AyoDos11
- Southern Illinois
IMO, as long as Woodson is coaching at Indiana, we will always be better than them.
Illinois unranked in 11/11 AP Poll
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I remember we had a discussion about a guy who we said didn't vote for us. I can't find the thread now. What I did find is a guy on reddit who posts all the votes every week of the season. Link below. I searched through 6 or 8 weeks of data. There wasn't anyone who didn't vote for us. One voter, JB Ricks was consistently voting us very low until the tournament bracket came out. He is not a voter this year.
Here's the guy that you are thinking of from last year: Luke DeCock
AP Poll Voter Extremes
As an biased example: Luke DeCock, an AP voter, has never voted for #11 Illinois in top 25 this year.
Credit to FOBY for his Illinois Loyalty post on December 19, 2023:"Surprised someone doesn't examine DeCock's anti-Illini bias. When you're the only voter who doesn't have them at least at #20, something's fishy."
I'm most confused by what the pollsters saw in St. Johns that got them to leap frog us. I get Ohio State but it's not like the Johnnies had a signature win.
He still voted for us, just significantly lower than others.
They spelled his first name wrong
Joel Goodson
- how was I to know, she was with the Russians too?
means squat
foby
- Bonnaroo Land
If you want to see the voters, go here https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and drop down the menu where it says ALL VOTERS.
Jablonski has us at #17.
Jablonski has us at #17.
oh yea. I remember the name. I was looking over his voting record. He didn't vote for the Illini until week 8. And then in week 11 he left the poll. And was replaced. lol.
Noblesville Illini
- Nappanee, IN
Their scheduling consultant……
Show up???I'm thinking it's gonna be a meeting in the Pizza Hut parking lot...lol
No need for them to be ranked. It will get into their heads. They haven't done anything yet. Let them come in unranked and come into that game hungry.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Have never bought this excuse. Brad will have the guys hungry regardless of their rank, and being in the top 25 is objectively good exposure for this program. To 90% of college fans, they don’t pay any mind to programs that don’t show up in the top 25 feed.
Kansas got blew out in their exhibition too. Alabama also has played two cupcakes and failed to beat either one convincingly. It seems like we are not getting any real respect so far. We are probably going to have to knock off some of the higher ranked teams we are going to play in the next few weeks to get ranked. If not it's likely they keep us out of the top 25 most of the season. I hope we can prove them wrong.
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
100%, had we come into the season ranked 20 for example, we likely would’ve moved up to 18 or so this week. Then 16 or so next week.
At 16, we could withstand a loss and stay in the top 25.
Instead, we’ll likely be 24 or 25 next week and if we lose to Alabama we’ll likely drop out.
Preseason rankings are “loss insurance” where you have the opportunity to stay ranked even with a loss or two and the more you’re ranked each season, the more exposure your brand gets, the better recruits you get, the more wins you get, and so on.
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
I’ll also add that I feel like it’s strange we aren’t ranked yet.
We’re picked by many to finish in the top 2-4 in the B1G, we’re currently 20 in KenPom, and we went to the E8 last year,
I realize we have a brand new team compared to last year, but we’re also the winningest program in the B1G over the past 5 years. I’m surprised that doesn’t carry more weight.
On top of that, we’re also incredibly talented.
We have two players appearing on first round draft boards. Had KJ been a US recruit, he would’ve 100% been a top 60 kid. Which gives us 6 top 60 kids on the roster, not including Tomi.
Last year we had just two top 60 recruits, Ty (58) and Amani (59).
I understand we’re young, but I have a hard time seeing a team this talented unranked.
We’re picked by many to finish in the top 2-4 in the B1G, we’re currently 20 in KenPom, and we went to the E8 last year,
I realize we have a brand new team compared to last year, but we’re also the winningest program in the B1G over the past 5 years. I’m surprised that doesn’t carry more weight.
On top of that, we’re also incredibly talented.
We have two players appearing on first round draft boards. Had KJ been a US recruit, he would’ve 100% been a top 60 kid. Which gives us 6 top 60 kids on the roster, not including Tomi.
Last year we had just two top 60 recruits, Ty (58) and Amani (59).
I understand we’re young, but I have a hard time seeing a team this talented unranked.
People just aren’t paying attention to us yet. It’s the same thing every year recently, it seems like.
On paper we’re only returning like 5% of our minutes, but in reality we upgraded every starting and role player spot except TSJ’s.
This is Marcus Domask erasure. Like c'mon, dude was 1st team all-BIG Ten.
Watching mcneese state against bama ...they are beatable.
Will wade had an interesting defensive switching concept that was confounding for bama. Bama also had a close one last week with Ark State.
I didn’t think I’d be able to love a 1 year transfer player for us that much. Dude had a triple double in the NCAA tournament and it isn’t even the first thing people mention when talking about him.
I agree with what you're saying, and this "debate" reminds me of the one on the FB board re: whether it would be better to lose a couple more games or end up playing an SEC power. In both the FB and Hoops cases, people seem to completely elide from the discussion the players' opinions!
I would bet that no FB players are saying "let's not play against the best," and in the Hoops case, it is entirely possible that being ranked makes players hungrier for more.
I like “loss insurance.” Good way to put it. But while the rest in that sentence is true in general, do you really think the Illini being just out of the top 25 for a couple of weeks is going to hinder its recruiting? So we should brace for down recruiting this summer?
Sure in general it is better to be ranked early, but I really don’t think it matters that much. Someone above said “To 90% of college fans, they don’t pay any mind to programs that don’t show up in the top 25 feed.” For the most part, college fans watch who they have interest in. I just saw that Cinn is rated #17. I live in Ohio, and having that knowledge now is not going to make me want to watch them more. Why? Cuz I have no interest in them. I’d say that is typical of most fans. They follow/watch their team(s) and then teams from the same conference(s) as their team.
What creates meaningful exposure as far as fans and recruits are concerned is the NCAA tournament and last third or so of the season. If this year’s team ends up being as good as we hope, not being ranked for first two weeks of season isn’t going to make a bit of difference. And if we’re not as good as we hope, being ranked #24 or #23 this week isn’t going to matter either.
Saying you would rather not be ranked is the silliest thing I hear every year. Ranking means you are on the scroll on all the sports shows, more likely to have highlights of your game the next morning, your name constantly associated with other good teams, and you are mentioned and discussed as part of the millions of power rankings that are out there.
It's like being a large company that doesn't want to be in the Fortune 500 or traded on the NYSE.
It's like being a large company that doesn't want to be in the Fortune 500 or traded on the NYSE.
Being unranked doesn’t bother me. It’s when teams jump us or stay ranked that have no reason to be other than uneducated voters
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