Illinois lost to Chattanooga 81-77 on Saturday night. The Illini erased a 15-point Mocs’ lead only to give away a 9-point lead of their own late in the game and drop to 1-3 for the first time since 1965. The specifics of the game are fairly simple: Malcolm Hill did nearly everything, with a little help from Mike Thorne, but was unable to do it all himself. The Illini turned the ball over 16 times, shot just 4-for-13 for three and 5 free throws (not coincidentally the same number that would have won the game).
Really, though, the specifics of the game are aggravating. And misery loves company, not aggravation. Illinois football has provided plenty of opportunities for misery in recent years, including losing to Minnesota 32-23 earlier on Saturday. With that in mind, let’s take a trip down memory lane and try to determine when Illinois’s revenue sports have been this bad simultaneously.
1975
llinois football was just one year from the end of Bob Blackman’s tenure as head coach and in the middle (year 12) of a 19-year bowl drought. At 5-6, the team wasn’t terrible, but had hardly given fans a reason to get excited.
On the hardcourt, Gene Bartow was piloting the men’s basketball team to its last game before the beginning of the Lou Henson era. Though fans did not know it at the time, the 8-18 record Bartow’s men would compile would be the worst in 40 years (and counting).
1992
Lou Tepper’s first full season after John Mackovic bolted for the greener pastures of Texas was a harbinger of things to come. Though the season was nominally successful, it was very middling. Tepper’s Illini finished 6-4-1 with an invite to the Holiday Bowl, where they lost to Hawaii. Since Tepper took over, Illinois has one truly great season (2001, when they went to the Sugar Bowl), but otherwise been locked in a cycle of mediocrity.
The real disappointment of 1992, however, was the basketball team. Amid allegations of recruiting violations, the team scuffled to a 7-11 record in Big Ten play, losing 8 of those games by 9 points or less. The team would finish the year with 2 out of 3 wins over ranked conference opponents but eighth overall and without postseason play to look forward to.
2008
The year began with an embarrassing loss to a clearly much better USC team in the Rose Bowl. Just making it to the Rose Bowl could be considered a great victory, but anyone who remembers watching that games knows there was little dignity in the Illini performance.
Basketball gave fans no respite, either. After starting with a fairly decent 8-4 record, once calendar year 2008 rolled around the Illini simply fell apart. The first four games of Big Ten play, including Penn State (who remain the barometer for bad Big Ten basketball), were lost, en route to a 5-13 conference season. They would redeem themselves with a run to the conference tournament final but would still miss out on the NCAAs, just three years removed from playing in the NCAA championship game.
When fall rolled around again, the football team opened the season with a rivalry loss to Mizzou and ended the year 5-7, placing a cherry on an utterly awful year.
2012
Ron Zook finally wore out his welcome in the waning days of 2011, leading new athletic director Mike Thomas to give him the boot and bring in Toledo’s Tim Beckman. Meanwhile, Bruce Weber was busy running himself out of town.
The basketball team had rattled of a 10-0 record and a #19 ranking before the calendar turned over to 2012. Once Illinois started Big Ten season, however, things went south. The Illini went 2-12 over their last 14 games, finishing ninth in the conference and getting Weber exiled to Kansas State.
That fall the football team would win just 2 games in Beckman’s first season, starting the cycle of misery we’re currently enduring.
2015
The issues with John Groce’s team are numerous, from injuries that have decimated the lineup to a complete inability to recruit a decent point guard in four years at Illinois (and remember, Groce is a point guard coach; it baffles the mind). But what brings Illinois to its nadir this year is not just Groce’s struggles: it’s the firing of Tim Beckman for treating athletes like cattle, Mike Thomas being let go for allowing his hire to do such heinous things, and then Bill Cubit taking the reins of the football team and driving it off a cliff after a decent start.
Cubit is almost certain not to be retained, and it’s looking bleak for Groce as well. The worst start to a season since 1965 has him on the ropes, but more importantly, should Illinois miss the NCAA Tournament for the third consecutive season for the first time since 1980, Groce will certainly be gone.
It’s not all doom-and-gloom though. With a new athletic director hire reportedly being close, there is a sense that Illinois is on the upswing from rock bottom. The men’s basketball team will test that theory in further games, as their issues seem like they will linger a bit longer. At least the reopening of the State Farm Center on December 2 will be a good event for all Illini fans (regardless how many points Notre Dame wins by).