10 in a row

The only thing standing between Illinois and a basketball national championship is winning 10* games in a row.

If they win the 4 games in the Big Ten Tournament they will become one of those annoying tournament champions that steal bids from bubble teams that are more deserving. They have to go through Penn State, then Purdue, then presumably Indiana, and then the winner from the top half of the bracket. It's just that easy to get to the big dance.

And from there, it's just winning 6 more in a row to take home the hardware.


*Unless they put Illinois in the play-in game; then it's 11.