A little well-earned Illini propaganda post. Now this is obviously "Illini propaganda," as these are cherrypicked stats that could be argued to be meaningless ... but I do have a point here. And that point is that Illinois has had a very impressive basketball history that does not get anywhere near the recognition or praise that it deserves, and that is pretty much (at least IMO) because we have never won it all. I also think not having that "one legendary coach" plays a role, but there are other fans that also see that as impressive because the program is self-sustaining.
So, the structure of this post - in the aftermath of our sixth Final Four! - is to show instances where we rank ahead of certain programs in various all-time categories, and highlight that those programs might get inflated respect compared to what they should, while we get underrated. Again, it's cherrypicked; I admitted that! I'm not posting programs above us in that specific category, and I am skipping programs that are also on said list. It's exactly what I said it was, a very customized list to just show examples of some programs who are thought of as "elite" or whatever, and to show that the Illini are better all-time than them in at least some respects. I bet even a few Illini diehards will be surprised at some of the programs that are either tied with or rank below us!
All-Time Winning Percentage
Illinois - .643
...
Indiana - .631
Michigan State - .616
Ohio State - .611
Michigan - .610
Maryland - .600
Georgetown - .596
AP Top 25 Finishes (Not Counting This Year)
Illinois - 30
...
Indiana - 29
Purdue - 27
Villanova - 26
Michigan State - 26
Michigan - 24
Ohio State - 24
Georgetown - 20
UConn - 19
All-Time Weeks in the AP Top 25
Illinois - 539
...
Michigan State - 528
Purdue - 472
Michigan - 470
Ohio State - 448
Maryland - 446
Villanova - 443
UConn - 433
Georgetown - 397
Florida - 337
Arkansas - 322
Houston - 270
Final Four Appearances
Illinois - 6
...
Syracuse - 6
Florida - 6
Arizona - 5
Purdue - 3
Elite Eight Appearances
Illinois - 11
...
Syracuse - 10
Florida - 10
Georgetown - 9
Houston - 8
Purdue - 7
Marquette - 7
Sweet Sixteen Appearances
Illinois - 13
...
NC State - 12
Georgetown - 11
Florida - 11
NCAA Tournament Appearances
Illinois - 36
...
Arizona - 36
Ohio State - 32
Georgetown - 31
Maryland - 30
Michigan - 30
The TL;DR here is that there are a lot of programs who enjoy equal or superior prestige to Illinois that have relied on flash-in-the-pan success. Maryland's only 2 Final Fours ever came in an absolutely dominant 2-year period, but because they were lucky enough to cut down the nets in one of those years, they are a "basketball school" while having fewer Final Fours than Iowa?? Arizona has fewer Final Fours than we do and had an even longer drought than we did until this weekend, but they get talked about as a quasi-Blue Blood by the media because Lute Olson was able to snag one title 30 years ago? Michigan has ONE more Final Four than we do and trails us in basically every single "longevity" statistic you could think of (including us leading the all-time series handily), but because the media is obsessed with their (football-derived) aura and they lucked into a title in 1989, they get talked about like they're out of our league?
Getting back to this stage WAS the ultimate goal, and this season is an unambiguous success. However, we now have a chance to PERMANENTLY change people's perceptions about this program's proud legacy. 6 Final Fours and the most recent National Championship to-date gets Illini Basketball talked about in an entirely different stratosphere as today for decades to come ... the ONLY knock on this program's history you could ever come up with would be removed. It will be a tall task, but let's go cut down the nets!
