No, but I also didn't expect Wake or Northwestern to be as bad as they are.
Again, we're #100 in KenPom which reflects those competitive losses to respectable teams, but also reflects our struggles to put away a bunch of particularly bad cupcakes.
KenPom says with the exception of the 2016 injury disaster, this is the worst Illinois team of this millennium, and by something of a margin. That reflects what I'm seeing. That does not reflect what I'm reading here. I'm all for honeymoons, I love all the no-BS Underwood stuff too, but not at the expense of being clear-eyed about what we're seeing.
I do. And if you think returning everybody and bringing in Ayo is going to make those same voters turn around and predict us 5th in the conference next year, you've absolutely lost your mind. Programs improve on the court before they improve in preseason media polls, always always always. This could have been that year, or could yet be really. Next year could be that year. But we will not be picked to return to upper division status until we prove it on the court, that's just the way these things work.
And if this team finishes at 100 in Kenpom, they shouldn't be picked as a tourney team next year either. "You shouldn't expect us to be good, no one picked us to be good" is an excuse without an expiration date.