Illinois Basketball picked fourth in Big Ten Preseason Poll

Per a Big Ten preseason poll, Illinois basketball has been chosen to finish fourth. Per IlliniInquirer.com, This poll was conducted by the Columbus Dispatch and the Indianapolis Star, in addition to 33 beat reporters. The Big Ten will expand to 18 total teams this year including West Coast teams, UCLA, USC, Oregon, and Washington. The teams that were picked ahead of Illinois were reigning conference champs, Purdue, Indiana, and UCLA. Though preseason polls are typically inaccurate, this was cool to see.

Interesting preseason buzz

Illinois basketball did not have a single player on a recently released Preseason All-Big Ten team. This was certainly no surprise, as the Illini have ten newcomers to the roster. There are a lot of unknowns coming to the roster. After years of having established Big Ten players anchoring the roster such as Kofi Cockburn, Ayo Dosunmu, Terrence Shannon Jr., and Coleman Hawkins, Illinois basketball will need some time to figure out who their “alpha” is. Will it be Kylan Boswell? The former five-star point guard has garnered buzz after his first offseason in Champaign. However, Boswell is still just 19 years old and had a tough end to the 2023 season.

Will it be Ben Humrichous? The graduate transfer from Evansville certainly has the prototypical skillset of an “alpha”, however, this will be his first bout of the high-major ball. The talent is certainly there in Champaign, it just will take time to come together.

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