Illinois #5 in final AP Poll

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#53      
Grandpa
when people remember this season they will remember Illinois went to the final four. even many of us will forget that we finished number 5 in the AP poll or if we finished 4th down the line. none of us will forget that banner
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Oooooo right! I forgot about the banner!
 
#55      
EwGroce
iFlyBy said:
That's not a logical conclusion at all. Are you going to suggest that NC State was one of the best 4 teams when they made their Final Four a couple years back? They had a good run and they were playing really well at the right time, absolutely. They were also only in the tournament because they won their conference tournament. There's clearly more to it than "Final Four = best 4 teams."

We had a great run, but I can absolutely see why a non-Final Four team like Duke was ranked ahead of us in the final poll.
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My point was more in defense of Illinois’s season. I personally don’t disagree with Duke being ahead of us in the poll based on their body of work.

But to the casual fan, for a team of Illinois’s caliber to reach the final four, most casual fans will look at it and know they belonged. In other words, Illinois making the final 4 was not a fluke, whereas I’d argue that for NC state, it DID appear more flukey (because it was lol).

I just don’t want people to look at some end of season poll and think less of the season. I’m seeing a lot of “wtf how are we not ranked at least 4th!” out there, and admittedly that was my gut reaction.
 
#56      
gville90
EwGroce said:
My point was more in defense of Illinois’s season. I personally don’t disagree with Duke being ahead of us in the poll based on their body of work.

But to the casual fan, for a team of Illinois’s caliber to reach the final four, most casual fans will look at it and know they belonged. In other words, Illinois making the final 4 was not a fluke, whereas I’d argue that for NC state, it DID appear more flukey (because it was lol).

I just don’t want people to look at some end of season poll and think less of the season. I’m seeing a lot of “wtf how are we not ranked at least 4th!” out there, and admittedly that was my gut reaction.
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I’d agree with this. It’s sort of two metrics. We’re the 3rd or 4th best team in march/april. But it’s fair to have Duke ahead of us for the entire year.

Same thing with our 2021 Ayo/Kofi #1 seed team. We were easily one of the top 3 teams that year, maybe even top 2 (I believe we were as high as #2 AP going into the dance?). But losing to Loyola doesn’t mean we’re now #32 or whatever.
 
#57      
iFlyBy
EwGroce said:
My point was more in defense of Illinois’s season. I personally don’t disagree with Duke being ahead of us in the poll based on their body of work.

But to the casual fan, for a team of Illinois’s caliber to reach the final four, most casual fans will look at it and know they belonged. In other words, Illinois making the final 4 was not a fluke, whereas I’d argue that for NC state, it DID appear more flukey (because it was lol).

I just don’t want people to look at some end of season poll and think less of the season. I’m seeing a lot of “wtf how are we not ranked at least 4th!” out there, and admittedly that was my gut reaction.
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Ah, I see what you were going for now. That's a pretty fair train of thought.
 
#58      
1m4tr
I’m okay w being behind Duke as long as get Blackwell over them. Just like I was happy to lose to Wiscy in B1G tourney if we went further in the NCAA tourney than the Badgers.
 
#59      
Combo
I'm fine with #5. Duke went into the tourney the overall #1 seed and played UConn much closer than we did.
 
#61      
Emerson Bigguns
gville90 said:
I’d agree with this. It’s sort of two metrics. We’re the 3rd or 4th best team in march/april. But it’s fair to have Duke ahead of us for the entire year.

Same thing with our 2021 Ayo/Kofi #1 seed team. We were easily one of the top 3 teams that year, maybe even top 2 (I believe we were as high as #2 AP going into the dance?). But losing to Loyola doesn’t mean we’re now #32 or whatever.
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If you watched Duke v. UConn, and us v. UConn, it's hard to make a case that we played them better... I never thought UConn was going win that game... until they did.
We were seemingly never in the driver's seat.
 
#64      
chrisRunner7
Zorak said:
brb buying my "finished fifth in the AP poll" merch
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fsu_banner_2020.jpeg


What we are missing though...
 
#65      
mysterio2525
Illinois was the number 1 team in the country starting with the letter I..... hang the banner!
 
#67      
ChiefGritty
chrisRunner7 said:
View attachment 49476

What we are missing though...
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We had the great fortune of bringing most of our breakthrough 2020 team back the next year.

I feel terrible for the schools that didn't get that chance and had a historic golden opportunity stolen from them by Covid. Dayton is #1 on that list.

FSU did alright, brought in Scottie Barnes the next year and wound up in the Sweet 16.
 
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