Illini Basketball 2019-2020

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#151      
So what you're saying is that if Trent, Griffin and Jones compare favorably to three of the greatest players in Illinois history(all three on Final Four teams).....then we could be good.

Solid analysis! :)
Yeah but maybe we could be good with only two out of three. Got to be realistic.
 
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#152      
I can't remember a year of Illinois basketball in my lifetime where I went in SO unsure of where we would be as a program and with such a wide range ... could quite literally see a similar, slightly better season where we see too many of the same problems ... and I could see us spending some time in the top 25. It literally all depends on if Ayo stays and what Kofi is like as a freshman. If we catch both of those breaks favorably, I think we could see some very rare one-season-turnaround improvement.

Excuse me if this has already been posted but I skimmed and didnt see it...

I think we’ll be better team next year assuming we don’t lose our young core to transfers. For me the big question mark is will we improve more than Iowa, Minnesota, Maryland, Ohio State, Indiana, Rutgers, and Penn State?

All of those teams had better seasons than us. Indiana and OSU already have better classes coming in, etc.

I’ll be sorely disappointed if we don’t improve next year; I’m just not convinced that even with improvement our standing will raise.

With Kofi being an instant impact, Ayo staying and even somewhat steady improvement from our underclassmen (all up in the air, I admit), I honestly think we'd at least hop into those teams' bracket - and that's all we'd need to do to please most fans, IMO. We don't have to be clear-cut better than those teams, we just have to be their equals. I think we will be, which gets us dancing I hope.
 
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#154      
They should hang out with Bill Walton.
This is your Brain.jpg
 
#155      
I can't remember a year of Illinois basketball in my lifetime where I went in SO unsure of where we would be as a program and with such a wide range ... could quite literally see a similar, slightly better season where we see too many of the same problems ... and I could see us spending some time in the top 25. It literally all depends on if Ayo stays and what Kofi is like as a freshman. If we catch both of those breaks favorably, I think we could see some very rare one-season-turnaround improvement.



With Kofi being an instant impact, Ayo staying and even somewhat steady improvement from our underclassmen (all up in the air, I admit), I honestly think we'd at least hop into those teams' bracket - and that's all we'd need to do to please most fans, IMO. We don't have to be clear-cut better than those teams, we just have to be their equals. I think we will be, which gets us dancing I hope.
The thing about projections year over year is this: generally speaking it is reasonable to expect players to improve over last years performance, however, it does not always happen. Kipper had a disappointing year. Giorgio exceeded expectations. If we are able to keep our core of players intact I think we show significant improvement next year. I want all of our players to return including Kipper. I still believe he can have a strong season in 2019-2020. I think Damonte can also improve his game especially offensively. I never like to predict that a player will regress year over year but we all know it happens - hence we need to drink some orange koolaid just to have something to look forward to. I think the postmortem on this year would be much more positive if we had just won a few more games that we let slip away (FAU, Notre Dame, Northwestern) but we did manage to have some key victories against good teams like Maryland and Mich St and were competitive in many others. While Some would argue that adding Cockburn doesn’t solve the issues on the team it certainly helps with our most pressing need. If January makes it to campus and we can add another wing then color me optimistically ORANGE. I think Ayo is not a first rounder and stays.
 
#156      
I agree, I have no idea what to expect next year. Rethinking some of the circumstances has just made me a bit more optimistic. OSU made the tournament with only 1 more conference win than Illinois. The difference, obviously is that they went 11-2 in non-con, and we went 5-7. We actually have a better record against top 25 teams (2-7 vs 1-8).

In that case, I'll drink the koolaid. I think the young players should improve enough to have a better non-con regardless of what else happens in the Big Ten. I'll be happy with a bid next year.
 
#157      
I want to see us in the rankings again. We will have more experienced players as well as more experienced coaches and some added pieces. Hopefully we also improve the chemistry. Our big wheel had only one big wheel last year.
 
#158      

illini80

Forgottonia
When did the transfers out of the program happen last season? I ask, because I would expect roughly the same timeframe to know whether everyone's staying after this season. Ayo's probably an exception because if he declares, I think players have until late May to pull out.
Ebo announced his transfer June 7th.
 
#159      
#160      
This is just a guess, we will start GB, Kofi, Tev/Kip, Frazier, Ayo, till we can't. Then we adjust, also recruits to be announced, Holyfield could change things.
 
#162      
If Higgs is switching to some sort of medical scholarship, I suspect there will be little hurry to announce and little publicity when it happens.
 
#163      
This is just a guess, we will start GB, Kofi, Tev/Kip, Frazier, Ayo, till we can't. Then we adjust, also recruits to be announced, Holyfield could change things.

Why is everyone predicting Kipper to be a starter? Are we really expecting a big improvement from him this offseason? Feliz starts over Kipper every time.
 
#164      

Deleted member 746317

D
Guest
Why is everyone predicting Kipper to be a starter? Are we really expecting a big improvement from him this offseason? Feliz starts over Kipper every time.
I think people are thinking Kipper 1) gets one more opportunity ("'til we can't") because he's (apparently) put in the work, 2) because he has the skills to be a veritable Swiss army knife at the 3 spot, 3) because "good kipper" at the 3 spot is so much better a proposition than Feliz, if he (Kipper) brings rebounding, ability to successfully slash into the "trees" or occasionally post up that Feliz cannot.

I tend to think we should not play Trent/Ayo/Feliz at the same time. Just gotta have better than 6'2" at the 3 spot, and we really want to have a guard off the bench to rotate with Trent/Ayo.
 
#165      

WiscIllini

Madison, WI
I think people are thinking Kipper 1) gets one more opportunity ("'til we can't") because he's (apparently) put in the work, 2) because he has the skills to be a veritable Swiss army knife at the 3 spot, 3) because "good kipper" at the 3 spot is so much better a proposition than Feliz, if he (Kipper) brings rebounding, ability to successfully slash into the "trees" or occasionally post up that Feliz cannot.

I tend to think we should not play Trent/Ayo/Feliz at the same time. Just gotta have better than 6'2" at the 3 spot, and we really want to have a guard off the bench to rotate with Trent/Ayo.


If we had to have those three on the floor at the same time, I tend to thing Feliz would be the point and Ayo could be the 3, especially if he improves his shooting. I'm assuming your reference to the "3 spot" is the player's ability to defend opposing players at the same position.
 
#168      
If we had to have those three on the floor at the same time, I tend to thing Feliz would be the point and Ayo could be the 3, especially if he improves his shooting. I'm assuming your reference to the "3 spot" is the player's ability to defend opposing players at the same position.
I think people are thinking Kipper 1) gets one more opportunity ("'til we can't") because he's (apparently) put in the work, 2) because he has the skills to be a veritable Swiss army knife at the 3 spot, 3) because "good kipper" at the 3 spot is so much better a proposition than Feliz, if he (Kipper) brings rebounding, ability to successfully slash into the "trees" or occasionally post up that Feliz cannot.

I tend to think we should not play Trent/Ayo/Feliz at the same time. Just gotta have better than 6'2" at the 3 spot, and we really want to have a guard off the bench to rotate with Trent/Ayo.
Frequently done at the end of games and works, but ideally you have two of three on the court at all times. And that seemed to be the pattern. Not sure how the rotation changes with incoming bigs. Leaves DaMonte, Tevian, Alan, Kipper for one position if only bigs are at 4 and 5.
 
#171      
I think people are thinking Kipper 1) gets one more opportunity ("'til we can't") because he's (apparently) put in the work, 2) because he has the skills to be a veritable Swiss army knife at the 3 spot, 3) because "good kipper" at the 3 spot is so much better a proposition than Feliz, if he (Kipper) brings rebounding, ability to successfully slash into the "trees" or occasionally post up that Feliz cannot.

I tend to think we should not play Trent/Ayo/Feliz at the same time. Just gotta have better than 6'2" at the 3 spot, and we really want to have a guard off the bench to rotate with Trent/Ayo.

Other than his size, what makes Kipper a 3? He can probably guard 3s. Does he have the skills to play there, though?
 
#173      

illini80

Forgottonia
Other than his size, what makes Kipper a 3? He can probably guard 3s. Does he have the skills to play there, though?
He’s a bit of a tweener, but I think he can play the 3. A year ago he was a tough matchup at that position. Of course if he can’t/won’t shoot, he can’t play it.
 
#175      
Both S.I. and NBADraftExpress have updated their 2019 mock drafts within the last few days and Ayo is not in the first 2 rounds of either.
 
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