Illinois basketball predictions: A 25-win season, Big Ten title and No. 2 NCAA Tournament seed

The Illini will begin their season in less than three weeks when they face Fairleigh Dickinson on Monday, Nov. 2. Fans will get their first look at the 2026-27 team this Saturday when Illinois takes on Cincinnati in an exhibition game. The game will not be televised, but highlights and the box score will be available afterward.

Illinois will play two more preseason games against Baylor and UIC at the State Farm Center before beginning the regular season. I will not make predictions for those exhibition games, but I have included my game-by-game predictions for the regular season, along with my projections for postseason seeding.

For reference, KenPom projects Illinois to finish 25-7, while Bart Torvik projects a 24-8 record. My prediction aligns with KenPom, as I expect the Illini to finish 25-7 overall and 15-5 in Big Ten play.

Game-by-Game Predictions

November 2: Fairleigh Dickinson — Win
November 5: Penn — Win
November 10: at Texas Tech — Loss
November 13: Sam Houston State — Win
November 17: at Duke — Loss
November 20: Eastern Illinois — Win
November 23: Winthrop — Win
November 27: Western Kentucky — Win
December 4: UConn (Chicago) — Win
December 8: at Minnesota — Win
December 12: Penn State — Win
December 20: Missouri (St. Louis) — Win
December 29: Seattle — Win
January 2: at Wisconsin — Loss
January 5: Purdue — Win
January 9: Ohio State — Loss
January 13: at Northwestern — Win
January 16: at Maryland — Win
January 19: Nebraska — Win
January 24: at Indiana — Loss
January 27: USC — Win
January 30: North Carolina (Nashville) — Win
February 2: UCLA — Win
February 5: Michigan State — Loss
February 9: at Michigan — Win
February 12: at Purdue — Loss
February 16: Northwestern — Win
February 20: at Oregon — Win
February 23: at Washington — Win
February 28: Wisconsin — Win
March 3: at Rutgers — Win
March 6: Iowa — Win

Predicting Illinois’ Losses

I predict Illinois will suffer seven losses this season: at Texas Tech, at Duke, at Wisconsin, against…

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Publish date : 2026-10-13 10:30:00

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