If Illinois basketball fans cross their fingers extra-hard, they might be able to will a certain Christmas present into existence.
A Monical’s Pizza gift card? Orange-and-blue overalls? A ‘‘1989 > 2005’’ T-shirt?
No, better: a shiny top-10 spot for the 9-2 Illini when the new national rankings come out Monday.
Purdue, Kansas and Houston will stay put as the top three. Tennessee and Kentucky will remain in front of the Illini, as well. But six of the top 12 teams — including No. 10 Baylor and No. 12 Creighton — lost games last week, giving voters lots to think about. The Illini, coming off a 97-73 blowout of Missouri in the annual ‘‘Braggin’ Rights’’ game in St. Louis, should move up in the world from No. 13.
Big question: Are these Illini as good as — or better than — the last two of coach Brad Underwood’s teams that reached the top 10?
Three seasons ago, Illinois fell out of the top 10 — and then stayed out for 12 weeks — after being upset by unranked Missouri despite getting a career-high 36 points from Ayo Dosunmu. That team went on to be a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
The next season, Illinois had an early cup of coffee in the top 10 but hadn’t beaten anybody with a pulse yet and was unranked by the end of November. By tournament time, the Illini were a No. 4 seed.
This team has potential first-team All-American Terrence Shannon Jr. and enviable versatility and length with veteran Coleman Hawkins and transfers Quincy Guerrier (28 points against Missouri) and Marcus Domask (33 — matching Shannon — in a 98-89 victory against then-No. 11 Florida Atlantic). There’s probably a bit more quality around Shannon than there was around stars Dosunmu and Kofi Cockburn.
‘‘I believe Illinois is a Final Four team,’’ Missouri coach Dennis Gates said after seeing the Illini up close and a bit too personal.
There’s a message Underwood often writes on the locker-room whiteboard before games: ‘‘Know the thrill of an all-out effort.’’ This team is giving him that more often than not — and certainly more often than a maddeningly inconsistent team did last season.
‘‘There’s no me, me, me,’’ Underwood said. ‘‘There’s none of that. . . . There’s no knuckleheads.’’
If he’s right, put this squad somewhere in between the 2020-21 and 2021-22 ones for now — with the potential to blossom into the toughest out of the three come tournament time. . . .
Illinois and Iowa are very different states when it comes to recruiting high school football players. We all understand this. Still, it was striking to see a video of Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz bragging on national signing day about having inked seven of the top eight players in his state and then, moments later, to read Illinois’ PR spin about signing four of the 33 highest-ranked players in this state. Four for 33? That’s a colossal failure. If Bret Bielema can’t do better than that, who can? . . .
Yes, of course, there are too many stinking bowl games. But you know what? Northwestern’s and Northern Illinois’ players got to go home for the holidays as bowl winners. Not bad at all for a bunch of Wildcats who won one measly game and a bunch of Huskies who won only three in 2022. . . .
OK, hotshots, just because you have lives, that’s no excuse not to have watched or at least heard about the best game of the college basketball season so far: Florida Atlantic’s 96-95 victory against Arizona in double overtime Saturday. The bar has been set. . . .
My AP Top 25 ballot, submitted a day early with no ranked teams playing Sunday: 1. Purdue, 2. Kansas, 3. Houston, 4. Arizona, 5. UConn, 6. Kentucky, 7. Clemson, 8. Tennessee, 9. Illinois, 10. Florida Atlantic, 11. North Carolina, 12. Providence, 13. Marquette, 14. Memphis, 15. Oklahoma, 16. Duke, 17. Baylor, 18. Creighton, 19. Colorado State, 20. BYU, 21. Ole Miss, 22. Texas, 23. Gonzaga, 24. Wisconsin, 25. James Madison.
