Crazy 8: Illini to Begin 2020-21 Season Ranked No. 8 in Associated Press Poll
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- For the first time in a decade, Illinois men’s basketball will start a season with a number beside its name.
Illinois was ranked eighth in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 poll, which was released Monday afternoon. It marks the first time the Illini will be ranked in the top 10 of the poll since the start of the 2004-05 season when they were ranked No. 1 from Dec. 6, 2004 to the national championship game on April 4 when they lost 75-70 to North Carolina.
Illinois finished last season, which was abruptly cut short due to the coronavirus epidemic, ranked No. 21 in the final AP poll after finishing with a 21-10 overall record and a fourth place finish in the Big Ten Conference with a 11-7 league record.
“This is our next step of growth,” Illinois head coach Brad Underwood said. “We’ve shown we can compete in the Big Ten. We’ve done that. Now you’ve got to go from the hunter to the hunted and understand the bullseye is on your back and you’ve got to handle that.”
The Illini bring back arguably the nation’s most dynamic guard-big combination with preseason All-American guard Ayo Dosunmu and reigning Big Ten Freshman of the Year center Kofi Cockburn. The Illini return a starting lineup with all but one piece and a Top 15 recruiting class that includes the Illinois High School Mr. Basketball selection (Adam Miller) and one of the nation’s best point guard prospects (Andre Curbelo).
The last time Illinois began a season ranked was in the AP poll to begin the 2010-11 season when Bruce Weber’s Illini program began that campaign No. 13 in the nation and ripped off a stretch of 10 wins in its first 11 games. That 2010-11 season culminated in the last time Illinois was a single-digit season in the NCAA tournament as the 9-seeded Illini spilt games against former Illinois head coaches in Indianapolis as they defeated Lon Kruger’s UNLV’s team in the first round and lost to Bill Self’s Kansas program in the second round.
Today also marks the first time Illinois will have a single-digit ranking by its name for the first time since before the 2012 Braggin’ Rights Game versus Missouri on Dec. 22, 2012. John Groce’s Illini team started that season by winning its first 12 games of the season including the Maui Invitational championship. The 2011-12 season is also the last time Illinois received a NCAA Tournament berth.
“Our objective this season is not to pay attention to the rankings,” Underwood said. “That’s for everybody else. All of the results will take care of themselves. We’ve got to pick up where we started last season and that’s a goal. We can not have the ups and downs that a younger team had last season. We’ve got to have consistency every night. To stay a Top 10 team every year, we’ve got to do those things.”
Illinois is among three Big Ten Conference schools in the top 10 of this preseason AP poll with Iowa at No. 5 and Wisconsin at No. 7. The league also featured Michigan State at No. 13, Ohio State at No. 23, Rutgers at No. 24 and Michigan at No. 25.
In its non-conference slate, Illinois is already slated to play at No. 9 Duke in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge and No. 2 Baylor in Indianapolis.
With the season expected to start in 17 days, the Big Ten is expected to release its conference schedule this week and Illinois is expected to release its full schedule not long afterwards.