That’s one way to start 2023.
One day after picking up its first win over a ranked opponent since 2019, Illinois women’s basketball nearly entered the AP Top 25 for the first time since just after the turn of the century, checking in right outside the poll with the most votes of any team not in the top 25.
It has been 423 polls — Nov. 27, 2000 — since Illinois had a number next to its name. In that poll, the Illini were No. 24 (behind a typical 1-2 punch of UCONN and Tennessee).