Illini Basketball 2022-2023

[Fighter of the Nightman]

If both Hawkins and Shannon come back, I’d expect us to be very good next year. Like a top 10 team, assuming they keep developing. I think it’s a big what if at this point though.

You could get me to buy in. I don’t think it’s even up for debate that talent/athleticism was NOT this team’s weakness, we just were missing one piece here or there and apparently had chemistry issues. If we can add a role player or two from the portal, keep the core and have whatever players are theoretically part of this supposed culture program move on … why can’t this team be really good after a bit of a reset??

 

[LvilleILL]

You could get me to buy in. I don’t think it’s even up for debate that talent/athleticism was NOT this team’s weakness, we just were missing one piece here or there and apparently had chemistry issues. If we can add a role player or two from the portal, keep the core and have whatever players are theoretically part of this supposed culture program move on … why can’t this team be really good after a bit of a reset??

Vet point and a couple of shooters/wings and this team will be looking good for next year. If Dain leaves they will get a 5 man in the portal as well

 

[Illini231]

Vet point and a couple of shooters/wings and this team will be looking good for next year. If Dain leaves they will get a 5 man in the portal as well

how much do you think the uncertainty of TJ/Coleman going through the draft process is going to affect what we do in the portal? You obviously want to leave room for them if they want to come back, but you don't want to overplay your hand.

 

[LvilleILL]

how much do you think the uncertainty of TJ/Coleman going through the draft process is going to affect what we do in the portal? You obviously want to leave room for them if they want to come back, but you don't want to overplay your hand.

I think they will have a good idea after player meetings next week. We will be adding at least 3 transfers, so they will be aggressive no matter what

 

[Heisenbobble]

I think they will have a good idea after player meetings next week. We will be adding at least 3 transfers, so they will be aggressive no matter what

How quickly do you think the staff will land its first transfer?

 

[illinois_hustle]

I'll never come down personally on any college basketball player. I assume they are giving their all for the beloved, in their own way. They are kids to young adults, and should be respected always for choosing Illinois at the very least.

This season, however, is the most disappointing that I remember having experienced. NOT THE WORST ... I chose the word "disappointing" for a reason. We've had many worse seasons (see Groce, John, and latter years of Weber, Bruce), and some of Lou's teams could be described as disappointing. But I cannot remember any other season where I sat down in front of the TV expecting "something" and getting much, much less than I expected. I just could never figure this team out. Were they good? Did they want to play with or for each other? Were they listening to Coach or had they tuned him out? Why did we continue to shoot so many 3s when we were #333 in the nation? Even today, I did not expect to be down double digits in the 1st half, nor the 0-10 run in the 2nd half, nor the 17 turnovers to a mediocre Arkansas team.

Part of this is my fault for believing the hype about being a final four contender after beating UCLA & Texas. In hindsight, it was always going to be hard integrating the freshmen with senior transfers (and many analysts said this from the start). No one saw our top PG leaving, or the regression in 3pt shooting. But we just didn't *improve*, and I guess I always expected us to, every single game. This team showed us who they were throughout the season, but I refused to believe it. They showed it yet again today. That's the reason I felt so disappointed so often.

Here's to realistic expectations and less disappointment next season. GO ILLINI

 

[Illini in Indiana]

Man November is a long way away.

IMO, Give me these guy back in this order

1-Rodgers
2-Harris
3- Shannon
4-Hawkins
5-Hansberry (very pumped about this guy)
6-Epps
7-Dainja
8-Goode
9-Melendez
10-Mayer

 

[goillini30]

Unpopular opinion but I'm more than comfortable if dain left. He doesn't hit the glass as well I'd like nore is he effective as a rim protector.

Plus his offensive style of play is becoming more dated every day. He has to be able to at least hit from the free throw line extended to become more of a threat.

I agree that he will need to work on a midrange jumper, but I think for his first season of major playing time he showed a ton of promise. He was a little too predetermined with his post moves (baseline spin move anyone?) but with more experience and off-season work I think he can be a very good college post player.

 

[TonyClifton]

Man November is a long way away.

IMO, Give me these guy back in this order

1-Rodgers
2-Harris
3- Shannon
4-Hawkins
5-Hansberry (very pumped about this guy)
6-Epps
7-Dainja
8-Goode
9-Melendez
10-Mayer

Mayer has no more eligibility

 

[WyattEarp]

Mayer has no more eligibility

Well I guess that gives him plenty of time
to play video games in the fog of a caffeine induced, euphoric state…or whatever the hell it was.

 

[alaskaillini]

Man November is a long way away.

IMO, Give me these guy back in this order

1-Rodgers
2-Harris
3- Shannon
4-Hawkins
5-Hansberry (very pumped about this guy)
6-Epps
7-Dainja
8-Goode
9-Melendez
10-Mayer

I loved that 8-0 run by Melendez today - when he is playing well, he can be a game changer. He would be a lot farther up my list.

 

[Poe's Law]

I think they will have a good idea after player meetings next week. We will be adding at least 3 transfers, so they will be aggressive no matter what

Bringing in 3 transfers plus DGL. Maybe Harris is getting recruited over and they don’t think he can shoot well enough to play big minutes on a championship caliber team.

I mean his defense plays when he’s healthy, just trying to do my part to fill the void on speculation until we know more.

 

[IlliniCub 16]

I think the Mayer bashing has been a little heavy handed. The last three games, especially today were disasters for sure, but I'm seeing people say the season would have been better if he never came here. A lot of the reason the team won 20 games again and made the tourney at all was because of Mayer and he played a big role in many of the season's bright spots.

In the Texas win, the MSU win, at Wisconsin, Michigan, we don't win those games without him. And a big reason for RJ bouncing back from his lowest point was when Mayer gave him the hug right after the miss to tie the game at Indiana. They don't just put you on the Big Ten third team because they like your hair.

He was undeniably frustrating and he deserved to sit the second half because of his play against Arkansas, but let's not say he didn't help the team this season.

 

[illinistephen]

I don't know whether to be optimistic or pessimistic....but I'll still root for next year's team to be great.

Good - Best regular season Big Ten team over last few years combined
Bad - 60 year old coach who's never made the sweet sixteen
Good - Can field a team where 70% of minutes are transfers and freshmen and still make NCAA tourney (good floor for program)
Bad - Had a roster that required replacing 70% of minutes with transfers and freshmen
Good - #1 Big Ten and #7 National 247 2022 recruiting ranking
Bad - High % of best recruits, (Kofi, Skyy, Miller, Curbelo), leave for teams that don't play in the NBA

 

[LvilleILL]

How quickly do you think the staff will land its first transfer?

Would not be surprised if it's by the end of the month. Think we will land 3-4 in the next month and a half

 

[WeWillWhen]

Vet point and a couple of shooters/wings and this team will be looking good for next year. If Dain leaves they will get a 5 man in the portal as well

Maybe I missed another rule change, but wouldn’t Dain have to sit a year after a second transfer? Why would he do that?

 

[lstewart53x3]

This team was not all that likable and this season wasn’t all that enjoyable.

And I use the term “team” loosely there because they rarely played like a team.

I can’t recall a single game all year against high major competition where we clicked for a full 40 minutes.

We had bursts where you could see the raw talent, but we just never put it all together.

On my wish list is a team that’s fun to watch, passes the ball, shoots well (from 3 and the line), hustles on D, and plays together.

I wanna win, who doesn’t. But I also wanna enjoy the games even when we lose.

 

[alaskaillini]

Maybe I missed another rule change, but wouldn’t Dain have to sit a year after a second transfer? Why would he do that?

BU will cooperate with any player that wants to leave in getting a waiver. he does not want an unhappy player taking up a scholarship.

 

[Manual3for4peat]

BU will cooperate with any player that wants to leave in getting a waiver. he does not want an unhappy player taking up a scholarship.

I get that, frustrating though, Dain has a ton of talent. He works at it a bit and he's making a ton of money.

 

[sadcubfan69]

I think the Mayer bashing has been a little heavy handed. The last three games, especially today were disasters for sure, but I'm seeing people say the season would have been better if he never came here. A lot of the reason the team won 20 games again and made the tourney at all was because of Mayer and he played a big role in many of the season's bright spots.

In the Texas win, the MSU win, at Wisconsin, Michigan, we don't win those games without him. And a big reason for RJ bouncing back from his lowest point was when Mayer gave him the hug right after the miss to tie the game at Indiana. They don't just put you on the Big Ten third team because they like your hair.

He was undeniably frustrating and he deserved to sit the second half because of his play against Arkansas, but let's not say he didn't help the team this season.

Is it not true that even when he was carrying the team (Texas, IU, Wisconsin), that his points were coming from objectively terrible shots? The contested stepback, isolation 3s off the dribble were a constant of his shot selection all year. Even when he was “on”, the ball movement stopped when it swung to him, and the lack of defensive effort and complete lack of ball movement one could argue hurt more than it helped. I would rather live with moving the ball around and playing good team basketball and the shots just not falling then watch stepback, isolation bricks over and over.

 

[Bigtex]

Without knowing the rest of the pieces of the puzzle - take off orange glasses !!!

If both Hawkins and Shannon come back, I’d expect us to be very good next year. Like a top 10 team, assuming they keep developing. I think it’s a big what if at this point though

 

[ejam21]

Man I really hope Coleman is back after those postgame comments. I already wanted him back but you can feel the pain and frustration and how much he cares. Pisses me off hearing that for him

Same here

As much as he made some bad plays/mistakes this year, it was clear all year that he cared/played harder than anyone on this team (not hating on anyone here just saying). Despite how much more we/I want from him, he has made HUGE strides since he stepped on campus.

I'm pulling for him, hopefully for the beloved, but will be a fan of his whether its on an NBA team, g league, overseas team, or a 4th year with us.

 

[ejam21]

I really hope Sencire comes back. Raw offensively of course but I happen to believe playing hard is a skill and I think he is easily our most skilled in that dept, and that’s with Ty on the team.

I would always have a spot on my roster for a kid that played that hard. He basically forced his way into a role with no offensive game whatsoever by sheer force of will. And how many games did he flip with his energy? Definitely UCLA and NW and I know there’s a few that I’m forgetting.

Lastly, if nothing else he’s got to be a great practice player. You know you’ve got to bring it every day or else Sencire will whip your ***.

Not saying he will be all BIG someday, but he’s far from a meh player in my book.

Sencire is a player, in my opinion, whose floor is an all b10 HM guy. He's better offensively than what weve seen. He is quick/fast enoguh to get to the cup (but really needs to hone in on when to do so) and is a better shooter than he's shown. I would be salty af if he left

 

[sadcubfan69]

Coleman was one of the few guys I enjoyed watching each game. Like you said, he really cared and was trying to make the right team play even if it didn’t work out. Seeing him grow from freshman to senior year if he comes back would be really cool with how rarely that seems to happen in the NIL / free transfer era.

Same here

As much as he made some bad plays/mistakes this year, it was clear all year that he cared/played harder than anyone on this team (not hating on anyone here just saying). Despite how much more we/I want from him, he has made HUGE strides since he stepped on campus.

I'm pulling for him, hopefully for the beloved, but will be a fan of his whether its on an NBA team, g league, overseas team, or a 4th year with us.

 

[ejam21]

I think the Mayer bashing has been a little heavy handed. The last three games, especially today were disasters for sure, but I'm seeing people say the season would have been better if he never came here. A lot of the reason the team won 20 games again and made the tourney at all was because of Mayer and he played a big role in many of the season's bright spots.

In the Texas win, the MSU win, at Wisconsin, Michigan, we don't win those games without him. And a big reason for RJ bouncing back from his lowest point was when Mayer gave him the hug right after the miss to tie the game at Indiana. They don't just put you on the Big Ten third team because they like your hair.

He was undeniably frustrating and he deserved to sit the second half because of his play against Arkansas, but let's not say he didn't help the team this season.

I'm not willing to bash mayer over the whole season......but today? LOL

He singlehandedly torpedoed multiple runs. First half TWICE we go on a spurt and he falls asleep and gives up a dunk on a back cut.
We cut it to 5 in second half early and he overplays a steal and it leads to an and 1.

I wont get on him about missing shots bc that can happen anytime but the low effort on D today was super obvious

I liked him as a player overall and seems like a good kid and i'l wish him well, but today wasnt good