Bigtex
- DFW
what if they wear them upside down?
Illini Basketball 2025-2026
- Status
skyIdub
"I can't tell you. Secret."
DB11Headband
- Chicago Burbs
Z is going to start
Noblesville Illini
- Nappanee, IN
If that’s the case, Boswell needs to change his name. He’s going to mess up the Skibidivic vibes!
Boswellic has a nice ring to it.If that’s the case, Boswell needs to change his name. He’s going to mess up the Skibidivic vibes!
Yes I'm aware they lost to UConn by 30 but I simply don't know how anyone could have beaten a team that had a 24 year old Kofi and 24 year old Shannon along with Domask and good role players in Hawkins, Guerrier, Ty, Goode, and Harmon.
It would have been like an NBA team that had prime Shaq and LeBron at the same time. Both would have just been so absurdly physically dominant in comparison to their competition.
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
ben will go back to his mean this season. I expect him to be a 38%+ 3p shooter at the very least. He doesn’t have to worry much about anything other than being a sharpshooter and it’s his second year in the big ten I have decent hope from him.
I'm pretty sure there was more to it than that, but sure. In the midst of slumps, illnesses, and injuries, let's sit a guy who can attack the basket when our offense consists of volume shooting three's under 30% every night.
He didn't see more than 21 minutes in a game until 1/26 against NW. It peaked for a few games then sank back to under 20 on average for a team desperately trying to find an edge and healthy big men. He only had 4+ fouls in a game 7 times throughout the season.
Yes, his contest defense was pretty bad, but he's a freshman who shot 64% from the field and 7 rebounds. He left for more money, that sucks and maybe was unavoidable. But not getting playing time on that team when Ben's getting 30 a night was criminal.
Morez was (and is) a 6-9 center. He's strong and aggressive, but has absolutely no face-up game. Any talk of him in the NBA is preposterous.
The reason given to us was he was “sick” like other players were at the time. The “more to it than that” part was the part that I mentioned.
I like Kylan and the Sons of Viches.
RabidDawgClassic
- Los Angeles, CA
Four fouls is not a reliable metric when you consider he would reliably commit two fouls almost immediately upon entering the game — especially early on. In those early season games, he could not be counted on to stay in the game long enough to make a difference. And that’s understandable, he was a freshman. Most freshmen need time to acclimate to the college game and most freshman centers need a full year.
Morez’s tick went up when Ivisic went down with Mono. That’s the obvious turning point for his season. But even then, he was a fouling machine. He got better as the season progressed (before his injury) but it was still a major concern.
I wish he had returned because Sophomore and perhaps upperclassman Morez promised to be something special. But let’s not kid ourselves that more playing time early for a hacking machine would’ve been the difference in the season.
How common is it for a coach to leave in a player when he picks up 2 or 3 quick fouls?
Morez averaged 5.7 fouls per 40 minutes (the highest average for a starter was Ivisic at 3.5). That comes out to a foul every 7 minutes. That means if he started you'd expect him to get to 2 fouls within the first 14 minutes, at which point he'd invariably be benched. Then in the 2nd half there's a good chance he picks up foul #3 within the first 7 minutes. At that point, good chance he's benched again.
Sure, if you kept him in on average he'd manage to get to 30 minutes without fouling out, but we all know that's not how it works.
And if you look at his game logs from last season, in games he managed to stay out of foul trouble he played good minutes. 34 minutes vs NW, just 3 fouls. 31 minutes vs OSU, just 2 fouls. 28 vs Maryland, just 3 fouls. But his average gets pulled down by games where he didn't stay out of foul trouble. 4 fouls in just 9 minutes vs. Bama. 3 fouls in 15 minutes vs. Minnesota (a game he started). 16 minutes vs. Oregon. Fouled out in 19 minutes vs. Mizzou.
Probably true, which is why I think it was great that the staff committed to making him a starter next season (according to insiders) and was bummed that this was not enough to keep him here. I think Morez is a good player who will only get better. I also think his excessive fouling last season led to him not getting as many minutes as people would have liked. These things are not mutually exclusive.
Joel Goodson
- how was I to know, she was with the Russians too?
I wholeheartedly agree that he fouled too often and often in the same way. He leaned in to contest at the basket, and he got exploited. He also was a great rebounder and had a feel for cleaning up after our misses and scoring.
This is all from a freshman. He was the anti-venom to a three point happy offense that wasn't good at shooting threes. To say he didn't also have his flaws is just silly. My original point still stands that he deserved more time earlier in the season. When Ben didn't hit threes he was a liability on both sides most of the season.
Disclaimers:
I'm 100% onboard with the Z for Morez trade. He's a better all around player and covers some of what we lose with Morez leaving.
Ben made adjustments and got better at his weaknesses, even if he underperformed expectations from three.
I think most people are just mad he left. Had he stayed, we would have been in love with the 6'9 kid from Chicago who averaged 7 and 7 as a freshman.
Looking forward to this season.
My use of 4 fouls was to depict extreme foul trouble. It's not a very concise argument, but I honestly put much more time and effort into that than I even wanted to initially just to make sure I wasn't way off in my thinking.
100% agree with your post.
In an ideal world, you want your 5 best players to also be your best 5-man combination. Sometimes though, like the Knicks, that just doesn't work the best - it's part of what makes basketball beautiful IMO.
Ironically for Morez, I'll be very curious where the UM combos rank. Because their best players also seriously lack the ability to space the floor.
Agree with most of what you say but just one thing on this - I think people are mad at the way he left. There are of course some portion of fans who are always mad when a player leaves but Morez angered a lot of us that don't fall into that category. The things he and his camp said publicly after he left, the trolling on social media, were not OK. It's not just immature - it's designed to make the program look bad and hurt the program with future recruits, particularly recruits from Chicago. After that I think it's fine to root against the guy. In fact, I'd argue it's your duty as an Illini fan. I'd even argue that Morez has done more to deserve the ire of Illini fans than Hunter Dickinson.
- Status