The Illinois basketball team dropped to 7-4 last night at the hands of the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels.

This marks the fourth loss in the last five games for the Illini. Many fans have now transitioned from the NCAA tournament is a possibility mode to this is a learning and building year for the young players. As bias at it sounds, maybe it can still be both.

Illinois’ record doesn’t look good. 7-4 is hard to recover from and they haven’t started off well in Big Ten play either. So, really, the Illini non-conference record right now is 7-2. I am still dividing the Big Ten and non-conference slates. I thought Illinois could go 12-1 in the non-conference but 11-2 would suffice. There is still the possibility of that happening.

Longwood, New Mexico State, Missouri and Grand Canyon are the four games left in the non-conference for the Illini. The best team out of those four is Missouri. I have full confidence Illinois can knock off the other three teams. The Tigers will be a difficult matchup in the Braggin’ Rights game, though.

But, Illinois has shown they can beat the next four teams. They aren’t a bad program but they need to tighten things up and finish games. An 11-2 finish in the non-conference would still keep us alive for the NCAA tournament.

Illinois would start off the Big Ten slate 0-2, though, and that is a tough hole to get out of. But, the first five games will show fans if the Illini can still make the postseason. The Illini play No. 14 Minnesota for the first game but I highly doubt the Golden Gophers will be ranked at that time. They hit a rough patch and aren’t as good as their ranking right now. This is a winnable game.

The following game is against Michigan who is playing well this season. A road game like this is probably a loss. The next three games after that are home against Iowa, at Nebraska and at Wisconsin. All three of these teams are easily beatable this year and I think Illinois can take them all down.

So, that would move the Illini conference record to 4-3 and their overall record to 15-5. This would put them right on track to make the NCAA tournament. This isn’t a crazy vision because all of the teams I mentioned are beatable. It is a matter of the Illini showing up or not. I think we can win and I believe the postseason is still in sight.