Good Morning, Illini Nation: A closer look at the AP Top 25
Jan. 16—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 and college basketball at large:
Illinois had a chance to do what few ranked teams accomplished last week and make it through the entire seven-day stretch without a loss. Then the Illini dropped a Quad III game at home to Maryland on Sunday.
That made Illinois one of 15 of last week's Associated Press Top 25 teams to lose at least once. Other teams suffered greater poll consequences than the Illini. Colorado State and San Diego State were both ejected from the top 25 as the Mountain West Conference continued to cannibalize itself. Illinois slid just four spots.
But a split week with a solid win against Michigan State and a tough-to-take loss to Maryland did affect how Illinois was viewed by the AP voters. Like losing its status as a unanimously ranked team. The Illini were left off the ballots of the New Haven (Conn.) Register's Dave Borges and the Fort Wayne (Ind.) Journal Gazette's Dylan Sinn.
Other voters still considered Illinois a top 10 team. Well, two of them did, with WSB-TV's Zach Klein dropping the Illini from seventh to 10th and Alabama Media Group's Nick Alvarez moving them up one spot from 11th to 10th. All told, Illinois received at least one vote in every ballot position from 10th to 22nd.
Illinois wasn't, however, the highest-ranked team to not appear on every ballot. That distinction went to No. 12 Arizona, which got one vote as high as No. 6 and was not ranked by the Wichita (Kan.) Eagle's Kellis Robinett. At the other end of the spectrum, Colorado State was the unranked team that got the highest single vote with one at No. 13 from Borges.
Among other poll oddities, Connecticut climbed to the No. 1 spot for the first time since March 9, 2009. As CBS Sports' Matt Norlander pointed out Monday afternoon, the Huskies have won three national championships since the last time they graced the top of the AP Top 25. Worth noting is that, unlike college football, the final AP poll of the basketball season is published the Monday after Selection Sunday.
Gonzaga's streak of 143 consecutive weeks as a ranked team also ended Monday. The Bulldogs' loss at Santa Clara, which snapped a 26-game winning streak against the Broncos, was apparently the last straw for 24 of the 26 voters still ranking Mark Few's team. Two are still on board for an 11-5 Gonzaga team that's just 2-5 in the first two quadrants.
