IL25 Poll
January 18, 2005 3:39 PM
Illinois Loyalty's mission to become the "#1 fan site for non-exclusive Illinois sports content" took a giant leap forward today with the January 18 release of the January 17 IL25 Poll. Even our exclusive content becomes non-exclusive when published, but better late than never we say. IlliniNYC has the breakdown of this week's poll, which enjoyed a 25% surge in voter turnout over last week.
IL25 Poll administration, audit, and commentary by IlliniNYC.
| IL25 Poll: Jan 17 | |||
| Rank | LW | Team | Points |
| 1 | 1 | Illinois (5) | 125 |
| 2 | 2 | Kansas | 116 |
| 2 | 4 | Wake Forest | 116 |
| 4 | 5 | Duke | 104 |
| 4 | 5 | Syracuse | 104 |
| 6 | 2 | North Carolina | 101 |
| 7 | 7 | Oklahoma St. | 97 |
| 8 | 15 | Boston College | 89 |
| 9 | 11 | Kentucky | 78 |
| 10 | 9 | Texas | 77 |
| 11 | 14 | Gonzaga | 73 |
| 12 | 15 | Washington | 72 |
| 13 | 8 | Georgia Tech | 65 |
| 14 | 10 | Connecticut | 60 |
| 15 | 17 | Arizona | 59 |
| 16 | 11 | Michigan St. | 48 |
| 17 | 20 | Louisville | 46 |
| 18 | 13 | Mississippi St. | 40 |
| 19 | 20 | Pittsburg | 35 |
| 20 | NR | Oklahoma | 27 |
| 21 | 18 | Cincinnati | 25 |
| 22 | 22 | Alabama | 23 |
| 22 | 25 | Wisconsin | 23 |
| 24 | NR | Iowa | 10 |
| 25 | NR | Charlotte | 4 |
(LW = Last week's ranking. NR = Not ranked. First place votes in parenthesis. Also receiving votes: Marquette 2, Notre Dame 2, West Virginia 2, George Washington 1, Texas A&M 1. Dropped out: Marquette, West Virginia, George Washington.)
This week's poll draws our attention to two teams: Boston College and North Carolina. Boston College was the biggest mover this week, heading up seven spots to crack the top ten at #8. The Eagles continue to play beautiful basketball in dominating the previously ranked Mountaineers by 20 points on the road to remain undefeated at 14-0.
Everyone knows how brutal conference road play can be. This week was North Carolina's turn to fall. Chris Paul led Wake Forest to an impressive 13-point victory at home against the Tar Heels. Even though UNC dropped four spots to #6, do not be fooled, they are clearly one of the top three teams in college basketball. The worst part of the loss, though, is the bind it creates for many national pundits. Do they admit that their zeal for UNC vis-à-vis the Illini was, while not unwarranted, a little overstated? Or do they simply ignore it and move on to this week's topic du jour? My money is on the latter.
Notes:
Mrs. NYC and I had a wonderful weekend in the homeland, visiting beautiful Central Illinois for a little family time. We decided to head out into the brutal cold to enjoy the game with the orange-clad faithful. Four sports bars later, and we were able to saddle up to the bar and watch a workman-like effort against a red-hot shooting Northwestern team. The bandwagon is certainly filling up quickly as establishment after establishment was filled to the brim with people having a great time sharing this amazing ride with the masses. Truly a sight to see...
I hate any Dick Vitale discussion as much as the next guy, but last night was worth a note, not so much because it was Vitale snuggling up with Duke, but just because it shows how singularly focused he has become. With a one-week hiatus from all other teams, Vitale had joined the UNC bandwagon last week. After the loss, it was back to his old-faithful standby team, Duke.
Following a blocked shot (a blocked shot!) late in the second half last night, Vitale launched into an incomprehensibly related adulation of the Blue Devils. The, er, segway, if you will, was Shelden Williams' great performance on the low post the prior day, including nine blocked shots. The crime, however, was that his pro-Duke tirade was completely unrelated a wonderful game that he was allegedly excited to call. Oh well...
Two final words: Defensive intensity. This is the key to Illinois success. Every game this year when Illinois has struggled, it has been the lack of defensive intensity that allowed the opponent to stay in the game and it is defensive intensity that brought the team back. Those early-game runs? The result of defensive intensity. If you Tivo the games, go back and watch the five or so minutes preceding an Illini run. You will see the intensity pick up, often a result of a series of defensive plays by Dee Brown. Bruce Weber has instilled defensive intensity into the collective mind of this team. Watch for it on Thursday night in beautiful 1080 high definition on ESPN. It is the key to this year's success and its occasional absence is the only thing that will stop this team from a perfect Big Ten season. Seriously.
Games of the week:
#24 Iowa at #1 Illinois: Iowa's Big Ten campaign got off to a rough start with back-to-back losses, quickly bringing the overly-optimistic Hawkeye fans back down to earth (well, most of them anyway). Many pundits are looking to this game as the first real "test" in the Big Ten for the undefeated Illini, but Dick and Digger will be disappointed. Not Iowa, not in Champaign, not this season.
#17 Pittsburgh at #13 Connecticut: Battle to determine the favorite to finish (gasp!) second in the Big East.
#7 Oklahoma St. at # 10 Texas: Unfortunately, due to the above-mentioned trip to the homeland, this game was played prior to the release of this poll. Texas, despite a horrific beginning to the second half, played a complete game, led by freshman Daniel Gibson and walked away with an impressive 75-61 victory.
Illinois Loyalty Forum members are authorized to vote in the IL25 Poll. Ballots are due no later than 12:00pm (noon) CST on Monday. Filed under: Illini Basketball
