I feel sorry for this team my boys will be out for blood!!! Blood I say!!!! ILL score until you cant feel theloss anymore
Pregame: Illinois vs Long Island, Saturday, November 22nd, 1:00pm CT, B1G+
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120 minutes at the 1-3 spots. Plenty of time for all 4 of them. If all 4 are healthy i don’t expect significant time for Davis or Lee.
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2025-26 NEC Men's Basketball
Preseason Coaches Poll
1. LIU (unanimous)
2. CCSU
3. Stonehill
4. Mercyhurst
5. FDU
6. Chicago State
7. Saint Francis
8. Wagner
9. Le Moyne
10. New Haven
2025-26 NEC Men's Basketball Preseason All-Conference Team
Malachi Davis LIU G 6-4 172 R-Sr
Jamal Fuller LIU G/F 6-5 215 Gr
For reference: LIU Unanimously Named 2025-26 NEC Preseason Men's Basketball Favorite
Preseason Coaches Poll
1. LIU (unanimous)
2. CCSU
3. Stonehill
4. Mercyhurst
5. FDU
6. Chicago State
7. Saint Francis
8. Wagner
9. Le Moyne
10. New Haven
2025-26 NEC Men's Basketball Preseason All-Conference Team
Malachi Davis LIU G 6-4 172 R-Sr
Jamal Fuller LIU G/F 6-5 215 Gr
For reference: LIU Unanimously Named 2025-26 NEC Preseason Men's Basketball Favorite
Preach! LOL
That’s been my point. We can play 9 deep without wearing our players out. We need to utilize our depth.
Lee needs to be in the rotation over Davis. Lee reminds me of Feliz. A guard who can bang.
If only there was a way to combine a 20-21 night with a 13-22 night to get an idea of what we should expect on any given night while understanding there will be some variation.
I'm sorry to say for you, Keaton isn't going anywhere. They love him, and he does what they want most which is rebound, especially offensively, and defend on the perimeter.
I think you're setting yourself up for a lot of anger this year if its Keaton's minutes you're preferring get cut
(Also, given what we've seen with injuries the past 2 years, TSJ, etc. I ain't mad if we got good players waiting in the wings who might not get all the tick they want. That's not a waste of money to me)
I agree as Petro seems to have the gear and gift for creating for others in a way others don't . I look at it as pairing down the 1-3 rotation (120 minutes/game) to AS/Petro/Bos/Wagler and have them all near/around 30 mpg. All 4 get "starter minutes". For a guy that's not played a game in many months, Petro looked great
And as circumstances/injuries dictate....give Lee/Ben some minutes there. Ben should and deserves primary backup minutes at the 4 and even 5 when Z wants to play as soft as he does at times. I think Illini need to go zone much more than they already and plant Tomi/Z in the middle like Purdue/UConn did very well with Edey/Clingan
I guess I don't get the response? The question was(to a different poster), who's minutes would be reduced to get Petrovic more playing time. The options were Boswell, Stojakovic or Wagler. That was the question and the answer is easy. It's Keaton's minutes that would have to be reduced.I'm sorry to say for you, Keaton isn't going anywhere. They love him, and he does what they want most which is rebound, especially offensively, and defend on the perimeter.
I think you're setting yourself up for a lot of anger this year if its Keaton's minutes you're preferring get cut
(Also, given what we've seen with injuries the past 2 years, TSJ, etc. I ain't mad if we got good players waiting in the wings who might not get all the tick they want. That's not a waste of money to me)
This is a team that is completely void of trusted ball handlers outside of Boswell and Petrovic. Our rebounding isn't a pressing issue and while our perimeter defense is important, it's not as important as going on 8 minute scoring droughts, the ball not moving and the offense not running when Boswell is on the bench. The only other player that resembles a competent PG, behind Boswell, is Petrovic. That's just a fact. We saw it.
The other fact that as we sit here today, Wagler is struggling versus better teams. He's a step slow, his decisions with regards to shot selection are questionable.....it's just been a struggle. It's inarguable, but he's a freshman. That's just expected and part of the process.
My point about being a waste of money was if Brad couldn't find minutes for all of them to keep everyone happy and still keep the ship moving ahead and my response was.....he better be able to because, in the days of NIL and every nickel mattering, it needs to be spent wisely. We left ourselves wildly thin in the backcourt. Again, we all knew this going into the season. This shouldn't be a surprise. We also knew that we have an incredibly difficult schedule to begin the season. This isn't ideal for Keaton or any freshman.
Nobody was talking about anyone leaving and if you took it as such, read it again. The discussion was.... who's minutes would be reduced of the three players mentioned and the answer is mindless. It's Wagler's. Boswell, Drej and Tomi are going to get the bulk of the minutes (when healthy).
Nobody on this board is getting mad. The options were A, B and C. Just three.
Edit: I guess there is another option and that would be Petrovic getting spot minutes with nothing else changing. I HIGHLY doubt that's going to happen.
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OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
But the average ignores any context.
I fully admit the season FT % is 76%. No one denies that. But the context is that these are the game by game free throw statistics.
16/24
30/34
16/23 (Texas Tech)
21/24
13/21 (Alabama)
So in the two games against good competition that were competitive, Illinois is 29/44 (65.9%) from the line and has shot below 70% in three of five games.
Statistics without context don’t mean a lot.
No, I get it. Of the 3, I think I’d agree. But you liked the post on the Petro minutes mostly opening from Mirk - so the group of 3, isn’t really what I think we’re looking at (I know it wasn’t your original post - you just responded)
Only 2 high major games with Keaton thus far, in order for us to be our best, we need him to grow, and it’s impossible he won’t have bumps. Although I honestly thought he was totally fine against tech.
So you’re saying some games we shoot better than others. I’m not sure there’s enough data here to prove out what I think you’re really saying, which is that we struggle to make FTs in competitive games?
We made 70% in the TT game (not that bad, come on now) and we literally hit huge FTs with the game on the line to seal the win.
Z likes it
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
Yes, in a sample size of two we struggle with free throws against good comp.
If his spouse likes it, what we think is irrelevant, uh, the second part
TT game doesn’t even qualify as poor free throw shooting imo. Little less percentage wise (75.6 on the season and 69.6 in that game), but not putrid by any means, and also we hit big free throws at the end to finish them off.
He's doing it for "Movember" which is pretty solid of him because, yes, it looks pretty ridiculous
One thing that really makes me think we will be a better free throw shooting team then we have in a couple games so far is with the injuries we've dealt with and so many guys missing alot of practice and games to start season.wait till these guys get in game shape its really hard to make high percentage free throws when your legs aren't under you.i really wouldn't be surprised to see this team shoot above 80% as whole from throw line once our guys get more practice and games under there belt and tbch I think Alabama is the one team in the country you dont want to play when alot of your players have barely practiced or played much yet cause Alabama under oats is going to do 2 things for sure run and shoot alot shoot 3s.I truly believe if we play Bama in March and were healthy we will blow them out.ILL
He apparently likes having shade cover over his two lips. He could show up looking like the Hunchback of Notre Dame and I would still appreciate his knowledge of the game and depth of understanding regarding the strengths and weaknesses of our roster. The man does his homework.
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