Forreal, we got actual fans here posting that St Mary's should be higher ranked than us lmfao
Illinois #13 in 2/26 AP Poll
- Status
Never once seen a positive post from that "actual fan"
Bigtex
- DFW
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Again, this only means anything if you make a case for the other teams to go ahead of us. EVERYONE is losing games. We all want this to be a Big Ten championship and Sweet Sixteen (or beyond) team, so we are being more critical ... because we are not playing at that level. However, the pollsters saw us play two Quad 2 games this week:
1. A 1-point last second loss on the road.
2. A 10-point win at home vs. an Iowa team that has been playing well.
Dropping a spot seems entirely reasonable in that context.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I was just thinking the other day that even as we appeared to be righting the ship a bit last year and were on our little winning streak in late January (we won 7 of 8 from January 7th to January 31st), we STILL needed to win at Iowa on February 4th to get INTO the top 25. People can say we are ranked too high or whatever the hell else they want, but it feels really good to move up and down within the polls and never really feel like we might fall out. That's mid-2000s Illini basketball energy right there.
Agree. Can we now put the silly anti-Illinois bias complaints to bed forever?
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
After all, nobody can doubt our program's self worth and potential like our own fans ... who needs outsiders?!
Stikes me as kinda funny that 4 through 11 have the exact same record of 21-6. We are at 20-7. Just need 4 -11 to falter a little while we take care of business.
I'm not sure I get the love for St. Mary's. While they are sporting a gaudy 22-6 record with a 15 NET, like Gonzaga in year's past, they play in a Jr. High conference (I jest . . . a little). The average NET of their opponents so far this year is 155 (!!!). The conference itself sports an average NET of 232. For comparison's sake, here's the average NET rankings by conference for the major conferences
Big 12 45
B1G 60
SEC 68
PAC12 71
ACC 76
Big East 79
They've played 11 (!) Quad 4 games. I'm definitely not saying they are a bad basketball team, but they are absolutely not a top 15 team, in this year's tops turvy basketball world. They are on a 15 game winning streak . . . in which they played exactly one team (twice - San Francisco - 57) that had a NET ranking of less than 100.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Upcoming games of interest this week for the teams ahead of us:
WEDNESDAY
#11 Auburn at #4 Tennessee. The pollsters likely wouldn't penalize Auburn too much if it can win its other game (at home vs. Mississippi State), but we would still probably jump them if we go 2-0 this week.
Seton Hall at #12 Creighton. Creighton will probably be a heavy favorite here, but the Hall has some huge wins this year (they appear quite erratic), and their last matchup went to OT before Creighton survived.
SATURDAY
#8 Iowa State at UCF. UCF has taken down some ranked teams this year, including Kansas.
WEDNESDAY
#11 Auburn at #4 Tennessee. The pollsters likely wouldn't penalize Auburn too much if it can win its other game (at home vs. Mississippi State), but we would still probably jump them if we go 2-0 this week.
Seton Hall at #12 Creighton. Creighton will probably be a heavy favorite here, but the Hall has some huge wins this year (they appear quite erratic), and their last matchup went to OT before Creighton survived.
SATURDAY
#8 Iowa State at UCF. UCF has taken down some ranked teams this year, including Kansas.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
They had a couple of bad non-con losses, true (though they beat New Mexico, Colorado State and UNLV from the very deep and competitive MWC), and the WCC is bad, true.
But they were ranked in the preseason, that program is an always very good brand name at this point, and since winning @Gonzaga their wins have been by 41, 25, 44, 4, and 26 points. They're totally dismantling people.
I think that's a better team than it was in November, I think they're a big threat come March (pretty PLEASE do not make them the 5 across from our 4), and I think they deserve poll placement above teams that keep losing every week, even "impressive" losses.
Yawn. I acquired this reputation at a time in which there was objectively nothing to be positive about as a fan of Illinois sports, when we were genuinely the most depressing and least successful school in all of college athletics across both sports full stop, and I am consistently more appreciative of the people who have changed that than many others here.
There should be 3 national polls: AP, Coaches, UI Loyalty Board.
foby
- Bonnaroo Land
Can the Illini have all 25 spots? Asking for a friend.
uofi7477
- Silver & Gold Vandals
Thank you again for providing this Service. Many fans use this to plan their viewing of specific relevant games for the week.
Homecoming 2019
- Chicago
Illinois would be the most volatile team. Every win top 10. Every loss and we aren't even receiving votes.
the national
- the Front Range
Per John Fanta at Fox:
Yes. Need to keep on winning just like the last Ayo-led team that blasted through the last part of their season.
I think St Mary’s is a good team. It’s the problem with mid majors they really don’t play anyone but for the most part take care of their business
Would you want to possibly face them as a 5 seed or are they more like a 6 or 7
For people saying we don’t have that great win I agree. We have 7 loses about half of them are against teams ranked 2,4,5 and only one of those were at home. So if you give St Mary’s the benefit of the doubt for taking care of business the same logic should apply to us. It is not like we scheduled a weak non conference
If you were to take the average of the doom and gloomers and the orange kool aid drinkers I think we would probably end up at around #13 this week.
Your friend is very wise.
- Status