2/7 Polls & Bracketology - Illinois #13 in AP Poll

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#77      
DeonThomas
ptgrd23 said:
Seth Davis of Athletic has us at #7 with Purdue at #4 AZ at #5.

Since we beat WI #11, MSU #18 Indiana #24 it makes sense to me.

Other probable NCAA teams we have played - Marquette #14, Notre Dame unranked, Cincinnati unranked, Iowa unranked Rutgers unranked

theathletic.com

Men’s college basketball rankings: Arizona, Illinois move back into the top 10

The Wildcats beat UCLA and USC in the last week, while the Illini took down Wisconsin and Indiana.
theathletic.com theathletic.com
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Michigan still may get hot too. K-State also now on the bubble.
 
#79      
The Galloping Ghost
IlliniShelt said:
I hope it's in good fun but are we actually digging up old posts on who didn't want Underwood at the time?
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It's just to show how few people were actually calling for Martin over BU and goes to show that everyone can have a bad take, especially in the volatile coaching search threads. I don't think there's any malice whatsoever.
 
#80      
Calvin
BretMyBeachHouse said:
Possibly you're right about that timing. I never checked that. But the fact remains that in the coaching search timeframe the overwhelming number of people on this board did not want Martin. Perhaps they changed a bit in season one.

I certainly had doubts early about Underwood but I absolutely never understood the small number of people infatuated with a guy who seemed to be able to recruit some but failed in the coaching realm.
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My recollection, FWLIW, is there were a few scattered Martin supporters, but not many. Most people were positive on Underwood, and liked that he was poached from OSU. There was still a ton of discussion of Underwood's resume both positive and negative. People liked what he did at SFA, but they were doing well before Underwood arrived. He only had the one year at OSU, and some attributed his success to his star player there (Jawun Evans -got drafted but didn't stick). The consensus was that he was a good hire, and could be a great hire. Had a lot of support, and some wait-n-see posts. There were many other names thrown out there on people's wish lists just as you'd expect --Martin was just one of them, and not a common one. Everyone knew he could coach, the question was more on the recruiting side.

Which ties into the belly-aching after the fact, to the extent there was some, was because of Mark Smith and Jerimiah Tilmon who were short term recruiting losses tied to Martin. It was that more than anything he was expected to do as a coach.
 
#81      
Bucktown
derrick6 said:
I wasn’t on this board but the issue was recruiting in year 1 and 2. Those that want Martin felt we should win immediately. We had some flat out misses in recruiting that didn’t help BU and staff.

Giorgi was the one Dominant Erupt but people didn’t give BU a lot of credit for his development and felt we’d be doomed by trying to find more Giorgis (ie we got lucky).

Those same people ignored the once in a lifetime recruitment Martin had fall in his lap (wasn’t sustainable).

That’s when OA & CC started paying dividends. People were about to give up on them too.

They even criticized our strength and conditioning. Saying it was all vanity muscles…

What times those were
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FIFY
 
#82      
grue2
DeonThomas said:
Michigan still may get hot too. K-State also now on the bubble.
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K-State is on the bubble at 12-10 with a kenpom rating of ~55th, and a Sagarin rating of ~65th, and last in the big12? Is there another K-state?

Is my sarcasm meter broken?
 
#84      
jumpingjack
Calvin said:
There weren't many at the time. He'd recruited well at his other stops only to see his teams become mediocre. His best winning % was at Cal at 61%. He actually had a very Groce-like resume (great recruiter, dubious results), so there weren't many takers. That said, he made quite a splash at Mizzou with a top-rated recruiting class at the time, with the #1 player, plus he took Tilman and Smith. Even then, I don't recall many people questioning we'd gotten the right guy.

And we did 😃
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Thankfully the archives on here are searchable. There was loads of bitching on here in year 1...and year 2.
Thankfully, it's stopped.
Agreed that we got the right guy.
Now let's get him that lifetime contract.
 
#85      
skyIdub
The Galloping Ghost said:
Interestingly, and somewhat hilariously, there was a poll posted on here two months after the BU hire. Given a choice of BU/Smith or Martin/Tilmon, which pair would you take? Out of 150 respondents, 144 said they'd prefer BU, and only 6 preferred Martin. Now, obviously, the poll was taken after the hire was already made, so take it with a bit of a grain of salt. And not gonna lie, I'm having a little bit of fun going back through these posts.

Coach/Player Poll

I thought this would be a fun question now. Go back two months and try and be honest. If you had a choice then, which pair would you have picked? B. Underwood/M. Smith C. Martin/J. Tilmon
www.illinoisloyalty.com www.illinoisloyalty.com
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#88      
Dbell1981
derrick6 said:
Washington? You mean Cal, of course.
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You are correct. I was mixed up with the fact Porter Jr. was committed to Washington before all the dominos started falling when the coach got fired. I think 🤔
 
#89      
derrick6
Dbell1981 said:
You are correct. I was mixed up with the fact Porter Jr. was committed to Washington before all the dominos started falling when the coach got fired. I think 🤔
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Yep. Porter’s dad was an assistant here under Romar.
 
#90      
Calvin
jumpingjack said:
There was loads of bitching on here in year 1...and year 2.
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For sure. It took him a while to adjust here --I think most of us expected things to turn-around faster. And getting rid of the culture that existed under Groce took much longer than we wanted. It's clear now that we can all see it, but those first two seasons made it seem like a long rebuild. Amazing turn-around.
 
#91      
Bigtex
Dwknowles said:
Honestly was just discussing this the other day. I would say as an outside observer, watching them in game and how the players react, our assistants are a net gain over the past. Don’t get me wrong, we do and will miss Orlando, and I don’t dislike Chin, but overall this staff seems to get along better and will grind it out. I would say Anderson and Frazier are future head coaches and are tremendous. Alexander will probably always be a little underrated. We seem to make better in game adjustments and players are still among great gains.
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Love the assistants we have (past and present) but BU has this program heading upward. Most exciting future since early 2000’s. I think I could be an assistant and we could win lol…
 
#92      
Piasa
Calvin said:
My recollection, FWLIW, is there were a few scattered Martin supporters, but not many. Most people were positive on Underwood, and liked that he was poached from OSU. There was still a ton of discussion of Underwood's resume both positive and negative. People liked what he did at SFA, but they were doing well before Underwood arrived. He only had the one year at OSU, and some attributed his success to his star player there (Jawun Evans -got drafted but didn't stick). The consensus was that he was a good hire, and could be a great hire. Had a lot of support, and some wait-n-see posts. There were many other names thrown out there on people's wish lists just as you'd expect --Martin was just one of them, and not a common one. Everyone knew he could coach, the question was more on the recruiting side.

Which ties into the belly-aching after the fact, to the extent there was some, was because of Mark Smith and Jerimiah Tilmon who were short term recruiting losses tied to Martin. It was that more than anything he was expected to do as a coach.
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I believe SFA had made the NCAA tournament one time in the previous 13 years before BU, the NIT twice. Three appearances in the NCAA tournament, in the three years he was there. The NCAA wrote away those appearances but has no interest in how the $5,000 a month rent for Zion Williamson's parents while at Duke was paid.
 
#94      
BfosterL
Dbell1981 said:
Im gonna beat this dead horse every chance i can. Where's the folks that said Clownzo should have been the coach we hired instead of Underwood?
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I was one of them, glad the hiring wasn't up to me!

Note: I did not think Underwood was a bad hire as well though
 
#96      
JSpence
JSpence said:
Alright, how are we always special? The Illinois BBall page is gone from CBS. Kind of.


www.cbssports.com

Illinois Fighting Illini News, Scores and Stats 2025-26

CBS Sports has the latest Illinois Fighting Illini news and information, including team scores, stats, highlights and more for the 2025 College Basketball season.
www.cbssports.com www.cbssports.com
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They fixed it. That was fast.

Auto links everywhere were to the lowercase address. So, clicking on our team in the rankings went to nowhere.
 
#97      
Fighter of the Nightman
The Galloping Ghost said:
Interestingly, and somewhat hilariously, there was a poll posted on here two months after the BU hire. Given a choice of BU/Smith or Martin/Tilmon, which pair would you take? Out of 150 respondents, 144 said they'd prefer BU, and only 6 preferred Martin. Now, obviously, the poll was taken after the hire was already made, so take it with a bit of a grain of salt. And not gonna lie, I'm having a little bit of fun going back through these posts.

Coach/Player Poll

I thought this would be a fun question now. Go back two months and try and be honest. If you had a choice then, which pair would you have picked? B. Underwood/M. Smith C. Martin/J. Tilmon
www.illinoisloyalty.com www.illinoisloyalty.com
Click to expand...
Personally, I remember being so ecstatically blind-sighted by the BU hire, lol ... sitting coach at a program with Oklahoma State's prestige who just seemingly turned them around in one year?! So glad it has worked out as well as it has.
 
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