Comical
Illini Basketball 2024-2025
Two first round projected draft picks on the team and they have us out side the top 25?
Oh we like that…. Bring it on!
Based on what?
As a fanbase we have no clue what to expect. What is the national media supposed to think outside of the face that we lost an All American, two other All Conference players and 86% of our production.
The fact that we're at #26 is pretty much blind faith that BU can pull this together.
sacraig
- The desert
KenPom and Torvik both rely pretty heavily on player performance from previous seasons and some kind of hand-wavy projection for freshmen to inform preseason rankings, and both admit that it's imperfect. It's especially challenging when you have a freshman-heavy team and/or a lot of transfers with no history at the highest level of basketball. I'm not sure how either handle European players, but I imagine that's also tricky.
If you look at the team details for Torvik, this is pretty well illustrated. Jakucionis, Ivisic, and Humrichous are all projected to be fairly ho-hum by that model, likely due to lack of reliable data on them. It does project Riley to be impactful, though.
Last edited:
sacraig
- The desert
Torvik now has his 2025 rankings out as well, with us at #21 (and IU at #30).
T-Rank - Customizable College Basketball Tempo Free Stats - T-Rank
T-Rank College Basketball Ratings and Rankings. And fun.
barttorvik.com
More bummed about this than I should be considering I'm not concerned so much this year about wins, losses, and ranking during the first month or so of the season.
But, we were riding a four year streak of being ranked in the preseason, our longest such streak ever, and I hate seeing that come to an end.
Rutgers has two players to be drafted in the top 5(one site says #2 and #3) and they're ranked 25th. One spot ahead of us. Based on the NBA draft theory, we're right where we should be.Two first round projected draft picks on the team and they have us out side the top 25?
Oh we like that…. Bring it on!
sacraig
- The desert
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Just realizing Alabama plays Purdue right before us. If they steal our upset I will be VERY mad.
Kansas has UNC and Michigan State early, if they slip up and Bama beats Purdue, they will surely take #1 for our game. That's where we want them.
Kansas has UNC and Michigan State early, if they slip up and Bama beats Purdue, they will surely take #1 for our game. That's where we want them.
That's honestly surprising.
I saw Houston's first practice, didn't seem top 10 IMHO. Would keep our roster. Arkansas should be higher as well.
Joel Goodson
- dawgville
when we beat Ole Miss like a rug (or rented mule) at their place, that ought to move us up to 8th in conference
Correct, meant aren't.
the national
- the Front Range
Let’s go gettum.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
JFGsCoffeeMug
BU:1 Trash cans:0
- Chicago
The Galloping Ghost
- Washington, DC
Tale of two tweets. I could not care less about the preseason ranking. All I care about is the passing in that scrimmage tweet.
because Illinois State isn't listed?
I’ll care once we get a long AP ranked streak going, but that’s about it.
Ryllini
- Lombard
Such a good team to scrimmage with. A Chris Beard run defense will be a nice test for the young fellas.
Has any team ever has the level of roster turnover we had this offseason and been ranked higher than the #26 ranking we essentially have? Just two returning players, one of whom averaged just 7 minutes per? This actually appears to be a high level of trust in our program from the national media.
Fan Since '70
- OBS, Florida
I really don't place much stock in these unaware and deficient early pre-season rankings. I do know Illini will be very good and have top ten potential.