Illinois lands former NIU QB Ethan Hampton. He had previously committed to Wake Forest but backed out of that due to the coaching change.


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They have the top ranked class. Wow they have some studs coming in. How did this happen? Can the Illini ever get to that level?

Teams of note (AP/KenPom):

Tennessee (1/2)
Oregon (10/19)
Purdue (16/21)
UCLA (18/13)
Mich St (20/17)
Michigan (24/23)
Arkansas (27/40)
Illinois (30/16)
Maryland (35/20)
Wisconsin (37/35)
Penn State (43/32)
Indiana (44/52)

• Illinois, Maryland, and Penn State are underrated
• Oregon, Arkansas, and Indiana are overrated
• Tennessee is not the #1 team
• Purdue is probably the 6th best team in the conference, not 2nd best. UCLA is currently the team to beat.

I've heard murmurs that fans and donors are disappointed with this Illinois team. I think that's incredibly shortsighted. The number one question going into the season was the defense, and we're 11th ranked in defensive efficiency already. The only thing holding this team back is 3-point shooting and I see more talented shooters in this rotation than any Illini team since 2011. Remember that this was a young team full of new pieces that was supposed to come together in February and March. Ten games in and we already have the KenPom profile of a 4-seed with massive upside potential. I was incredibly bullish on this team in the preseason and I'm actually more optimistic now than then. The analytics are ahead of the AP, but they bode extremely well for the rest of the season.

Iowa is killing us in this area. They have 4 out of the top ten Illinois players. We have Zero. What needs to happen to make this change.

Hope all you Illini fans have a blessed and merry Christmas!! Lets beat South Carolina!!

RIVALS RANKINGS WEEK

Monday: Five-Star Countdown

Tuesday: New Rivals250 unveiled | Gorney goes position-by-position | Biggest risers

Wednesday: New offensive position rankings released | QB rankings breakdown | RB rankings breakdown | WR/TE rankings breakdown | OL rankings breakdown

Thursday: New defensive position rankings released | DL rankings breakdown | LB rankings breakdown | DB rankings breakdown | ATH rankings breakdown

Friday: New state rankings released | Who is No. 1 in each state?

Saturday: Rankings Roundtable

Not much Illini basketball over the rest of the month. A good time to eat some waffles, hit the weight room, and get some extra 3-point shooting work in. Maybe drill some late game inbounding plays.

This is when Underwood teams typically turn the corner. Fortunately it’s happening pre-Missouri lately rather than immediately after.

The W/L record isn’t amazing now but we have a top-10 defense and our biggest team weakness is 3-point shooting. I don’t have a handy stat to prove it but I know this team can shoot. That will get better.

Don’t look now but we’ll be betting favorites in 14 of our next 16 games even if we don’t improve.

You can blame the coach for every close loss where a team doesn’t execute at the end. Underwood blames himself some too. I’m pretty sure that “inbound the ball to the other team” wasn’t the play in the huddle, so there’s room for a new/young team to improve there too.

I agonized over this loss last night because I really felt like this was a winnable game. Every game this year felt that way. It’s because this Illini team is absolutely loaded and developing ahead of schedule.

Big picture is that if this team is a top 10 defense in December then the rest of the country better watch out come 2025, because you know the offense is coming soon.

A court has just ruled that, since the NCAA has no jurisdiction over junior colleges, it cannot apply the years a junior college player against one’s eligibility. Pavia is the QB at Vandy that beat Bama. He played two years at a junior college and three at D-1 schools. The court just ruled that he can play next year at Vandy. Part of the basis for the ruling was NIL so he could earn money next year. It will be interesting now to see how this impacts recruiting in the future.