Believe

The Associated Press released its preseason college basketball poll on Monday, and the University of Illinois Fighting Illini were ranked third in the country.

In case you didn’t realize the magnitude of this, the Illini haven’t started a season ranked this high since 2001.

If you’re new here, here’s the short version: Last year, the Illini’s Keaton Wagler was considered the 150th best player in his high school class, and Illinois was one of the only big programs to offer him a scholarship. This kid from Shawnee Mission Northwest, Kansas, had a nice jumper but wasn’t generating much of a buzz. Then, on January 24th, Wagler dropped 46 points on the road against a top-5 Purdue team. You can read more about that game here, if you want, because it was one of my favorite basketball games in the last decade.

Anyway, that game pretty much summarized the whole season.

The Illini knocked off Penn in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, beat VCU in the second round, and then pulled off one of the most unbelievable upsets in NCAA Tournament history by beating Houston in Houston. From there, they took down a surging Iowa and found themselves in Indianapolis for their first Final Four since 2005.

They ultimately lost to UConn, 71-62, in one of the most disappointing yet exhilarating games I’ve ever watched. The Illini finished the season with 28 wins, and it’s one of the best seasons in program history. Plus, the Los Angeles Clippers selected Wagler 5th overall in the NBA Draft in June.

In case you didn’t notice, that was a pretty cool ride.

It was even more fun knowing that nobody saw it coming. Not knowing what would happen next was the fun part. Here’s the thing about not knowing what’s going to happen next: It can only happen once.

This year, it’s expected. When you’re ranked third in the country, you’re playing to prove you belong that high. I’m convinced that preseason ranking affects every thought and action that anyone involved with the program makes in November.

On top of that, the team that got to the Final Four last year isn’t the same one this season. They lose Wagler, of course, along with starting point guard Kylan Boswell and forward Ben Humrichous.

However, forward Andrej Stojakovic passed up his chance to enter the NBA Draft and is coming back for his senior year, and sophomore point forward David Mirkovic was named to the AP Preseason All-American Team. Mirkovic is coming off of foot surgery in August and didn’t play in the team’s first exhibition game, but he should be fine. In addition, big men Tomislav and Zvonimir Ivisic are coming back for one more year, and corner specialist Jake Davis is back as well.

And then there are the new kids.

Freshman Quentin Coleman put up 14 points, 8 assists, and 7 rebounds in an exhibition at Cincinnati last Saturday. He even scored 10 straight points late in the second half to pull away (Cincy hung around for most of the game) in a 105-96 win. Another freshman, Ethan Brown, started, knocked down a couple of threes, and had a steal or two. What will these freshmen and the others do this year? They probably won’t have a Wagler-like breakout, but who knows?

After these exhibition games, the real season starts and things get serious. The first game, at home against Fairleigh Dickinson on November 2, should be uneventful. Of course, it doesn’t get any easier. Two weeks later, the Illini travel to Cameron Indoor to take on Duke. And then, there’s that return game against UConn at the United Center in December.

So what is it going to be this year?

I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately. Last year, there were no expectations, so Illini fans had no choice but to “believe.”

This year, of course, there’s plenty of expectation, so I think we get to choose whether we “believe.”

Do I believe? I do.

Be seeing you.