoon, and Big Ten Media Days begin Tuesday in Indianapolis.
Illinois is coming off a Big Ten co-championship last season and a second-round exit in the NCAA Tournament, but this is a new-look Illini team after the departures of stalwarts Trent Frazier, Da’Monte Williams, Kofi Cockburn and Jacob Grandison.
Head coach Brad Underwood, though, doesn’t lack for confidence after rebuilding the program from the Big Ten basement into one of the top teams in the country, complete with a conference tournament and co-regular season championship in each of the last two seasons. Underwood also knows that the goal for his program is a national championship. The Illini are still searching for the first trip to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament since 2005.
“It’s always a fun time of the year to coach,” Underwood said. “I think one thing that’s really got me excited about this group has been the drastic improvements from one day to the next. Now we’re starting to stack days, good days, and that’s really with quite big improvements. This group has been unbelievable in terms of their work ethic, their ability — the new guys — to grasp what we’re doing and then to back that up with really good questions and a lot of film work.”
Illinois added four four-star freshmen in the Class of 2022, two highly-ranked transfers — Terrence Shannon Jr. (Texas Tech) and Matthew Mayer (Baylor) — and Dain Dainja, who transferred mid-year last season is eligible after sitting out following his transfer from Baylor.
The Illini open the season on Nov. 7 at home against Eastern Illinois University.
Here are five key takeaways from the program’s media day on Friday.
