The Illinois basketball team is entering the final three games of the 2024-25 regular season, and games have never been more crucial.

I wasn’t even thinking about making the NCAA tournament earlier this season. My thoughts were, how high can the Illini climb in the seeding? Could we get to a top-three seed in the Big Dance?

Those questions have now been put to bed. Illinois has hit a rough patch, and now winning down the stretch has become extremely important for our postseason chances. Let’s take a look at some possible scenarios.

Here are the Illinois basketball best, worst, and most likely finishes to the 2024-25 season

Illinois basketball worst-case scenario

Let’s start off with the bad so we can get that out of the way. Illinois basketball isn’t exactly playing quality ball right now, and that has sent us into a downward spiral.

Having lost the last three games and four out of the last six, the Illini are struggling and have potentially lost confidence. That lack of confidence could end up killing us in the last few games of the season.

Playing Iowa at home is the “easiest” game we have left. The Hawkeyes aren’t a bad team, though. Sure, they have dropped eight out of the last 11 games, but Iowa is still fighting for their postseason life. They are going to come out with all they have on Tuesday.

If Illinois comes out of the gates like we did in the last two games, Iowa is going to be right in the contest and could potentially knock us off.

Following the Iowa contest, Illinois then finishes with games at No. 15 Michigan and against No. 20 Purdue. Both of those games can easily be losses. With the way Illinois is playing, everything is on the table in the worst-case scenario.

So, finishing the final three games 0-3 would put Illinois on a six-game losing streak. That would also put us at 17-14 overall and 9-11 in the Big Ten.

Losing the final three games puts Illinois in serious jeopardy of missing the single bye as well. Let’s say we get in as a No. 9 seed in the Big Ten Tournament. Going up against the No. 8 seed, which could be a team like Nebraska or Rutgers, two teams we have already lost to this season. Hypothetically say we win that game, Illinois then falls to the No. 1 overall seed in the next round.

That ends up putting the Illini at 18-15 overall and not getting past Thursday in the Big Ten Tournament. Illinois would likely be in the NIT as the No. 1 seed. Sadly, it isn’t a far reach to have this scenario come to fruition.