IlliniKat91
- Chicago, IL
My husband doesn't follow sports and got this on the first go
Illini Basketball 2021-2022
- Status
What 2 players do we stack to guard the Purdue kid that wont stop growing?
My guess was Edgar and Tyler but there goes that…
In all honesty in terms of guarding bigs, most teams play 1v1 in the post now, and live with the results, because they’re scared to give up 3s. With or without Kofi, my guess is we follow that script, unless Purdue (or whoever) has multiple questionable shooters out there and you can risk it.
This is interesting. It will be fun to watch who has the better year....Plummer or Verge...both ranked about the same in PAC12 .
Homecoming 2019
- Chicago
Verge looks to have the better all around game, but very inefficient scoring. He was asked to do more with ASU. Plummer came off the bench as a Lou Williams type meant only to get buckets. They have similar defensive metrics. Will be a fun watch indeed, personally I think Plummer fits our team much better than Verge.
Curbelo has a lot of options this year from beyond the arc to put up some really gaudy assist numbers.
Edit: Plummer didn't come off the bench as much as I remembered, but his role was the same.
Last edited:
Deleted member 747903
D
Guest
BBV will never be a significant player for us. He is a great scout team player because of his size and there is nothing wrong with that IMO.
If we are banking on him getting important minutes we are screwed.
Never is a strong word. 6’8 and built like a Greek god and can stretch the floor. If he can body up 4’s on defense, grab a couple of rebounds and knock in the occasional 3, he could carve out a role this year or next.
He had some good fill minutes last year and since he's been around long enough, hopefully the leg problems are history and he'll show us what he can do.
Joel Goodson
- respect my decisionâ„¢
Ransom Stoddard
Ordained Dudeist Priest
- Bloomington, IL
During game time? No.
Illinivek23
- Gurnee
Not even as a skilled 5? D being beyond secondary
blackdog
- Champaign
He needs at least another year to beef up and work on his body. In his brief garbage time minutes last year he was nowhere near strong or fluid enough to play.
He needs strength. He will get bodied on drives, boxed out, his screens will be blown up. etc. Basically teams will look to bully him until he builds his strength up to where they can't.
Illinivek23
- Gurnee
Thx - how are his other attributes, like footwork, touch, passing/court awareness...are those all being developed along with his physical stature? Maybe already in place?
Ransom Stoddard
Ordained Dudeist Priest
- Bloomington, IL
As others have said, he doesn't have the body to be valuable enough on offense to make up for what appears to be legendary defensive liabilities. I'm not intending to be rude or call anyone out, but it's always amazing to me how much hope is placed on the end of the bench, yet the end of the bench rarely changes. Look at the rosters for the last 30+ years and it's rare that #s 10 through 12 (or beyond) develop into solid contributors getting 10+ minutes a game. There are certainly exceptions, and I have no doubt people will bring up those exceptions, but it's rare. I'd love to see it happen though.
Illinivek23
- Gurnee
Thanks for this - was just wondering what contribution he could make if he grew into his height, from a B1G strength perspective.
Deleted member 747903
D
Guest
There is something to be said for guys at the end of the bench who give a good look on scout team. Rarely do developmental pieces actually contribute. Lieb and BBV are here to simulate B10 bodies.
JFGsCoffeeMug
BU:1 Trash cans:0
- Chicago
Having NPOY candidates in back-to-back years would be pretty darn exciting. Hope Kofi comes back.
Except for the 1 minute BU played him in first half against Iowa so Kofi and Giorgi wouldn’t pick up a foul right before half, did he play any other meaningful minutes? And he only paid 18 minutes overall.
I’d love to see him become a contributor, but if BBV averages much more than 5 mpg the team could be in trouble. That would mean the Illini weren’t successful in bringing in some bigs with those last two spots.
Tacomallini
- Washington State
In all fairness to BBV I don't think he was cleared to play until midseason last year. That's a lot of missed conditioning and practice. Looked like JC in short pants in limited minutes his first exhibition game as a frosh on B1G+ network vs. Danville Community College or whoever they were playing. I wouldn't count on him for guaranteed big minutes but wouldn't write him off yet either.
- Status