During the 1997-98 season, head coach Lon Kruger did the unthinkable as he took a team picked to finish seventh in the Big Ten and guided the Illini to a share of its first Big Ten title since 1984.

On the way to the league crown, Illinois went 5-0 against Indiana, Iowa and Michigan, marking the first time in school history the Illini had gone undefeated against those teams during the course of a season.

Illinois advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament after earning a No.

Additionally, this would be the inaugural season for the Big Ten tournament, thus reducing the number of regular season conference games by 2, from 18 to 16.

Illinois received 2nd seed for the tournament.