Illinois Fighting Illini NCAA Basketball Betting
Since taking over as head coach of the Illinois Fighting Illini in 2017, Brad Underwood has improved the program as a regular NCAA Tournament participant. Illinois has made the Big Dance in five consecutive seasons but has advanced past the first weekend only once, with an Elite Eight in 2024. This year, Illinois took a step back and struggled in the Big Ten regular season with a 7th-place finish. In the second round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament, the Fighting Illini meekly bowed out against the Kentucky Wildcats, a middle-of-the-road SEC team. As a result, Underwood is catching criticism.
NCAA Basketball Betting Lines
2025 Illinois Fighting Illini Season Recap
Overall, the Illinois Fighting Illini are 22-13 straight up, 14-16-1 against the spread, and 16-15 over/under the total. Illinois has national metrics of 116th for scoring offense, 125th for field goal percentage, 187th for 3-point field goal percentage, 45th for free throw percentage, and 203rd for offensive rebounding. While defensively, Illinois is 149th for scoring defense, 134th for field goal percentage permitted, 74th for 3-point field goal percentage allowed, and 150th for defensive rebounding.
Lately, Illinois has covered seven of its previous ten games and has gone under the total in eight of its last ten outings. Nate Bittle is first among Illinois scorers with 1.2 points per game.
When it was all over, at the end of a promising season interspersed with injuries, intrigue, illness, and brilliance, the 2024-25 Illini were able to say they had done it their way: with their hair on fire and by the seat of their pants. But was it worth it?
In Sunday's NCAA Tournament second-round matchup at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, sixth-seeded Illinois took its measure against its SEC doppelganger and third-seeded Kentucky and simply came up short in an 84-75 season-ending defeat.
For whatever it was worth, the Illini died as they lived for the vast majority of the season, chucking iffy three-point shots, handing out extra possessions like Halloween candy, and stubbornly sticking to their guns even while endlessly firing blanks.
Illinois shot 9-for-32 (28.1 percent) on three-pointers, committed 14 turnovers that Kentucky turned into 26 points, and allowed Wildcats shooters to come off screens unimpeded for squeaky-clean looks routinely. Kentucky (24-11) shot 47.1 percent as a team. It got excellent performances from Koby Brea (23 points), Lamont Butler (14 points), and Amari Williams (eight points, 10 rebounds, and six assists) on a day when leading scorer Otega Oweh (15 points) didn't quite have his game.
The Illini's trouble began with a raft of turnovers and poor shot selection that turned an early lead into a 13-5 hole. Center Tomislav Ivisic hit a pair of threes and set up a handful of buckets for teammates to keep the Wildcats from sprinting too far ahead. Still, as was too often the case this season, the Illini went away from their big man when the offense so clearly has functioned best through him.
Despite committing eight turnovers in the first half, the Illini found themselves down only 37-32 thanks to Ivisic and an inspired effort by guard Kylan Boswell, whose balletic wrecking-ball style couldn't be contained by Kentucky. Boswell had 10 points on 5-for-7 shooting – and was a key figure in holding Oweh to two points on 1-for-3 shooting at the break.
But the Wildcats, after routinely shaking free of Illini defenders of high screen-and-roll in the first half, annihilated Illinois' drop coverage by starting the second half on a 10-for-11 bender from the field.
The campaign will undoubtedly feel like a lost one for Illinois fans in the days ahead, but this can't be denied: The 2024-25 Illini were the most entertaining group the program has seen in a long time. How many of them will return to run it back next season is an open question – and largely up to the eagerness of NBA scouts and executives.
Latest NCAA Tournament Results
| YEAR |
RESULT |
| 2025 |
Lost Second Round vs. (3) Kentucky 75–84 |
| 2024 |
Lost Elite Eight vs. (1) UConn 52–77 |
| 2023 |
Lost First Round vs. (8) Arkansas 63–73 |
| 2022 |
Lost Second Round vs. (5) Houston, 53–68 |
| 2021 |
Lost Second Round vs. (8) Loyola–Chicago, 58–71 |
| 2013 |
Lost Sweet 16 vs. (2) Miami (FL), 59–63 |
| 2011 |
Lost Sweet 16 vs. (1) Kansas, 59–73 |
| 2009 |
Lost First Round vs. (12) WKU, 72–76 |
2024-2025 NCAA Basketball Top Teams
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