Illinois #17 in 12/5 AP Poll

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#6      
jumpingjack
I'm getting the impression that the Zags were highly over ranked early on. This season should be pretty wild.
 
#8      
Piotyr
eas23 said:
Louisville is 361 out of 363 teams. They're officially a bad win for opponents now. :D
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It's an even worse loss. They're one of just 3 teams now that is winless on the season. And they play 1-win Florida State this week, which has to be one of the only major conference games ever between two teams with 1 win combined.
 
#11      
Fighter of the Nightman
Couple rankings thoughts:

1) I am a big fan of being consistent, and I love that this is what we saw here. If you are going to give Maryland that big of a boost based off of the accomplishment of beating Illinois at home, then it would have been completely nonsensical to punish us by dropping us too far. An example of this absolute hypocrisy is barely dropping Indiana any for getting schooled at Rutgers, yet RU has zero votes in either poll ... they probably should have dropped further if that's what the pollsters think of Rutgers.

2) I usually root for Big Ten schools to be ranked as highly as possible when we play them. Even if you aren't that into the polls (I definitely am! #TeamRankingsMatter!!!), it's objectively more advantageous for our program if the national perception of Illini basketball is higher ... and that's directly related to playing in top 25 matchups on national TV, which itself is directly related to how many opportunities we get to do that in conference play ... so the more ranked Big Ten teams, the better. With that said, I absolutely love seeing Michigan implode and Indiana start to show their true colors. Contrasting to a program like Purdue (who largely achieves its impressive results with different types of players than us and isn't as much of a direct threat to a continued Illini ascension) or Maryland (who is far enough away from Illinois that we don't battle as often for recruits), Indiana and Michigan represent direct threats ... there's only so much room at the top! I will hope that Maryland and Purdue and even fringe teams like Iowa continue to climb up the rankings until we can beat them, but I am all for Indiana and Michigan literally missing the Tournament.

3) This Texas game is an absolutely HUGE opportunity for us. Unless Mizzou shocks Kansas and is ranked by the time of Braggin' Rights, this will likely be our last game vs. a top 25 opponent until we host Indiana on January 19th. While there will be plenty of opportunities for signature wins in Big Ten play, beating Texas provides us a HUGE cushion for national perception and our Tournament resume - pretty much the opposite of last year, where we had to win quite a few games to get back into the top 25. After tonight, we will likely be favored in every single game from now until January 28th when we travel to Madison. A win tomorrow night provides such invaluable momentum ... hate to be dramatic, but if we lose tomorrow night, we stay the course and keep just trying to string together wins and get better. If we win tomorrow night ... we are playing for a 1-seed until proven otherwise. I won't get too worked up by a loss, but MAN this is a huge opportunity!
 
#12      
Scoregasm
If we win this game, we should ranked in the top 10 when we face the loosiers.
 
#13      
21ChampaignSt
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Couple rankings thoughts:

1) I am a big fan of being consistent, and I love that this is what we saw here. If you are going to give Maryland that big of a boost based off of the accomplishment of beating Illinois at home, then it would have been completely nonsensical to punish us by dropping us too far. An example of this absolute hypocrisy is barely dropping Indiana any for getting schooled at Rutgers, yet RU has zero votes in either poll ... they probably should have dropped further if that's what the pollsters think of Rutgers.

2) I usually root for Big Ten schools to be ranked as highly as possible when we play them. Even if you aren't that into the polls (I definitely am! #TeamRankingsMatter!!!), it's objectively more advantageous for our program if the national perception of Illini basketball is higher ... and that's directly related to playing in top 25 matchups on national TV, which itself is directly related to how many opportunities we get to do that in conference play ... so the more ranked Big Ten teams, the better. With that said, I absolutely love seeing Michigan implode and Indiana start to show their true colors. Contrasting to a program like Purdue (who largely achieves its impressive results with different types of players than us and isn't as much of a direct threat to a continued Illini ascension) or Maryland (who is far enough away from Illinois that we don't battle as often for recruits), Indiana and Michigan represent direct threats ... there's only so much room at the top! I will hope that Maryland and Purdue and even fringe teams like Iowa continue to climb up the rankings until we can beat them, but I am all for Indiana and Michigan literally missing the Tournament.

3) This Texas game is an absolutely HUGE opportunity for us. Unless Mizzou shocks Kansas and is ranked by the time of Braggin' Rights, this will likely be our last game vs. a top 25 opponent until we host Indiana on January 19th. While there will be plenty of opportunities for signature wins in Big Ten play, beating Texas provides us a HUGE cushion for national perception and our Tournament resume - pretty much the opposite of last year, where we had to win quite a few games to get back into the top 25. After tonight, we will likely be favored in every single game from now until January 28th when we travel to Madison. A win tomorrow night provides such invaluable momentum ... hate to be dramatic, but if we lose tomorrow night, we stay the course and keep just trying to string together wins and get better. If we win tomorrow night ... we are playing for a 1-seed until proven otherwise. I won't get too worked up by a loss, but MAN this is a huge opportunity!
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Agree with everything you said here, as usual.

On the rankings, I think I've noticed a shift in the way the voters are ranking teams this year. In the past, it was a fairly mindless exercise of moving the teams that won ahead of the teams that lost during that week. Now it appears voters are being a little more critical, looking at quality of wins and losses, overall body of work, and possibly even looking at the analytics (gasp!) to rank their top 25.

For example, in past years, losing to a team ranked lower than us would've resulted in a bigger drop than 1 spot. Similarly, Purdue wasn't forced to make a slow climb to the top of the rankings after winning some big games. The voters recognized how underranked they had been and course corrected, moving them up 19 spots in a single week.

It's been nice to see. And by not dropping us into the 20s this week, that means we should stay ranked all year even if we take an L tomorrow.
 
#14      
jumpingjack
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Couple rankings thoughts:

1) I am a big fan of being consistent, and I love that this is what we saw here. If you are going to give Maryland that big of a boost based off of the accomplishment of beating Illinois at home, then it would have been completely nonsensical to punish us by dropping us too far. An example of this absolute hypocrisy is barely dropping Indiana any for getting schooled at Rutgers, yet RU has zero votes in either poll ... they probably should have dropped further if that's what the pollsters think of Rutgers.

2) I usually root for Big Ten schools to be ranked as highly as possible when we play them. Even if you aren't that into the polls (I definitely am! #TeamRankingsMatter!!!), it's objectively more advantageous for our program if the national perception of Illini basketball is higher ... and that's directly related to playing in top 25 matchups on national TV, which itself is directly related to how many opportunities we get to do that in conference play ... so the more ranked Big Ten teams, the better. With that said, I absolutely love seeing Michigan implode and Indiana start to show their true colors. Contrasting to a program like Purdue (who largely achieves its impressive results with different types of players than us and isn't as much of a direct threat to a continued Illini ascension) or Maryland (who is far enough away from Illinois that we don't battle as often for recruits), Indiana and Michigan represent direct threats ... there's only so much room at the top! I will hope that Maryland and Purdue and even fringe teams like Iowa continue to climb up the rankings until we can beat them, but I am all for Indiana and Michigan literally missing the Tournament.

3) This Texas game is an absolutely HUGE opportunity for us. Unless Mizzou shocks Kansas and is ranked by the time of Braggin' Rights, this will likely be our last game vs. a top 25 opponent until we host Indiana on January 19th. While there will be plenty of opportunities for signature wins in Big Ten play, beating Texas provides us a HUGE cushion for national perception and our Tournament resume - pretty much the opposite of last year, where we had to win quite a few games to get back into the top 25. After tonight, we will likely be favored in every single game from now until January 28th when we travel to Madison. A win tomorrow night provides such invaluable momentum ... hate to be dramatic, but if we lose tomorrow night, we stay the course and keep just trying to string together wins and get better. If we win tomorrow night ... we are playing for a 1-seed until proven otherwise. I won't get too worked up by a loss, but MAN this is a huge opportunity!
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I agree, the upside of tomorrow night is pretty hard to overstate. In the context of this roster and this league, the downside is meh, as long as it's not a blowout loss.
 
#15      
Fighter of the Nightman
jumpingjack said:
I agree, the upside of tomorrow night is pretty hard to overstate. In the context of this roster and this league, the downside is meh, as long as it's not a blowout loss.
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Exactly. Given the past two years, I have to imagine this team's goal is almost solely to get to the second weekend of the Tournament when March rolls around. To do that, we just have to keep getting better and be playing our best basketball by then, so we really just need to show we can hang with a top team like Texas - the type of team you start to face in the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight. If we can hang, we should all continue to be incredibly optimistic ... if we can win, sky is the limit, and we are WAY ahead of schedule!
 
#16      
GallopingGhost
Sorry if this is off topic but who is this guy? He gets off the plane with the players, and has been at practice and on the bench but I don’t remember hearing about another walk on, or anything… can someone help me?!
 

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#18      
IllinialuminAZ
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Couple rankings thoughts:

1) I am a big fan of being consistent, and I love that this is what we saw here. If you are going to give Maryland that big of a boost based off of the accomplishment of beating Illinois at home, then it would have been completely nonsensical to punish us by dropping us too far. An example of this absolute hypocrisy is barely dropping Indiana any for getting schooled at Rutgers, yet RU has zero votes in either poll ... they probably should have dropped further if that's what the pollsters think of Rutgers.

2) I usually root for Big Ten schools to be ranked as highly as possible when we play them. Even if you aren't that into the polls (I definitely am! #TeamRankingsMatter!!!), it's objectively more advantageous for our program if the national perception of Illini basketball is higher ... and that's directly related to playing in top 25 matchups on national TV, which itself is directly related to how many opportunities we get to do that in conference play ... so the more ranked Big Ten teams, the better. With that said, I absolutely love seeing Michigan implode and Indiana start to show their true colors. Contrasting to a program like Purdue (who largely achieves its impressive results with different types of players than us and isn't as much of a direct threat to a continued Illini ascension) or Maryland (who is far enough away from Illinois that we don't battle as often for recruits), Indiana and Michigan represent direct threats ... there's only so much room at the top! I will hope that Maryland and Purdue and even fringe teams like Iowa continue to climb up the rankings until we can beat them, but I am all for Indiana and Michigan literally missing the Tournament.

3) This Texas game is an absolutely HUGE opportunity for us. Unless Mizzou shocks Kansas and is ranked by the time of Braggin' Rights, this will likely be our last game vs. a top 25 opponent until we host Indiana on January 19th. While there will be plenty of opportunities for signature wins in Big Ten play, beating Texas provides us a HUGE cushion for national perception and our Tournament resume - pretty much the opposite of last year, where we had to win quite a few games to get back into the top 25. After tonight, we will likely be favored in every single game from now until January 28th when we travel to Madison. A win tomorrow night provides such invaluable momentum ... hate to be dramatic, but if we lose tomorrow night, we stay the course and keep just trying to string together wins and get better. If we win tomorrow night ... we are playing for a 1-seed until proven otherwise. I won't get too worked up by a loss, but MAN this is a huge opportunity!
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My man, I agree with virtually everything you post, but this is an elite level of agreement right here! I can root for all Big Ten teams, but can never bring myself to want anything good to happen to these two schools.
 
#19      
Big Jack
GallopingGhost said:
Sorry if this is off topic but who is this guy? He gets off the plane with the players, and has been at practice and on the bench but I don’t remember hearing about another walk on, or anything… can someone help me?!
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He is a new freshman walk on from.St. Ignatius if I remember correctly His name is AJ Redd
 
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#23      
mattcoldagelli
Fighter of the Nightman said:
With that said, I absolutely love seeing Michigan implode and Indiana start to show their true colors. Contrasting to a program like Purdue (who largely achieves its impressive results with different types of players than us and isn't as much of a direct threat to a continued Illini ascension) or Maryland (who is far enough away from Illinois that we don't battle as often for recruits), Indiana and Michigan represent direct threats ... there's only so much room at the top! I will hope that Maryland and Purdue and even fringe teams like Iowa continue to climb up the rankings until we can beat them, but I am all for Indiana and Michigan literally missing the Tournament.
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This is pretty tortured logic. Who did we have to beat out for our most significant recruit in 15 years? Wake Forest. Pre-Luke Goode, who never, ever comes to Illinois, almost regardless of how good we are or how bad IU is? Indiana kids. I don't know what type of player you are referring to that Purdue seeks out that we don't (aside from towering Canadians, RIP Dustin Ford's Canadian pipeline) but I think we'd pull out any and all stops to get a Jaden Ivey or Carsen Edwards.

Just join me over in the "generally, I want the conference to be the rising tide that lifts all ships, but in some cases my personal pettiness will override that" side of the pool. The water is warm.
 
#24      
Fighter of the Nightman
mattcoldagelli said:
This is pretty tortured logic. Who did we have to beat out for our most significant recruit in 15 years? Wake Forest. Pre-Luke Goode, who never, ever comes to Illinois, almost regardless of how good we are or how bad IU is? Indiana kids. I don't know what type of player you are referring to that Purdue seeks out that we don't (aside from towering Canadians, RIP Dustin Ford's Canadian pipeline) but I think we'd pull out any and all stops to get a Jaden Ivey or Carsen Edwards.

Just join me over in the "generally, I want the conference to be the rising tide that lifts all ships, but in some cases my personal pettiness will override that" side of the pool. The water is warm.
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It’s not a cold hard logic opinion, so if that’s your issue … fair enough? My point is I view Michigan and Indiana as possibly the two biggest threats to our reputation as a “hip” program where recruits want to be, especially those in Chicago.

Rightly or wrongly, I think Purdue has a “coach ‘em up” reputation with a nice, relatively small fan base that appears refined and kind compared to the classless tools in the Indiana fan base. Maryland appears like an “Illinois that’s on the East Coast,” whereas Michigan carries this (completely undeserved) “coolness,” and you see Michigan stuff quite often in our state. There’s only so much room at the top, and I think we have an easier time establishing ourselves as first an elite regional brand and second hopefully one day a national brand if Michigan and Indiana suck. 🤷🏼‍♂️
 
#25      
alaskaillini
mattcoldagelli said:
This is pretty tortured logic. Who did we have to beat out for our most significant recruit in 15 years? Wake Forest. Pre-Luke Goode, who never, ever comes to Illinois, almost regardless of how good we are or how bad IU is? Indiana kids. I don't know what type of player you are referring to that Purdue seeks out that we don't (aside from towering Canadians, RIP Dustin Ford's Canadian pipeline) but I think we'd pull out any and all stops to get a Jaden Ivey or Carsen Edwards.

Just join me over in the "generally, I want the conference to be the rising tide that lifts all ships, but in some cases my personal pettiness will override that" side of the pool. The water is warm.
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Not so sure about Carsten Edwards - the absolute definition of a "chucker."
 
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