Don't know if anyone else feels the same way, but I'm guilty of thinking higher of the Illinois brand than the rest of the country does.
We've had some recruiting success recently (Ayo, Kofi, Miller, Curbelo), but keep in mind:
-We only have 2 current NBA players (Leonard, Nunn) and technically Nunn would be from Oakland
-Our last NCAA tournament appearance was 2012-13
I understand that we're preseason top-10 and we were on our way to the tournament last year, but I just don't know if that resonates as much outside of our fandom.
Just my two cents.
With that said, I'm still very optimistic about the future of Illini basketball and Brad Underwood.