See where Illinois basketball lands in preseason coaches Top 25 poll

When The Associated Press preseason poll was released last week, the Illinois basketball team found itself just outside the top 25.

The nation’s coaches are a little higher on the Fighting Illini, putting then at No. 24 overall in the 2024-25 preseason coaches’ poll released Wednesday.

“There’s major turnover for the Fighting Illini with the loss of Terrence Shannon, who led the team to the Elite Eight last year, and host of departures to the transfer portal. But Brad Underwood has been here before and found success in bringing in impact players,” USA TODAY wrote in its preseason outlook for Illinois, which ended last season No. 7 in the same poll.

“The backcourt added Kylan Boswell (Arizona) and Tre White (Louisville). Ty Rodgers is a veteran holdover in the frontcourt. There is also a standout freshman class that features Morez Johnson and Will Riley — both rated among the top domestic players. They’re joined by international additions Kasparas Jakucionis and Tomislav Ivišić.”

Illinois football: The Illini are bowl-bound. See where the they are projected to play

Kansas is the coaches’ preseason No. 1, followed by Alabama, Connecticut and Houston — the same top four as the AP. While the AP has Iowa State at No. 5, Duke is No. 5 in the coaches’ poll.

The Fighting Illini, which made the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament, are picked to finish fourth in the Big Ten, behind only No. 13 Purdue, No. 18 Indiana and No. 22 UCLA — the only other Big Ten teams in the coaches’ poll.

2024-25 NCAA preseason coaches poll

First-place votes in parentheses

Kansas (15)

Alabama (6)

UConn (6)

Houston (4)

Duke

Iowa State

Gonzaga

Baylor

Arizona

North Carolina

Auburn

Tennessee

Purdue

Creighton

Texas A&M

Arkansas

Marquette

Indiana

Texas

Cincinnati

Florida

UCLA

Kentucky

Illinois

Ole Miss

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Illinois basketball: Preseason Top 25 coaches poll for 2024-25

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/see-where-illinois-basketball-lands-164613473.html

Author : Journal Star

Publish date : 2024-10-23 16:46:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.