I can't remember a year of Illinois basketball in my lifetime where I went in SO unsure of where we would be as a program and with such a wide range ... could quite literally see a similar, slightly better season where we see too many of the same problems ... and I could see us spending some time in the top 25. It literally all depends on if Ayo stays and what Kofi is like as a freshman. If we catch both of those breaks favorably, I think we could see some very rare one-season-turnaround improvement.
With Kofi being an instant impact, Ayo staying and even somewhat steady improvement from our underclassmen (all up in the air, I admit), I honestly think we'd at least hop into those teams' bracket - and that's all we'd need to do to please most fans, IMO. We don't have to be clear-cut better than those teams, we just have to be their equals. I think we will be, which gets us dancing I hope.