Illini Basketball 2026-2027

#426      
Curbelo Fanboy
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Killing time until a 12:30 pm CT meeting, and I was thinking how interesting it is how our schedule breaks down as far as games vs. teams that are ranked in the AP Poll or receiving votes.

November
Nov. 10 - at #19 Texas Tech
Nov. 17 - at #2 Duke

December
Dec. 4 - vs. #4 UConn (Chicago, IL)
Dec. 20 - vs. #26 Missouri (St. Louis, MO)

January
Jan. 5 - vs. #28 Purdue
Jan. 9 - vs. #29 Ohio State
Jan. 19 - vs. #27 Nebraska
Jan. 24 - at #36 Indiana
Jan. 27 - vs. #21 USC
Jan. 30 - vs. #30 North Carolina (Nashville, TN)

February
Feb. 2 - vs. #22 UCLA
Feb. 5 - vs. #6 Michigan State
Feb. 9 - at #16 Michigan
Feb. 12 - at #28 Purdue

March
March 6 - vs. #34 Iowa

We'll have three very tough tests before finals week in Texas Tech, Duke and UConn ... but then I really think the schedule sets up SO favorably for us. We could win all three of those and we'd obviously want to, but even if we take a lump or two early, I feel like we will be really humming along come Braggin' Rights.

Then January sets up really nicely, with a ton of games vs. "good" teams that are nonetheless (A) all teams we should beat and (B) 5 out of 6 of them are not true road games. It's a really nice tune-up month vs. good competition that leads nicely into February ... and I think that February stretch vs. the Michigan schools is where we can lock up our #1 seed!
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It's a gauntlet and I'm sure we will take some hits along the way. Fully expect an L at Cameron Indoor. You know that will be a 5 on 8 special. The good news if we have to run into them at a later date that one isn't in Cameron Indoor. I could see us getting to March with 5 or 6 losses & still being a solid 1 seed given the schedule we will have played. Heck in 2001 we were a 1 seed with I believe 6 losses.
 
#427      
Birdus
The problem with Duke and Uconn is that there schedule is somewhat easier than ours is. So if we lose to them straight up, we may or may not ever climb above them again this year. UConn proved they are still UConn against M. State. Duke is other worldly. I can see them maybe losing 3-4 games if that. Their talent is just insane.
 
#429      
chiefini
#430      
HoopsterMan
Birdus said:
The problem with Duke and Uconn is that there schedule is somewhat easier than ours is. So if we lose to them straight up, we may or may not ever climb above them again this year. UConn proved they are still UConn against M. State. Duke is other worldly. I can see them maybe losing 3-4 games if that. Their talent is just insane.
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Look again. Their schedules are absolutely stacked.

Uconn is playing us, Duke, Arizona, Ohio St, Kansas, Michigan, Virginia. That's

Duke is playing us, Florida, UConn, Gonzaga, Michigan St, Georgia, Texas Tech

The BE is much better and the ACC will have a number of good teams at the top. The B10 is kinda mediocre this year outside of us, MSU and Michigan.
 
#431      
lstewart53x3
HoopsterMan said:
Look again. Their schedules are absolutely stacked.

Uconn is playing us, Duke, Arizona, Ohio St, Kansas, Michigan, Virginia. That's

Duke is playing us, Florida, UConn, Gonzaga, Michigan St, Georgia, Texas Tech

The BE is much better and the ACC will have a number of good teams at the top. The B10 is kinda mediocre this year outside of us, MSU and Michigan.
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B1G’s gonna be strong. Using Torvik, 8 teams in the top 30. Same number as the SEC.

ACC has 4. Big East has 2. Big 12 has 6.
 
#432      
NarrowJ
HoopsterMan said:
Look again. Their schedules are absolutely stacked.

Uconn is playing us, Duke, Arizona, Ohio St, Kansas, Michigan, Virginia. That's

Duke is playing us, Florida, UConn, Gonzaga, Michigan St, Georgia, Texas Tech

The BE is much better and the ACC will have a number of good teams at the top. The B10 is kinda mediocre this year outside of us, MSU and Michigan.
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The B10 has 8 teams in the AP top 30 (top 25 + 5 next receiving votes)

ACC has half that many with 4 in the top 30

Big East has two whole teams in the top 30

EDIT: @lstewart53x3 beat me
 
#433      
HoopsterMan
NarrowJ said:
The B10 has 8 teams in the AP top 30 (top 25 + 5 next receiving votes)

ACC has half that many with 4 in the top 30

Big East has two whole teams in the top 30

EDIT: @lstewart53x3 beat me
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The BE got some strong portal pulls at the top and Marquette is returning a bunch of players. They'll be much better. Ville, Miami & Virginia all really good.

B10 looking more like the SEC last year which had a bunch of better middle of the pack teams. My concerns usually lie with strength of the top.

Last year had 4 B10 teams in the Elite 8, the Champ and two in the F4. It had 4 lottery picks and 6 first rounders.
 
#434      
NarrowJ
HoopsterMan said:
The BE got some strong portal pulls at the top and Marquette is returning a bunch of players. They'll be much better. Ville, Miami & Virginia all really good.

B10 looking more like the SEC last year which had a bunch of better middle of the pack teams. My concerns usually lie with strength of the top.

Last year had 4 B10 teams in the Elite 8, the Champ and two in the F4. It had 4 lottery picks and 6 first rounders.
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The BE portal pulls and Marquette's returning players apparently just didn't result in anyone thinking much of the conference and it's teams, evidenced by only two of them being present in the top 30 of the AP Poll or any of the metric/analytic sites.

7 of the 11 teams in the BE finished under .500 overall last season, which is unheard of for what's been considered an upper-tier conference for a while.

Circling back to the original point that was made, Duke and UConn have equally strong non-conf schedules, but will enjoy watered down competition in the BE & ACC which with the conf tourney factored in is 70% of their total games. This gives them greater chance to climb the AP Poll by simply not losing games each week.
 
#441      
Grange Grover
L
Nervous The Big Bang Theory GIF
 
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