Good Morning, Illini Nation: A closer look at the AP Top 25
Feb. 21—Welcome to "Good Morning, Illini Nation," your daily dose of college basketball news from Illini beat writer and AP Top 25 voter Scott Richey. He'll offer up insights every morning on Brad Underwood's team:
Illinois was still among the other teams receiving votes this week when the newest AP Top 25 dropped, but it was a close thing. Let's dive deeper on the latest poll: — Illinois received a single vote this week at No. 24. That it came from the Syracuse Post-Standard's Donna Ditota shouldn't be a surprise. She saw the Illini knock off the Orange in late November in an impressive fashion (a 73-44 win) and has been the one AP voter that's regularly had Illinois ranked the highest on her ballot. — That single vote made sure Illinois remained in the others receiving votes category just ahead of Oklahoma State and Nevada. In the 16 polls conducted this season, the Illini have appeared in all of them. Seven times as a top 25 team and now nine straight on the outside looking in but still getting at least one vote. — The biggest discrepancy in how a team was viewed this week was Indiana getting one vote at No. 7 while also being left off a single ballot. Kansas State wasn't far behind with a single vote at No. 8 and one ballot that didn't include the Wildcats at all. — My ballot had just a single "extreme pick" with my vote for Northwestern at No. 16. The Wildcats actually landed at No. 21. I was also the highest on Marquette with a vote for the Golden Eagles at No. 7 when they wound up at No. 10.
