Illinois basketball keeps stacking up the preseason praise, and the latest ranking only adds to the buzz around Champaign.
On Thursday, Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports and FanDuel released his Rothstein 45, a list of the top 45 teams in college basketball. Florida landed at No.
1, Duke followed at No. 2, and Illinois came in at No. 3.
The Illini finished ahead of UConn, Michigan State and Arizona, with Michigan sitting at No. 7.
That kind of placement is another sign of how far Illinois has climbed back into the national conversation. After the program drifted out of the spotlight for years following the 2005-06 season, the final year of Dee Brown’s career, the Illini are once again getting treated like a heavyweight. An Elite 8 run two seasons ago and a Final Four appearance in March pushed Illinois back onto the map, and the preseason rankings have kept reinforcing the same message: this is an elite program again.
The attention makes sense when you look at the roster. Illinois brings back most of the key pieces from that Final Four team, including David Mirkovic, Andre Stojakovic, Tomislav Ivisic, Zvonimir Ivisic and Jake Davis. Brad Underwood also addressed the departures of Keaton Wagler, Kylan Boswell and Ben Humrichous by adding a five-star guard in Quentin Coleman, who is expected to start, along with one of the top transfer portal players in Stefan Vaaks.
Of course, rankings only matter until the games start. Illinois still has to prove it over the course of the regular season, the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAA tournament in 2026-27. But for now, the preseason picture is clear: the hype around Illinois is real, and the roster looks built to support it.
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One name to watch is Charles Ibe, the three-star defensive lineman from Providence Day School, whose early rise has already put him on the radar of several programs. Illinois has joined that conversation at a time when the Illini are also adjusting to Bobby Haucks arrival as defensive coordinator, and the new 3-3-5 look could make the front especially appealing for a player like Ibe as the recruiting battle starts to take shape. [Read more 🡒]
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For Illinois, the appeal is obvious: Deng is the kind of prospect whose trajectory makes him worth tracking closely, especially with more elite programs circling. His path has been unusual, with part of his childhood spent in Kenya before he returned to Kansas and developed into a serious Division I target, and he has leaned on coaches and teammates as his game has taken off. Now he is using the summers biggest stages to keep proving that the surge is real, with another chance still ahead to show it again. [Read more 🡒]
Terrence Shannon Jr. Faces Another Frustrating Change In Minnesota
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For Shannon, the change is more personal: he is moving from No. 1 to No. 4 for the upcoming season after Ball arrived and took over the number he had been wearing. What is not yet clear is whether that switch was handled by Minnesota's front office or settled between the two players, but either way it adds another wrinkle to a transition that has already been anything but quiet. [Read more 🡒]