Illinois #24 in AP Poll

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#26      
Bbuck21
What is the major flaw in the NET formula that puts Ganzaga at #8. They are 3-6 Quad 1, 8-8 Quad 1/2 combined, played 10 Quad 4 games, lost twice to the conference champ (St. Mary's), and finished 3 games back of first place? They are such an obvious outlier in this ranking.
 
#27      
Fighter of the Nightman
mysterio2525 said:
Remember last year whenever we kept bouncing between being ranked 14th then jumping to 10th. Then losing falling to 14th. It happened a lot over the season. We were worried about this trend continuing going into the big ten tourney. It didn't and it worked it in the end.

Sometimes you got break the trend and not be afraid to build on success. We are there now!
Click to expand...
AMEN!! It's easy to forget, but before the BTT, people on this very site were pretty down on our resume because we "hadn't beaten anyone." We had fairly good Q1/Q2 results (even though they're actually better this year, IIRC!), but we were lacking a marquee win. Even after the BTT, there was a LOT of lingering doubt that we couldn't beat elite teams, and Iowa State fans were almost comically confident.

Looking back, last year's team went through two noticeable turning points to break out of that classic 10-14-10-14 pattern.

1. The collapse vs. PSU. After that, we sort of "found a way" to beat a mediocre Iowa team at home and won a weird 105-97 game at Minnesota. However, it was the 91-83 win at Wisconsin that really showed me that this team had a higher ceiling than we might have thought ... something about that game made us look legit.

2. The heartbreaking loss to Purdue. Everything from the PSU loss to Purdue (a 3-game winning streak) was such a clear buildup to that marquee home matchup vs. the #3 Boilermakers. We HAD to have that to prove to ourselves that we could beat the big boys (at least on our home court!!), and we let it slip away. From that point on, we went into Iowa and handily beat a Hawkeyes team that DESPERATELY needed a win. We rolled through three BTT games where we trailed in every single one but refused to back down and never got phased. We then sailed to two 16-point victories in the First and Second Rounds of the NCAA Tournament before the true culmination of that season - a chance to show what we could do vs. this supposedly elite and out-of-our-league #4 Iowa State team.

And we all know how that went! We stepped up, proved we belong and EARNED (in every sense of the word) our spot in the Elite Eight.

TL;DR

Last year's team had a wakeup call embarrassing loss on February 21 at PSU. It had another major reset victory on March 10 in our season finale victory vs. Iowa where we looked like a truly complete team. That led to the BTT and Elite Eight run that they will always be remembered for, with regular season disappointments vs. Maryland, Northwestern, MSU, etc. being ancient history.

Comparison to this year? Duke loss happened on February 22. We just got two essentially important wins to end the regular season going into the BTT. This is our second season, and maybe this team is FINALLY ready for everything to click. :cool:
 
#28      
PepeSilvia
I don't think it's fair to compare this or most team to last years team.

Last year they had the built in advantage of having the best player on the floor at basically all times that was a completely unguardable matchup problem.

He was dropping incredibly efficient 30 points performances by March until the UConn team that was basically the one team that was designed to be able to stop him and I truly think Illinois runs the table with Shannon going on a Kemba type run if last year's UConn team didn't exist.
 
#30      
Fighter of the Nightman
Kind of crazy to look back and realize that since the 2019-20 turnaround, we are 6-2 in the BTT, with the only two losses being...

1) A last-second loss to Indiana in Indianapolis while we had a banged up team.
2) A third loss of the season to a PSU team that for some reason just owned us vs. what was one of our more dysfunctional teams in recent memory.

I remember growing up thinking that "Illinois owned the Big Ten Tournament." Not only did we always perform well there, but we always had the largest fan contingent (especially when it was in Chicago) or at least the second largest (usually when it was in Indianapolis). From the first BTT in 1998 through 2005 (when I was in seventh grade), Illinois really was dominant there:

- 16-6 (.727) overall record and 13-4 (.765) record when it was in Chicago
- Made the BTT Semifinals every single year
- 5 BTT Championship Game appearances
- 2 BTT Championships

Having won 2 of the last 4 BTTs, it is nice to sort of feel that way again. I know some people act like this is a meaningless cash-grab tournament, and they question whether it is even worth it to be played before the "real" tournament ... and I get where they're coming from. However, as someone who has attended twice in Chicago and REALLY want to make it to Indy for one sometime, I think it is a really fun and unique event, and I always get way more pumped for it than your average fan ... I WANT that banner for the Illini!! Walking around the concourse and seeing different fan bases enjoying some beers while their teams aren't playing, seeing the diverse Big Ten conference all brought together for a rare occasion, getting to see which fan bases show up and which ones don't, etc .... I'll die on the hill that the BTT is super underrated.
 
#31      
Bbuck21
Fighter of the Nightman said:
AMEN!! It's easy to forget, but before the BTT, people on this very site were pretty down on our resume because we "hadn't beaten anyone." We had fairly good Q1/Q2 results (even though they're actually better this year, IIRC!), but we were lacking a marquee win. Even after the BTT, there was a LOT of lingering doubt that we couldn't beat elite teams, and Iowa State fans were almost comically confident.

Looking back, last year's team went through two noticeable turning points to break out of that classic 10-14-10-14 pattern.

1. The collapse vs. PSU. After that, we sort of "found a way" to beat a mediocre Iowa team at home and won a weird 105-97 game at Minnesota. However, it was the 91-83 win at Wisconsin that really showed me that this team had a higher ceiling than we might have thought ... something about that game made us look legit.

2. The heartbreaking loss to Purdue. Everything from the PSU loss to Purdue (a 3-game winning streak) was such a clear buildup to that marquee home matchup vs. the #3 Boilermakers. We HAD to have that to prove to ourselves that we could beat the big boys (at least on our home court!!), and we let it slip away. From that point on, we went into Iowa and handily beat a Hawkeyes team that DESPERATELY needed a win. We rolled through three BTT games where we trailed in every single one but refused to back down and never got phased. We then sailed to two 16-point victories in the First and Second Rounds of the NCAA Tournament before the true culmination of that season - a chance to show what we could do vs. this supposedly elite and out-of-our-league #4 Iowa State team.

And we all know how that went! We stepped up, proved we belong and EARNED (in every sense of the word) our spot in the Elite Eight.

TL;DR

Last year's team had a wakeup call embarrassing loss on February 21 at PSU. It had another major reset victory on March 10 in our season finale victory vs. Iowa where we looked like a truly complete team. That led to the BTT and Elite Eight run that they will always be remembered for, with regular season disappointments vs. Maryland, Northwestern, MSU, etc. being ancient history.

Comparison to this year? Duke loss happened on February 22. We just got two essentially important wins to end the regular season going into the BTT. This is our second season, and maybe this team is FINALLY ready for everything to click. :cool:
Click to expand...
Thanks for revisiting and summarizing. I remember, about 2 weeks before the 2024 regular season concluded, a B-i-L (a Pitt fan) tried to taunt me about "how could a team be ranked #12 when they haven't even defeated a top 25 team?". I simply said, "Have you watched them?". I took the high road, and we all know how the CCBB fans around the country learned what they didn't know in the tournaments (B10 and NCAA). This year, those family-Pitt fans are much more humble and respectful. Especially when I visited The Burgh and went to a Pitt-Stanford game with them. After that early January game, Pitt was 12-2 and they thought Pitt was better than everyone in the ACC except Duke. They had lost to WI, blownout by MsST (my B-i-L said that he thought MSST was the "best team in the country" :LOL:), and somehow beat Ohio St by 1 in OT. I simply talked about team makeup and what it takes to compete and be in the national discussion. Never talked trash (not my style). When I got home, I old my wife that Pitt is NOT good. They went 5-12 the rest of way. With the tournament approaching, my wife was asking about all the teams our family/extended family would be excited about. When I summarized all those teams (incl: Iowa, Mizzou, Syracuse. Pitt, and Duquesne) for her, she said, "You said Pitt was bad". All I know is, my team and I (as Illini), are receiving a lot of respect without me needing to point out anything. Maybe it was my approach šŸ˜‡, but I am so looking forward to these next 2-3 weeks. Thanks for reminding me.
 
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