Illinois’ rivalry gauntlet is here. It means more than ever

Missouri, Northwestern, Purdue. A combined 1-3 record in the 2022-23 season for Illinois. Three of the five matchups this year are played within the next four games.

Sure, there are arguably bigger rivals than Purdue for Illinois, like Iowa, maybe Michigan or IU, but any matchup between two original Big Ten members is going to have some hard feelings.

Each one of these games will reveal something different about how this season should play out, and each one will be full of bitterness.

Missouri

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8 p.m. Friday

We all want this one and we want this one bad. If you go back and look at how the last five years went for each of these teams, it would seem impossible that Missouri would be 4-1, but that’s college basketball for you, especially in rivalry games.

Illinois’ finishing tournament seeds in those years? Didn’t make it, no…