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Welcome to “Good Morning, Illini Nation,” your daily dose of college basketball news from Illini beat writer and AP Top 25 voter Scott Richey. He’ll offer up insights every morning on Brad Underwood’s team and college basketball at large: 

I haven’t taken my poll thoughts to this space yet this season. But you know how it is. New year, new poll, new me. I already explained why I made my choice to move Michigan to No. 1 in place of Arizona yesterday. In short, the Wolverines have, to use a popular hashtag of late, gone #BTA on basically everyone they’ve played this season.

My vote wasn’t the only one to change. Michigan now has 29 first-place votes to Arizona’s 32, and the Wildcats’ hold on the No. 1 spot in the AP Top 25 is as thin as it can be. Arizona had 1,494 points this season, and Michigan wound up with 1,493.

Some other poll observations to kick off 2026:

— No one has UCF ranked as high as I do, with the Knights now at No. 18 on my ballot (and No. 25 in the poll) after beating Kansas. Nice work, Johnny Dawkins and Co. I also have the highest vote for USC at No. 20, as the Trojans fell out of the AP Top 25 after getting thumped by Michigan. (Who hasn’t experienced that)?

— The three ranked teams not on my ballot? That would be Georgia, Tennessee and Kansas. The Vols and Jayhawks exclusion was clear for me. They both have four losses. Georgia is 13-1 this season, ranked No. 18 in this week’s poll and have a breakout candidate in sophomore guard Jeremiah Wilkinson. I remain unmoved. The Bulldogs lost their only Quad I game to date (on a neutral site to Clemson) and are 3-0 in Quad II with their best win in overtime at home to Auburn where there were some officiating shenanigans. 

— Two weeks passing between polls helped Illinois get back to a unanimous selection. That changed after the home loss to Nebraska, but consecutive wins against Missouri (by the widest margin ever in Braggin’ Rights), Southern and Penn State got the Illini on all 61 ballots. The highest vote was from the San Diego Union-Tribune’s Mark Zeigler at No. 12, with the majority, including mine, coming at No. 16.

— Some AP Top 25 history for you … Nebraska reached the top 10 for just the fifth time in program history this week. The Cornhuskers’ other top 10 appearances all came during a four-week stretch from Feb. 7-28, 1966, where they were either eighth or ninth.

— Not ranking North Carolina is certainly a choice. The Tar Heels did lose over the weekend to SMU (who’s not bad), but they’re still 13-2 on the season with three Quad I wins against Kansas, Kentucky and Ohio State. They’ve also got a star freshman in Caleb Wilson. Not good enough for, apparently, for the Billings Gazette’s Victor Flores or the Houston Chronicle’s Matt Young.

Equally as head scratching are the voters that didn’t include No. 14 Texas Tech (247Sports’ Jeff Rabjohns) and No. 15 Arkansas (Seattle Times’ Percy Allen) on their respective ballots.