Illini Basketball 2019-2020

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#377      
Actually would like to have him in development along with Kouma. Five bigs would be perfect. Didn't think we would be short a scholarship.

I do not think anyone thought this would be a problem.
 
#378      

WiscIllini

Madison, WI
Seems like he put out a complimentary interview on Samba the week before he went into the portal.

Fair enough, that’s one of the two. Though I wouldn’t say that directly equates to tried his best to keep him.

Edit: And, yes, obviously what do I know? It just seems odd that we would let clear project big men walk out the door two years in a row when that is one of our biggest positions of need.
 
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#379      
We could have had Eboigbodin/Kane and Kofi this year. I would take that over all of your scenarios. And some may say “it wasn’t Brad’s choice for them to leave”. To that I would say that it doesn’t seem that he tried that hard to keep them either

You captured my feelings on Kane and Ebo perfectly. I think both could of provided depth and strenghth this year. Once again I feel we are 1 injury at the big position from things goung south.
 
#380      
Fair enough, that’s one of the two. Though I wouldn’t say that directly equates to tried his best to keep him.

Edit: And, yes, obviously what do I know? It just seems odd that we would let clear project big men walk out the door two years in a row when that is one of our biggest positions of need.

So Is BU just supposed to play the last 3 scholarship players on the team 5 to 10 minutes a game so they won’t just “walk out the door?” Or chain them to a radiator? Yes, it’s not ideal to have these developmental players leave after one year but it is their choice. I thought given that BU was trying to change the culture and develop some team chemistry that he had to play the players that earned it with effort, D and rebounding — and gave them best shot to win.

Now that BU has the pieces in place and has instilled expectations to the point they’re not just his but the entire team’s, hopefully that will curtail some transferring, but it’s still going to happen that’s just the way it is all around the country. But look at AG. Looked like he might transfer, but he didn’t and embraced BU’s expectations and made them his own and by all indications from the Italy has taken a big step forward. With a culture in place, team chemistry and hopefully wins and tourney trip this year, I think you’ll see more “potential’ transfers taking the AG route rather than leaving. But if someone decides to leave then thanks for playing, good luck and see ya.
 
#381      

Captain Bubbles

Fairfield, IL
I hope Kipper has a good year, and does better than last year. He's a senior and I want to see him go out with a bang. He is inconsistent, yet he has the strength and the potential is still there to be good.
 
#382      
Fair enough, that’s one of the two. Though I wouldn’t say that directly equates to tried his best to keep him.

Edit: And, yes, obviously what do I know? It just seems odd that we would let clear project big men walk out the door two years in a row when that is one of our biggest positions of need.
Does Kofi have any brothers? Asking for a friend. Just got back on, any word on koumas grades today?
 
#383      
I hope Kipper has a good year, and does better than last year. He's a senior and I want to see him go out with a bang. He is inconsistent, yet he has the strength and the potential is still there to be good.

Kipper’s shot looked off to me last year and during the Italy trip. I thought he used to have a fairly smooth stroke, but recently it seems more rigid and looks uncomfortable. I hope he is able to get back to at least as good as he was his soph year from the 3pt line. He needs something to get his confidence rolling and take off.
 
#384      

Dan

Admin
Continuing the process of piecing together Illinois' non-conference schedule from other teams' reveals, WCIA3Bret found a game vs The Citadel [via]

8 down, 3 to go. Here's what's known about Illinois' non-conference schedule-

@Grand Canyon (Friday, November 8th)
@Arizona (Sunday, November 10th)
Home vs Hawaii (Monday, November 18th)
Home vs The Citadel (Wednesday, November 20th)
Home vs Hampton (Saturday, November 23rd)
Home vs Miami FL (Monday, December 2nd in B1G/ACC Challenge)
Home vs Old Dominion (Saturday, December 14th)
vs Missouri in St. Louis (Saturday, December 21st)
 
#386      
Fair enough, that’s one of the two. Though I wouldn’t say that directly equates to tried his best to keep him.

Edit: And, yes, obviously what do I know? It just seems odd that we would let clear project big men walk out the door two years in a row when that is one of our biggest positions of need.

So we should've tied up those big men and forced them to stay in CU?
 
#389      
I've said it before and i'll say it again. We cannot be playing Damonte 20 plus minutes on this team if we want to be successful. He has become a mid major player in my eyes and he had so much promise coming out of high school until his injured himself. It showed on the foreign trip that he can't produce enough to be playing 20 minutes especially when you see tevian and alan put up 15 plus points. He does do stuff that matters on the basketball court but he shouldn't be getting 20 minutes for that especially when you're playing 4 on 5 on the offense side. Just my opinion, any thoughts?
 
#390      
I've said it before and i'll say it again. We cannot be playing Damonte 20 plus minutes on this team if we want to be successful. He has become a mid major player in my eyes and he had so much promise coming out of high school until his injured himself. It showed on the foreign trip that he can't produce enough to be playing 20 minutes especially when you see tevian and alan put up 15 plus points. He does do stuff that matters on the basketball court but he shouldn't be getting 20 minutes for that especially when you're playing 4 on 5 on the offense side. Just my opinion, any thoughts?
I agree...he has to be a threat to make a jump shot when he is open...not sure why he lost confidence.
 
#391      
I've said it before and i'll say it again. We cannot be playing Damonte 20 plus minutes on this team if we want to be successful. He has become a mid major player in my eyes and he had so much promise coming out of high school until his injured himself. It showed on the foreign trip that he can't produce enough to be playing 20 minutes especially when you see tevian and alan put up 15 plus points. He does do stuff that matters on the basketball court but he shouldn't be getting 20 minutes for that especially when you're playing 4 on 5 on the offense side. Just my opinion, any thoughts?

I would agree with you 100% if we didn't have a PG or C that could also score but we do. We will have 4 bodies on the floor that can score at all times between Ayo, Trent, Feliz, Giorgi, Griffin, Tevian, and Kofi. The only guys who will get minutes that are not big scoring threats are DMW and Kip and that's completely fine, the trick will just be to limit the times they are both on the court (unless at least one of them is scoring) so that the other team never gets a chance to rest their defense. DMW may not be living up to your expectations, but I think he is a critical piece to our 2019-20 season.

He is already a 31.7% 3PT shooter (36.5% from 2).

I'd love to see the following minor improvements from him
- increase his 3P% to 35%
- increase his 2P% to 45%
- increase his defensive ability and rebounding
- change his shooting profile from 44% 3PT shooter to 67% 3PT shooter
- increase his shot attempts from 93 to 150

If he makes those, hopefully realistic improvements, he'd finish with ~5.5 pts/game (35 made 3s, 20 made 2s, 35 made FTs in 33 games). If he can do that he's going to be a huge piece to our Sweet 16 puzzle.
 
#392      

pruman91

Paducah, Ky
I've said it before and i'll say it again. We cannot be playing Damonte 20 plus minutes on this team if we want to be successful. He has become a mid major player in my eyes and he had so much promise coming out of high school until his injured himself. It showed on the foreign trip that he can't produce enough to be playing 20 minutes especially when you see tevian and alan put up 15 plus points. He does do stuff that matters on the basketball court but he shouldn't be getting 20 minutes for that especially when you're playing 4 on 5 on the offense side. Just my opinion, any thoughts?

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#393      

ChiefGritty

Chicago, IL
I've said it before and i'll say it again. We cannot be playing Damonte 20 plus minutes on this team if we want to be successful. He has become a mid major player in my eyes and he had so much promise coming out of high school until his injured himself. It showed on the foreign trip that he can't produce enough to be playing 20 minutes especially when you see tevian and alan put up 15 plus points. He does do stuff that matters on the basketball court but he shouldn't be getting 20 minutes for that especially when you're playing 4 on 5 on the offense side. Just my opinion, any thoughts?

My thoughts are that we've got a bunch of guys on this team that are a jump shot away from being really good, and Da'Monte is one of them.

If we come out there next year and force teams to guard Da'Monte and Tevian out to the three point line and Giorgi at least out to the elbow, we are going to score a lot of points against a lot of good teams, and make an instant millionaire out of Ayo.
 
#395      
DaMonte scoring or not is not a game changer IMO. The season will be determined by our defense. Hopefully we will see some new wrinkles. One way to protect Kofi from foul problems is more zone and I am expecting to see that as one adaptation. Kofi and Giorgi will cover 50-55 mins of the 80. The other 25-30 mins will determine our success and is the only area that concerns me.
 
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