1/10 Polls - Illinois #25 in AP Poll

#101      

sacraig

The desert
The Sylvester Criterion


That's... three degrees? In four degrees, Gonzaga +14 > TTech +5 > Tennessee +4 > Arizona +4 > Illinois :unsure:
But that's only +6.75 points per degree, whereas we are +13.33 points per degree over them. So we win.
 
#102      

drsmitty74

Rochester
I wish we would keep winning AND be kept out of the AP25.
I just dont get why any of you wouldn't want us ranked. Dont we all want to feel like we did in 89? 2005?
I want us to be THAT team again. I want to be number 1 all year long and kick everyone's tail. I want the O&B considered a blueblood by the time my son gets to be my age and spends his nights reading posts of other insane fans.

Sorry, just speaking my mind.

Hey, pruman.......with ya tonight my friend!
 
#103      

pruman91

Paducah, Ky
I just dont get why any of you wouldn't want us ranked. Dont we all want to feel like we did in 89? 2005?
I want us to be THAT team again. I want to be number 1 all year long and kick everyone's tail. I want the O&B considered a blueblood by the time my son gets to be my age and spends his nights reading posts of other insane fans.

Sorry, just speaking my mind.

Hey, pruman.......with ya tonight my friend!
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#104      
Well, if you are like me and you want us to have the highest ranking possible when a top 10 Purdue team comes to town next Monday, you will be cheering for us to (of course) win our game at Nebraska and possibly vs. Michigan, along with these somewhat realistic upsets:

Tomorrow
- #23 Providence loses at Creighton
- #4 Auburn wins at #24 Alabama Tuesday

Thursday
- #20 Seton Hall loses at DePaul
- Oklahoma State wins at #19 Texas Tech

Saturday
- #22 Tennessee loses at #18 Kentucky ... this one could go either way, honestly, but I know the pollsters love them some UK overhype, and Tennessee would probably drop out with another bad loss.
- #20 Seton Hall loses at Marquette (this helps us double!)
- #21 Texas loses at #15 Iowa State
- #24 Alabama loses at Mississippi State
 
#107      
Well, if you are like me and you want us to have the highest ranking possible when a top 10 Purdue team comes to town next Monday, you will be cheering for us to (of course) win our game at Nebraska and possibly vs. Michigan, along with these somewhat realistic upsets:

Tomorrow
- #23 Providence loses at Creighton
- #4 Auburn wins at #24 Alabama Tuesday

Thursday
- #20 Seton Hall loses at DePaul
- Oklahoma State wins at #19 Texas Tech

Saturday
- #22 Tennessee loses at #18 Kentucky ... this one could go either way, honestly, but I know the pollsters love them some UK overhype, and Tennessee would probably drop out with another bad loss.
- #20 Seton Hall loses at Marquette (this helps us double!)
- #21 Texas loses at #15 Iowa State
- #24 Alabama loses at Mississippi State

With ya for the most part….but regardless of polls, this guy won’t be rooting for a Auburn or Kentucky.
Perhaps rooting for a new NCAA investigation of said programs, or a laundry list of their players entering the portal, but that’s about the extent of my rooting for them.
 
#108      

Ransom Stoddard

Ordained Dudeist Priest
Bloomington, IL
When I look at our ranking I can't get too upset. We've only played one top 25 team so far (and lost), and our other 2 losses were to teams in the KenPom 50-75 range. 5 of our 11 wins are against bad teams.

Don't get me wrong, I think this is shaping up to be a really, really good season, but Illinois hasn't really shown much to the rest of the country. Yet.
 
#109      

Illinir1

Camdenton, MO
We're in at #25. Snuck in just behind ADVERTISEMENT and Alabama.

View attachment 14142
Clearly the voters don't support the transitive property of mathmatics (if a > b and b > c, then a > c). Illini placed behind Alabama who just lost at Mizzou, who the Illini defeated by 25 points.

Speaking of Mizzou, another dismal home crowd for their game against (then) #15 Alabama: Highlights: Mizzou Hoops vs. Alabama
 
#110      
It's kind of easy to look at Alabama' s loss to Mizzou and say we should be ranked above them, but they have also beaten Gonzaga, Houston and Tennessee. Not saying they're better than us. I think we are better. Just saying it's not ridiculous for a voter to vote them ahead of us right now based on those wins, when we haven't beaten anyone of that caliber yet. I'm confident our AP ranking will look more like our efficieny based rankings as we play tougher competition (hopefully because the AP ranking corrects and not the other way around).
 
#111      
When I look at our ranking I can't get too upset. We've only played one top 25 team so far (and lost), and our other 2 losses were to teams in the KenPom 50-75 range. 5 of our 11 wins are against bad teams.

Don't get me wrong, I think this is shaping up to be a really, really good season, but Illinois hasn't really shown much to the rest of the country. Yet.
Exactly where I'm at. We're obviously all very biased. We haven't beaten anyone of consequence yet. Our top 25 ranking is more of what some voters believe they are vs what they've actually accomplished. Once we start beating the better teams(assuming we will)....the ranking will be earned and adjusted accordingly.
 
#112      
Exactly where I'm at. We're obviously all very biased. We haven't beaten anyone of consequence yet. Our top 25 ranking is more of what some voters believe they are vs what they've actually accomplished. Once we start beating the better teams(assuming we will)....the ranking will be earned and adjusted accordingly.
Agreed...given our performance so far we can't criticize at all. Losing to Marquette and getting blown out by Cincy really put us in a hole. Losing to Arizona was respectable, especially by only 4 points, but the other two really hurt. If we keep winning and beat teams like Purdue, MSU, OSU, then the ranking will come. It just matters where you are at come the end of the year heading into The Dance.
 
#113      

skyIdub

Winged Warrior
NCAA fault. Kofi 3 game suspension. Next to zero chance we lose MU game with Kofi. Now a 2 loss team with only one "wtf?" loss to Cincy....never drops out of rankings. Probably ranked closer to our current NET rank...10ish.

Now, will they repay us come tourney time for the crap sandwich in last years bracket...followed by the Kofi suspension?

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#114      
When I look at our ranking I can't get too upset. We've only played one top 25 team so far (and lost), and our other 2 losses were to teams in the KenPom 50-75 range. 5 of our 11 wins are against bad teams.

Don't get me wrong, I think this is shaping up to be a really, really good season, but Illinois hasn't really shown much to the rest of the country. Yet.
I think that’s a fair way to look at it, but there are two alternatives:

1) Are there 24 teams who look better than the Illini? Absolutely not, but we all know this isn’t how the polls work; they’re a points system where your weekly results bump you up from where you were, unfortunately.

2) Should we have fallen from #14 to unranked after a week where we went 1-1 on neutral courts? And, even if you think we should have just barely fallen out due to the Cincinnati loss alone, we are 9-1 (4-0 in B1G) since, with our only loss being a nail biter to a top 10 team. Effectively, people/the voters shouldn’t be acting like we are coming out of nowhere but instead recognizing that we are “back to normal” as a top 15 team.

I favor that second perspective. The Cincinnati loss was bad, but we should have stayed ranked, IMO. The voters only dropped us four spots for losing to Marquette, but they dropped us ELEVEN spots for losing to Cincy and beating KSU. We have been receiving votes for like a month and a half until yesterday, and all we have been doing is winning, haha.

I think if you think we deserved the boot after Cincinnati, #25 is fine for now. However, if you think we shouldn’t have, that’s where this frustration of seemingly being just outside the top 25 no matter how much we win is coming from. Given the treatment preseason hyped teams like Alabama are getting, I favor the latter perspective.

One thing we can all agree on, though, is that winning is the most important and will only improve our ranking! Win these next four (at UNL, vs. UM, vs. #7 PU and at UMD), and our Tuesday 1/25 matchup vs. #10 MSU will be prime viewing featuring two very highly ranked teams!
 
#115      

hooraybeer

Pittsburgh, PA
being ranked lower for a majority of the season has significant implications for Kofi.. very tough to get the POTY hype train moving for a player on an unranked team, no matter how deserving. so to those saying it doesn't really matter "at this point of the season", i say: you're wrong
 
#116      

illini80

Forgottonia
25 is reasonable. Besides the Cincinnati loss, we were not playing well early. Now we are and we will continue to rise every week as long as that continues. It’s that simple. No transitive this or analytics that is magically going to put us at the top of the AP or ESPN. We win, they lose, we move up. Rinse and repeat. I fully expect we make the top 5 at some point this season if we play to our potential.
 
#117      
I just dont get why any of you wouldn't want us ranked. Dont we all want to feel like we did in 89? 2005?
I want us to be THAT team again. I want to be number 1 all year long and kick everyone's tail. I want the O&B considered a blueblood by the time my son gets to be my age and spends his nights reading posts of other insane fans.

Sorry, just speaking my mind.

Hey, pruman.......with ya tonight my friend!
I couldn't possibly care less about being "considered a blue blood". I want to win. And it's just easier to win when you're outside the top 25. This team performs better outside of the top 25. All I said was I wish we could keep on winning and stay off the list. Of course those things are almost certainly mutually exclusive.
 
#118      
I couldn't possibly care less about being "considered a blue blood". I want to win. And it's just easier to win when you're outside the top 25. This team performs better outside of the top 25. All I said was I wish we could keep on winning and stay off the list. Of course those things are almost certainly mutually exclusive.
I'd love to see the statistical analysis that supports this correlation.
 
#119      

The Galloping Ghost

Washington, DC
I couldn't possibly care less about being "considered a blue blood". I want to win. And it's just easier to win when you're outside the top 25. This team performs better outside of the top 25. All I said was I wish we could keep on winning and stay off the list. Of course those things are almost certainly mutually exclusive.
The ranking isn't why we lost to Marquette (no Kofi) or Cincy. Our lack of ranking isn't why we've been playing well. It wasn't a voodoo curse of a number by our name. We needed time to figure out how to overcome our injuries and absences.
 
#120      
It's kind of easy to look at Alabama' s loss to Mizzou and say we should be ranked above them, but they have also beaten Gonzaga, Houston and Tennessee. Not saying they're better than us. I think we are better. Just saying it's not ridiculous for a voter to vote them ahead of us right now based on those wins, when we haven't beaten anyone of that caliber yet. I'm confident our AP ranking will look more like our efficieny based rankings as we play tougher competition (hopefully because the AP ranking corrects and not the other way around).
Yes, but besides Mizzou, Bama has also lost to Davidson, Iona, and Memphis.
 
#123      
Teams that win National Championships typically go through the season ranked. They are able to take it "one game at a time", not read too many of their press clippings, and continue to win despite having a target on their back. To be a winner, you have to think like a winner. If our guys get complacent because of a ranking, or find it harder to win while ranked, they aren't who we hope they are. This team is far too talented and experienced to be worried about flying under the radar.
 
#124      

lstewart53x3

Scottsdale, Arizona
I couldn't possibly care less about being "considered a blue blood". I want to win. And it's just easier to win when you're outside the top 25. This team performs better outside of the top 25. All I said was I wish we could keep on winning and stay off the list. Of course those things are almost certainly mutually exclusive.
Why did we play so well last year ranked inside the top 10 the entire year?
 
#125      
Some fun AP Poll trivia here.

We are tied all-time for the 8th most seasons finishing in the AP Poll with 28. Both Indiana and Arizona also have 28. We can only keep pace with UA, but there is a chance we pass IU!

We also are 11th all-time in total weeks being ranked. It’s very unlikely we move from that spot any time soon, unless MSU experiences some post-Izzo slump. Here is that list just for fun (I believe UK is alone in first next week?):

1. Kentucky: 930
1. North Carolina: 930
3. Duke: 851
4. Kansas: 811
5. UCLA: 709
6. Louisville: 656
7. Indiana: 560
8. Arizona: 558
9. Syracuse: 550
10. Michigan State: 483
11. Illinois: 474
12. Ohio State: 436
12. Michigan: 436
14. Cincinnati: 434
15. Maryland: 433
16. Villanova: 430
17. Georgetown: 397
18. Purdue: 385
19. Iowa: 382
20. Notre Dame: 378
21. Marquette: 377
22. Oklahoma: 375
23. UConn: 352
24. NC State: 346
25. Virginia: 326

There is a fun website where you can play around with this, and wow … look at total weeks during our golden years of 2001 to 2006 and 1983 to 1990:

1983-1990
1. Georgetown: 130
2. UNLV: 123
3. Syracuse: 122
4. North Carolina: 121
5. Oklahoma: 115
6. Duke 102
7. Illinois: 97
8. Indiana: 89
9. Louisville: 87
10. Michigan: 83
10. St. John’s: 83

2001-2006
1. Duke: 113
2. Illinois: 105
3. Arizona: 101
4. Kansas: 99
5. Oklahoma: 94
6. Wake Forest: 93
7. Florida: 93
7. Kentucky: 93
9. UConn: 89
10. Maryland: 82

For a comparison, we are #15 during our current turnaround (i.e., since 2019-20), and we are #10 over the past two seasons.