Michigan Basketball: Illinois win over Wisconsin narrows Big Ten race

For the past two weeks (feels like longer) the only thing Michigan basketball fans have been able to do is watch. And while that should be coming to an end, hopefully next weekend, it’s not ending as soon as we had hoped.

The Wolverines were going to end their pause, along with the pause of the rest of the Michigan athletics, on Feb. 7. There was supposed to be a game Feb. 11 against Illinois and there was some hope, probably too much, that Michigan basketball would be able to play that game.

On Saturday, the University announced that the Wolverines won’t be playing that game and it was officially postponed, which is too bad on multiple levels.

But in some ways, it’s smart. The Wolverines weren’t able to practice for the last two weeks during their pause and were just allowed to do some activities in the last couple of days.

When will Michigan be back?

So not only would there be a lot of rust to be expected, but also there could be injuries if guys aren’t in shape.

The return date is now looking like Feb. 14 against Wisconsin. That game would be on the road and after a loss to Illinois, the Badgers will need it to stay in the Big Ten race.

That’s because the Badgers were handed their fifth loss in Big Ten play Saturday by Illinois which won the game by a score of 75-60. The Fighting Illini are in second right now behind the Wolverines are 9-3 and are probably the biggest threat for the regular season title.

Ohio State (9-4). Iowa (7-4) and Wisconsin (8-5) are all in the mix too and at this rate, the champion is going to have to be decided by win percentage. Michigan said it was going to work with the Big Ten to reschedule the game against Illinois and I’m sure the four others that were missed against Michigan State, Northwestern, Penn State and Indiana will be treated the same.

But it seems pretty much impossible that all of the games will be played. Hopefully, Michigan and Illinois will play because a Big Ten title wouldn’t mean that much if U-M didn’t even play what looks the best team in the conference besides itself.

And as long as no other games were canceled, Michigan would also play Iowa and Ohio State at least once, so it should play Illinois too. But we also know there is no perfect solution in this world of COVID-19 college basketball.