Illinois basketball: 5 best seasons in Fighting Illini history, ranked

Illinois basketball reaches the national title game in 2004-2005.

The top team on this list of great Fighting Illini teams comes from the early 2000s. Perhaps the most dominant Illini team of all-time, the ’04-’05 team was full of next-level talent and a feisty playing style.

The Fighting Illini opened the season on a 29-game winning streak and put the nation on notice. Seven wins over ranked teams, including a beat down of then No. 1 Wake Forest and Chris Paul, made up for a slip-up loss at the hands of Ohio State during the last game of the regular season. The loss did not hold them back though as the Illini rolled through the Big Ten tournament and into March Madness as a No. 1 seed.

Head coach Bruce Weber, in his second season at the helm, alongside five future NBA players including Williams, Luther Head and Brown, made the Illini a hard-nosed, never-give-up team.

The biggest win for the Illini outside of the beatdown of Wake Forest came against Arizona in the Elite Eight. A comeback for the ages in St. Louis was capped off by a defensive stop in overtime which clinched the Illini’s ticket to the Final Four.

With the win in the Final Four against Louisville, the Illini matched up with North Carolina for the national championship. One of the most heartbreaking games for Illini fans turned out to be the loss to the Tar Heels. Nonetheless, this version of the Illini cemented their place as the best Fighting Illini basketball team of all-time.

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