Emotions aside, you have to keep in mind that it’s not measuring the crowd. For whatever reason, us playing at home does not give us a big advantage. It’s middle of the pack in D1 as a whole and that’s alarming. Whether it’s mental preparation for home games, or a sub par crowd, this needs to be examined by the AD.
Illini Basketball 2024-2025
- Status
sacraig
- The desert
EDIT: Removed point that @Fighter of the Nightman made already but more eloquently. I'll add that our high level of performance on the road in the last few years makes it harder to have a strong home advantage.
Last edited:
One thing that has been so critical over the past few seasons of the NIL/transfer portal era is that Brad and the staff have created a program where coming to Illinois has lead to incredible team and/or individual success for transfers.
Ben H does not have as good of stats as his time at Evansville, but he is still a starter on a top 20 team so I'm sure he would take that trade. Boswell was a key part of great Arizona teams, but he is having a career-best season in all aspects besides three point shooting.
TSJ, Domask, Tre White, Grandison and Plummer all had the best seasons of their careers in the orange and blue.
Guerrier, Justin Harmon, Jake Davis and Omar Payne had better individual stats at previous stops but all experienced more team success here than ever before. Carey Booth technically falls into this category as well, but he is not what anyone would call a success story at this point.
As polarizing as he was and even though he won a Natty with Baylor, Matthew Mayer had his best individual season at Illinois and was third team All-Big Ten.
Also, transferring away from Illinois has rarely been a recipe for success. Adam Miller, BBV, Curbelo, Melendez, Epps, Harris, Hansberry, Moretti, Lieb, Skyy Clark, Luke Goode and Coleman all went to programs that have been flat out less successful than Illinois. Although, to be fair, Melendez, Harris and Amari should all be in the NCAA tourney this year and are playing pretty well.
I think the only player to truly be better off away from Illinois in terms of both team and individual success is Dain Dainja. He won a National Championship with Baylor (while redshirting) so he already experienced the top level of success. Now he is on a good Memphis team and playing a bigger role than he likely would have if he stayed at U of I.
You could say Podz was better off as well, certainly in a career sense after having a great season at Santa Clara and developing into a 1st round pick. But his Santa Clara team had little relevance and did not make the NCAA tournament outside of his year at Illinois. I'm sure he's happy with the overall outcome though.
Ben H does not have as good of stats as his time at Evansville, but he is still a starter on a top 20 team so I'm sure he would take that trade. Boswell was a key part of great Arizona teams, but he is having a career-best season in all aspects besides three point shooting.
TSJ, Domask, Tre White, Grandison and Plummer all had the best seasons of their careers in the orange and blue.
Guerrier, Justin Harmon, Jake Davis and Omar Payne had better individual stats at previous stops but all experienced more team success here than ever before. Carey Booth technically falls into this category as well, but he is not what anyone would call a success story at this point.
As polarizing as he was and even though he won a Natty with Baylor, Matthew Mayer had his best individual season at Illinois and was third team All-Big Ten.
Also, transferring away from Illinois has rarely been a recipe for success. Adam Miller, BBV, Curbelo, Melendez, Epps, Harris, Hansberry, Moretti, Lieb, Skyy Clark, Luke Goode and Coleman all went to programs that have been flat out less successful than Illinois. Although, to be fair, Melendez, Harris and Amari should all be in the NCAA tourney this year and are playing pretty well.
I think the only player to truly be better off away from Illinois in terms of both team and individual success is Dain Dainja. He won a National Championship with Baylor (while redshirting) so he already experienced the top level of success. Now he is on a good Memphis team and playing a bigger role than he likely would have if he stayed at U of I.
You could say Podz was better off as well, certainly in a career sense after having a great season at Santa Clara and developing into a 1st round pick. But his Santa Clara team had little relevance and did not make the NCAA tournament outside of his year at Illinois. I'm sure he's happy with the overall outcome though.
Last edited:
I have always felt our home court advantage slipped when most practices were switched to Ubben. The guys just don't play enough in the Hall to get a good feel for it. Couple that with having a mostly new team and there is little time logged in the building.
Also, Kofi could have legitimately played 2 more years of college basketball to maximize his earnings and then went to Seoul.
College eligibility is limited. You can always go overseas after.
GrayGhost77
- Centennial, CO
Really good summation of something I think many of us had a feeling of but never expressed so eloquently. It's obvious that Brad gets the best out of his players in 9/10 cases. I think that's because he's flexible enough in his system that he finds ways to cater to his player's strengths better than most coaches, and yet does so in a way that almost always forms a cohesive, winning unit. Player development is towards the top of college BB, as well. As this pattern has become established (and Bret is doing the same thing on the football side) it has solidified into a reputation, and as long as Brad is at the helm should only help us going forward with recruiting and player retention.
I think Kofi actually said he regrets not coming back for another year. Would've been fun to see him and TSJ on the court together. But I guess I'll settle for having their jerseys above the court together.
viking6888
Greeley, Colorado
The Athletic Calls Illinois Basketball a March Madness 'Wild Card'
Every college basketball season, with each passing day that brings us closer to Selection Sunday and, eventually, the crowning of a national champion, fans and experts speculate over who has the stuff to cut down the nets in early April.
www.yardbarker.com
I haven’t done a deep dive but I can’t help but think having a very strong road record hurts your home ranking in this. If an awful team never wins on the road but only drops a few at home that will very much inflate the home effect compared to teams that travel really well and still only drop a few at home. There is not as clear a performance gap between home and away which honestly is a good thing.
You're not wrong but that's kind of the point. If we play the same on the road as we do at home as we do at a neutral site, then there is no advantage to us playing at home. Which also means there is no disadvantage for opposing teams playing us on the road. Whereas typically you expect the road team to be at a slight disadvantage.
The other issue is that we aren't exactly playing at the same level at home as we are away from home. According to Torvik's game scores, our average performance has been better on the road than at home this year. The big fat caveat to that being we've been down a starter in three home games and have been at full strength in all our road games this year (until tonight).
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
RE: This, I was mostly going off of my perception that we were especially strong on the road in the (post-rebuild) Underwood Era, but I wanted to look back at our Big Ten road record in past seasons where we finished in the top 25 (i.e., removing the dud years from the equation). I put our final AP Poll rank at the end of conference play in there as a general point of reference for what caliber of team we had that year.
16 CONFERENCE GAMES
2000: 4-4 (.500) ... #21
2001: 5-3 (.625) ... #4
2002: 4-4 (.500) ... #10
2003: 3-5 (.375) ... #13
2004: 6-2 (.750) ... #12
2005: 7-1 (.875) ... #1
2006: 4-4 (.500) ... #9
20 CONFERENCE GAMES
2020: 5-5 (.500) ... #21
2021: 8-2 (.800) ... #2
2022: 7-3 (.700) ... #16
2024: 6-4 (.600) ... #13
2025: 3-2 (.600) so far ... #18
So it definitely seems like when you hold other things constant (say, a ranking in the teens of the top 25), we are definitely much better on the road these days and unfortunately also less dominant at home. I think what also helps this perception is that some of our most memorable wins these past five seasons have come away from Champaign:
2020
W 71-70 at Wisconsin (broke our losing streak vs. them and began our hot streak)
W 64-62 at Michigan (Ayo buzzer beater)
W 62-56 at #9 Penn State (statement win to break a 4-game losing streak)
2021
W 74-69 at #23 Wisconsin (first challenge without Ayo)
W 76-53 at #2 Michigan (insanely loud statement win, again without Ayo)
W 73-68 at #7 Ohio State (third straight game on the road, Ayo's return with the mask)
2022
W 74-57 at Indiana (hugely hyped Saturday game for them on ESPN, and we whooped 'em)
W 79-74 at #19 Michigan State (clutch ice shot down the stretch from Trent)
2024
W 76-58 at Rutgers (first win of note and shocking dominance in a game everyone expected to be close)
W 85-80 at Maryland (finally beat them in a thrilling finish)
W 91-83 at Wisconsin (systematically beat them when they BADLY needed a win)
W 73-61 at Iowa (absolutely dominated them from start to finish when their NCAAT lives were on the line)
2025
W 109-77 at #9 Oregon (need I say any more??)
W 94-69 at Indiana (setting embarrassing Assembly Hall records, lol)
Still time to right the ship, but for next year:
Want back:
Morez
Boswell
DGL
Tre
Will
Tomi
FIne as a 9th man:
Jake
Please never come back:
Ben
From my conversations and best guess, I would guess 5/6 of the wants are back plus Jake.
Want back:
Morez
Boswell
DGL
Tre
Will
Tomi
FIne as a 9th man:
Jake
Please never come back:
Ben
From my conversations and best guess, I would guess 5/6 of the wants are back plus Jake.
Where's Booth?
Booth is already driving to the airport packing his bags the minute our last game ends
DB11Headband
- Chicago Burbs
Putting a hole through my tongue biting it here
Don’t hurt yourself! Just let it out!
Tide has turned in terms of Morez back next year. I do think DGL probably moves on unfortunately, Brad has been way too stubborn
That's great news about Morez. Terrible shame if DGL leaves.
I've got no inside info about anything, but I can't imagine getting 5 of those 6 back. I'd put the over under at 3.5 counting Jake.
Ty is probably gone next year as well…
ginabackes00
CrazedUIFan
He has a chance to make it right with DGL. I hope it isn't too late
Feel good about Morez, Boswell, Tre, and Tomi. Think there's a decent chance we get Will back as well, but still a way to go there.
Regardless, we will 1000% prioritize elite athletes and shooters this offseason
A couple of more big guys would be nice. Right now, we only have two that are remotely playable.
Offseason checklist will probably include a pg to replace KJ, wing athlete (euro that should be announced in the coming weeks), floor spacer at the 2-3, and a bigger 4 man that can rebound/shoot
- Status