Illini Basketball 2019-2020

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#226      

skyIdub

Winged Warrior
If I do I'll try to hide a GPS tracker on him somewhere. :p

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#227      
Zero chance because Whitman has his back. 20+ wins is likely a best case scenario and anything but a lock.

20 wins is likely period, but certainly not a lock because injuries can decimate a team. Best case is 20% higher than that.
 
#230      

sacraig

The desert
I'm gonna try to get tickets for one or both games. Should be plenty of Illini fans in the house as AZ is basically Chicago West.

If visiting Tucson, go to Rocco's Little Chicago for some of the best deep dish I've had outside of Illinois.
 
#231      

BananaShampoo

Captain 'Paign
Phoenix, AZ
If visiting Tucson, go to Rocco's Little Chicago for some of the best deep dish I've had outside of Illinois.
Noted. In Phoenix I generally frequent Lou Malnati's or Giordano's of which both opened up here in the past year and a half. Oregano's deep dish isn't too bad, either and they have a lot more locations.
 
#232      

Deleted member 236589

D
Guest
Yep easy to criticize, harder to make predictions yourself, eh Blue. Just to be clear, that's based on the assumption that Ayo stays in Champaign.
Your prediction was, 20 wins is likely, but not a lock.

So, your ultimate stance is that they could win 20 games, but they might not.

I wouldn't say that you drew a line in the Sand exactly. :)
 
#234      
Your prediction was, 20 wins is likely, but not a lock.

So, your ultimate stance is that they could win 20 games, but they might not.

I wouldn't say that you drew a line in the Sand exactly. :)

I mean the comment makes perfect sense to me. 20 wins is likely (high probability) but not a lock (not 100% likely), especially in the context of being a reply to a post that may have been implying that 20+ wins was 100% certainty. Even gave a clarifying reason (injuries) for why it wasn't a certainty.

Or:
Do you believe we will win 20+ games next season? Yes.
Are we guaranteed to win 20+ games next season? No, because there's always the chance of injuries.
 
#236      
I think the win total is still in total flux. Too many moving parts out there. I could think of reasonable situations where our win total could conceivably be between 10 and 25 wins.

There's a few guys that could still leave, and I think the chances of Ayo leaving are non-zero, perhaps as high as 50/50 (though I think not making the tournament/ his lack of athleticism/ generally low predictions as it is make it extremely difficult for him to get into the first round this year).

There's also plenty of instant help out there for us. Getting a grad transfer wing/4/maybe even a 5 could get us a couple more wins. There's some big name recruits still out there, and we could definitely find another impact freshman. In the end, having 5 new names on the roster we dont even know about yet is not out of the question. There are zero guarantees we get to 15, 20, or 25 wins next year, they are all possible, and sadly the lower the win total (to an extent), the more likely it's where we end up.
 
#237      
Yep easy to criticize, harder to make predictions yourself, eh Blue. Just to be clear, that's based on the assumption that Ayo stays in Champaign.

I think you're still in the over optimistic camp, which isn't a surprise here. But I'd feel more comfortable on the under 20 as a betting man, but you can't say until you've seen how many cupcakes we schedule. As far as predictions, I was one of the closest on this most recent season:
I will be laying money on u16 if available.

14-17. We won't take one in Maui.
 
#238      

sacraig

The desert
Noted. In Phoenix I generally frequent Lou Malnati's or Giordano's of which both opened up here in the past year and a half. Oregano's deep dish isn't too bad, either and they have a lot more locations.

Yeah, Chicago is slowly attempting to take over Phoenix, between those and Portillo's. Down here in Tucson, we have less Chicago presence. We do have Rocco's and there is a pretty good sandwich shop called Luke's Chicago Sandwiches here as well.
 
#239      
Over or under 18.5 wins. Whatcha got?

I was trying to decide to go with 17.5 or 18.5, but figured on Loyalty, I better go higher, due to the extreme optimism of off-season. :)
 
#240      
Over or under 18.5 wins. Whatcha got?

I was trying to decide to go with 17.5 or 18.5, but figured on Loyalty, I better go higher, due to the extreme optimism of off-season. :)

Regular season u18.5 ... But again, it premature without seeing the schedule.
 
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#241      
Regular season u18.5 ... But again, it premature without seeing the schedule.

Good call. I'm thinking regular season. Also, premature without seeing schedule and/or transfers (in or out)! I'd probably go with under as a realist, considering our recent history, but I'd really like to think we have enough talent to take the over. Time will tell!
 
#242      

UncleBob

San Clemente, CA
Illinois @ Arizona on Sunday, November 10th. (Haven't seen a date for the Grand Canyon game)
http://www.news-gazette.com/sports/...lini-schedule-home-and-home-with-arizona.html

Arizona has a commitment from Nico Mannion from Pinnacle High in Phoenix. Two time state champions. I saw him drop 57 against Chapparel in February. Pinnacle is near my daughters house. He is a top 10-15 recruit and will be tough competition for our guards. IMO best HS guard I’ve seen since Jalen Brunson.
 
#244      
Arizona has a commitment from Nico Mannion from Pinnacle High in Phoenix. Two time state champions. I saw him drop 57 against Chapparel in February. Pinnacle is near my daughters house. He is a top 10-15 recruit and will be tough competition for our guards. IMO best HS guard I’ve seen since Jalen Brunson.
Boy has the FBI probe slowed the wildcats down....
 
#245      
Listened to part of Beilein press conference yesterday, who most acknowledge is one of the best in the business. Talked about need to be flexible and adapt as a coach. Said the computer changed everything. Basic systems are scouted too well. Think Brad showed some signs of adaptation last year. Must continue. Coaches have to keep improving just like players.
 
#247      
I think you're still in the over optimistic camp, which isn't a surprise here. But I'd feel more comfortable on the under 20 as a betting man, but you can't say until you've seen how many cupcakes we schedule. As far as predictions, I was one of the closest on this most recent season:

Whatever the schedule, it'll be easier than this year, which is point 1. Point 2 almost everyone is back. Point 3 Kofi solves a lot of rebounding issues and January adds size and depth, so we have multiple bigs instead of Giorgi and an injured Adonis. Point 4 we likely get a grad transfer 4 who will be bigger, stronger than AJ, also helping the rebounding issues and probably scoring more than the 8 AJ gave us per game.

Whatever you think of 20 wins, saying it's likely our max is silly.
 
#248      
Your prediction was, 20 wins is likely, but not a lock.

So, your ultimate stance is that they could win 20 games, but they might not.

I wouldn't say that you drew a line in the Sand exactly. :)

No my stance is they likely win 20, not could win 20. Line in the sand, no, but I think saying 20 wins is the max we can expect is wrong.
 
#249      
Over or under 18.5 wins. Whatcha got?
I think that is a pretty good line, but I will take the over...we got 12 wins this year, with a brutal schedule, and a young team that was slow out of the gate...Not hard to imagine returning most of the team that we get out of the gate quicker, a bit easier schedule, improvement from the freshman can get us to 19.
I would feel a lot better about getting there if we found a 4. On the downside, we were a Giorgi injury away from being the worst team in the B1G by a long shot or even if he had played to reasonable expectations for an unranked freshman big. So our margin for error at 4/5 isn't much. So sure it helps if Ayo stays, but if we only get one of Giorgi/Ayo...I will take Giorgi because the fall off at big is huge and Trent/Feliz is still a very competent back court
 
#250      

sacraig

The desert
Listened to part of Beilein press conference yesterday, who most acknowledge is one of the best in the business. Talked about need to be flexible and adapt as a coach. Said the computer changed everything. Basic systems are scouted too well. Think Brad showed some signs of adaptation last year. Must continue. Coaches have to keep improving just like players.

The bottom line is that adaptation is important, but it's incredibly challenging to do with a young team who are not yet experts in the base system. I would look for an increased ability to adapt as our team gets more comfortable in the system as one of the biggest potential routes for improvement next season.
 
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