Illinois fans are going to have to dust off their Flyin’ Illini gear from the looks of it. Living and working in the Chicago suburbs I can say that they are good fans who have had nothing to cheer about in a long time. They have the chance to be exciting and dominant. While Wisconsin could churn their way to a league title, they will be typical Wisconsin with boring and frustrating style of play to watch.
What’s so interesting is that two years ago we weren’t sure if Underwood was going to last. He was running a weird and highly ineffective defense and his offense, while uptempo, was inefficient. Fast forward two years and they have two NBA players coming back, a couple of savvy veterans, a 5-star recruit, and some good transfers. They also won a lot of close games on their way.
Giving Garza 25 points, Ayo 24 etc. = Illnois 48, Iowa 45, Wisc. 43, Mich. St. 42, Mich. 39, Indiana and Purdue 26, Rutgers 19, Minn. 16, Ohio St. 11, Penn St. 10. Will be interesting to see how close this is to the finish order at the end of the year.
Good way to look at it …and feels mostly right depending on Iowa learning what defense is.
On the other end, not shocking that Northwestern and Nebraska miss the list. Shocked at how far Maryland fell. They’ve had a good run the last few years and it wasn’t like they had unexpected attrition. Where are the recruits?
Is there going to be a draft on the pod again? How similar do you think the top 25 would be?