With the NBA season starting tonight, don't forget that the junior circuit - college hoops - make their debut next Friday the 8th. Over the past season I got into the habit of following a lot of the Division I teams in my state. So with all the season previews and predictions dropping left and right, I figured I'd compiled a few of them and see what the experts are saying about the thirteen men's hoops programs from the Land of Lincoln.
The teams are ordered by their national ranking in Dan Hanner's projections over at ESPN Insider. The rankings were derived from 10,000 simulations of each player and each team's defense. Pretty cool stuff. To find out more go here. If you don't have an Insider account you'll just have to settle for the numbers I post here.
Under that is Hanner's rankings in relation to the conference the school is in, the projected conference finish of the school according to a separate preview ran by Insider using different writers, and their place in the conference-commissioned preseason polls.
BIG EAST (10 TEAMS)
136. DePaul
- Conf. Poll: 10th
- ESPN: 10th
- Hanner: 10th
BIG TEN (12 TEAMS)
Apparently the Big Ten is too good to put out a preseason poll, so I had to stick with the ESPN predictions here.
53. Illinois
- ESPN: 7th
- Hanner: 8th
108. Northwestern
- ESPN: 8th
- Hanner: 10th
HORIZON LEAGUE (9 TEAMS)
280. Illinois-Chicago
- Conf. Poll: 6th
- ESPN: 8th
- Hanner: 9th
MID-AMERICAN (12 TEAMS)
304. Northern Illinois
- Conf. Poll: 12th
- ESPN: 12th
- Hanner: 12th
MISSOURI VALLEY (9 TEAMS)
The MVC's preseason poll won't be released until October 30th. I will add it when it becomes available.
153. Bradley
- ESPN: 4th
- Hanner: 7th
183. Illinois State
- ESPN: 6th
- Hanner: 8th
199. Loyola Chicago
- ESPN: 9th
- Hanner: 9th
210. Southern Illinois
- ESPN: 7th
- Hanner: 10th
OHIO VALLEY (12 TEAMS)
274. Eastern Illinois
- ESPN: 7th
- Hanner: 9th
- Conf. Poll: 10th
317. Southern Illinois-Edwardsville
- Conf. Poll: 11th
- Hanner: 11th
- ESPN: 12th
SUMMIT LEAGUE (8 TEAMS)
246. Western Illinois
- Conf. Poll: 4th
- Hanner: 4th
- ESPN: 5th
WESTERN ATHLETIC (9 TEAMS)
286. Chicago State
- ESPN: 4th
- Conf. Poll (Coaches): 6th
- Conf. Poll (Media): 6th
- Hanner: 6th
TL;DR: A lot of middling to low expectations for the teams from Illinois. We'll see if any of these teams can prove the critics wrong. Stay tuned for more coverage of Illinois men's and women's college hoops during the season.
