Illini Basketball Uniforms

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#52      
Fighter of the Nightman
RE: The navy font, it is also worth noting that the style of the Script for all three colors was to have the darker color used as the font and the lighter color used as the outline. This means navy font/orange outline on the white, navy font/white outline on the orange and orange font/white outline on the navy. Then the neck/sleeve trim is the inverse pattern on each, too.
 
#53      
Illini in Italy
Dan said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1992035637537419488

https://twitter.com/x/status/1992036171535302694
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Happy Jim Carrey GIF
 
#54      
OrangeBlue98
#57      
skyIdub
Illin618 said:
GIVE US A NAVY UNIFORM OR WE RIOT
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Meh, I mean I would support the riot, like hand out sandwiches and water, but the navy doesn’t get me riled up.

I suppose I could make a sign or shout a fun chant or two for the navy FIGHTING ILLINI?
 
#61      
Fighter of the Nightman
I get that it often might not be said with 100% seriousness, but it is nothing short of statistically irresponsible to assign too much "bad luck" to the navy uniform in any era. I understand that we rarely will play with a white uniform on the road or (even more rarely) a navy uniform at home, but for 90%+ of our program's history, it has been the case that we mostly only wear white at home, we mostly only wear navy on the road and orange can function as an alternate in both locations. Neutral site games are small enough in number that they likely wouldn't mess up the pattern.

So, please consider that this is our record since the 2019-20 season by locations...

Overall: 144-63 (.696)
In Champaign: 87-17 (.837)
Away From Champaign: 57-46 (.553)

Our winning percentage away from Champaign is like 35% worse regardless of uniform ... we can't make actual judgments about the luck of the jerseys, lol. The navy uniforms are fighting a losing battle from the word go, and it is entirely unfair and unreasonable to decide we shouldn't have a uniform in one of our main colors because playing on the road is going to inherently garner more losses, lol. We are not Tennessee, and we shouldn't have only a white and orange uniform!
 
#62      
OrangeBlue98
eas23 said:
The scripts are AN identity and they're obviously better than the 1's, but my unpopular opinion is that they have an elevated reputation from a purely aesthetic perspective simply by not being the 1's. My long term preference would still be a complete rebrand.
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At least for basketball, the rebrand is simple.
We have two awesome uniforms from past eras that look as good today as they did when originally worn. We do not have to complicate this.

If we really want to rebrand, take your pick of the Illini font on the curved football decals, the script, or the 1980s era basketball uniforms as the base font and go from there. No need to overthink things.
 
#64      
Fighter of the Nightman
RE: Possibly (hopefully!!) getting a navy Script uniform, there are two examples below of the font/outline combo we could use. Unfortunately, an actual color photo of the navy Script uniform used in the 1970s is quite literally impossible to find, so this is the best we can do.

57341645-1.jpg

IL-T-003.png


As seen in the black and white photo below, we did orange font with a white outline for the actual 1970s uniforms:

500px-Kent_Benson_attempts_a_hook_shot_over_Ken_Ferdinand.jpg


Any talented artists able to colorize that last photo?? :ROFLMAO: While I am sure we would stick with the actual look of the orange font/white outline used back then ... I don't know, I kind of think the white font and orange outline might look cooler!
 
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#65      
OrangeBlue98
Fighter of the Nightman said:
RE: Possibly (hopefully!!) getting a navy Script uniform, there are two examples below of the font/outline combo we could use. Unfortunately, an actual color photo of the navy Script uniform used in the 1970s is quite literally impossible to find, so this is the best we can do.

57341645-1.jpg

IL-T-003.png


As seen in the black and white photo below, we did orange font with a white outline for the actual 1970s uniforms:

500px-Kent_Benson_attempts_a_hook_shot_over_Ken_Ferdinand.jpg


While I am sure we would stick with the actual look of the orange font/white outline used back then ... I don't know, I kind of think the white font and orange outline might look cooler!
Click to expand...
In my pipe dream of three colors for both sets, I’d want the navy and orange versions to have alternating lettering and trim. Ideally, that would mean white letters/orange trim for navy scripts and orange letters/white trim on the Flying Illinis since we have the orange uniforms already in place.

But, if we are going to stay true to the most popular versions of the throwbacks, I won’t be overly upset about using the 1989 navy uniform as the base for a navy throwback and using the 1970s color scheme for a navy script uniform. My proposal is solely personal preference to have some variety to the navy and orange uniform sets.
 
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#66      
Fighter of the Nightman
OrangeBlue98 said:
In my pipe dream of three colors for both sets, I’d want the navy and orange versions to have alternating lettering and trim. Ideally, that would mean white letters/orange trim for navy scripts and orange letters/white trim on the Flying Illinis since we have the orange uniforms already in place.

But, if we are going to stay true to the most popular versions of the throwbacks, I won’t be overly upset about using the 1989 navy uniform as the base for a navy throwback and using the 1970s color scheme for a navy script uniform. My proposal is solely personal preference to have some variety to the navy and orange uniform sets.
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I agree with you. I would leave the current/default pattern alone for the white Script, orange Script, white Flyin' Illini and orange Flyin' Illini. However, I would swap what the actual navy Script was to be white lettering and orange outline, and I would elect for the early 1980s navy over the one actually worn by the Flyin' Illini in 1989 (i.e., I would support the navy Flyin' Illini throwback having orange letters with a white outline). Now that we have photos of every single one except for the navy Script, this would be my dream scenario. I must admit that after seeing the orange Script and how well received it was, re-contemplating how prominent either throwback was during this current run of success and realizing how much easier it would be for the DIA to slide the Script font in for the 1LL1NO1S font going forward ... I must admit I have flipped to supporting Script as the "regular" and Flyin' Illini as a "special" or throwback uniform.

Home
MI_20200105_USA_2174.jpg


Away (Don't be blinded by the artistic beauty!!)
Script Away v1.png


Alternate
01kapy1zesd3qaxezxae.jpg


Throwback Home
a77d5b9de7a009c9d6938640ccab5b827644a46672185a808fa52b00265531d0.jpg


Throwback Away (Updated, of course)
1762810209784-png.44806


Throwback Alternate
90


Then just have "common sense" rules apply. We should never wear white on the road or navy at home just because we can ... keep 'em in their lanes, lol. Orange can be worn anywhere, provided the other team doesn't "have" to wear orange or red (let's not repeat that 2004 visual disaster vs. Wisconsin!!), and I would generally say for "big picture" purposes we should never wear navy at the United Center (since it's our Home Away From Home). As an example with our bigger non-conference matchups this year, I would have gone...

White Script vs. Texas Tech
White Flyin' Illini vs. Alabama in Chicago, IL
Orange Flyin' Illini vs. UConn in New York, NY
Navy Script vs. Tennessee in Nashville, TN
Orange Script vs. Missouri in St. Louis, MO (and again, we should both wear one of our colors EVERY single year for this game!)
 
#67      
GrapplingIllini
Fighter of the Nightman said:
500px-Kent_Benson_attempts_a_hook_shot_over_Ken_Ferdinand.jpg


Any talented artists able to colorize that last photo?? :ROFLMAO: While I am sure we would stick with the actual look of the orange font/white outline used back then ... I don't know, I kind of think the white font and orange outline might look cooler!
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With the help of gemini:

f_iu.png

I wasn't able to flip the color of the font and the outline though.
 
#72      
Tophe
Fighter of the Nightman said:
I get that it often might not be said with 100% seriousness, but it is nothing short of statistically irresponsible to assign too much "bad luck" to the navy uniform in any era. I understand that we rarely will play with a white uniform on the road or (even more rarely) a navy uniform at home, but for 90%+ of our program's history, it has been the case that we mostly only wear white at home, we mostly only wear navy on the road and orange can function as an alternate in both locations. Neutral site games are small enough in number that they likely wouldn't mess up the pattern.

So, please consider that this is our record since the 2019-20 season by locations...

Overall: 144-63 (.696)
In Champaign: 87-17 (.837)
Away From Champaign: 57-46 (.553)

Our winning percentage away from Champaign is like 35% worse regardless of uniform ... we can't make actual judgments about the luck of the jerseys, lol. The navy uniforms are fighting a losing battle from the word go, and it is entirely unfair and unreasonable to decide we shouldn't have a uniform in one of our main colors because playing on the road is going to inherently garner more losses, lol. We are not Tennessee, and we shouldn't have only a white and orange uniform!
Click to expand...

Our record Away from Champaign and Not in Blue Uniforms is 54-37 (.593)
Our record Away from Champaign and in Blue Uniforms is 3-9 (.250)
Is this statistically significant? It's been too long since I took stats and I've forgotten how to do a T test, but I'm pretty sure it isn't.
But let me ask, if our record in blue was 9-3 how many of y'all would be demanding we wear blue every road game?

Do I think the blue uniforms look good? Yes
Do I think they ones we've worn are "jinxed"? Yes (not 100% serious, but...)
Do I think new uniforms with script would be jinxed too? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
#73      
Fighter of the Nightman
Tophe said:
Our record Away from Champaign and Not in Blue Uniforms is 54-37 (.593)
Our record Away from Champaign and in Blue Uniforms is 3-9 (.250)
Is this statistically significant? It's been too long since I took stats and I've forgotten how to do a T test, but I'm pretty sure it isn't.
But let me ask, if our record in blue was 9-3 how many of y'all would be demanding we wear blue every road game?

Do I think the blue uniforms look good? Yes
Do I think they ones we've worn are "jinxed"? Yes (not 100% serious, but...)
Do I think new uniforms with script would be jinxed too? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Click to expand...
It is worth noting, though, that we very rarely have worn the navy uniforms for neutral site games, which I would argue are inherently easier to win than true away games. Baked into your non-navy uniform record are 7 total BTT wins (including 3-0 sweeps in 2021 and 2024), 3 Braggin' Rights wins and 6 NCAA Tournament victories. 2019-20 was the last time we ACTUALLY seemed to wear all three colors with any sort of regularity, and our results by uniform for away games were:

Regular Orange: 2-0
W at Michigan
W at #9 Penn State

Regular White: 1-0
W at GCU

Orange Flyin' Illini: 2-1
L at #14 Michigan State
W at Purdue
W at Northwestern

Regular Navy: 1-6
L at #21 Arizona
L at #3 Maryland
W at Wisconsin
L at #18 Iowa
L at Rutgers
L at #19 Ohio State

So you are definitely right that the navies had a materially worse record, but they were also worn in WAY tougher games overall. Sure, we got our best road win in the regular orange (at PSU) ... but we got our second best (at Wisconsin) in the navy. I think after we lost vs. top 25 Baylor and Rutgers teams early in the 2020-21 season in the navy uniforms, we pretty much decided they were bad luck, and then it became a self-fulfilling prophecy, haha. The meltdown at PSU in 2024 was their first debut in like over a year, and that pretty much cemented their fate.

And I am fine with a little bit of superstition in sports; I played baseball, after all! However, what kind of annoys me is that we are very clearly willing to give the regular orange uniforms chance after chance after chance without declaring THEM bad luck, but the navy ones are never given another chance to pick up a big win. In the last year and a half, we have worn the regular orange uniforms during the 30-0 run UConn put on us, the embarrassing loss at Nebraska last year, Wisconsin absolutely humiliating us in Madison last year, the jaw-dropping beatdown vs. Maryland in the BTT and finally our season-ending loss to Kentucky in the Second Round ... but they continue to breathe!
 
#75      
Todd99
Fighter of the Nightman said:
It is worth noting, though, that we very rarely have worn the navy uniforms for neutral site games, which I would argue are inherently easier to win than true away games. Baked into your non-navy uniform record are 7 total BTT wins (including 3-0 sweeps in 2021 and 2024), 3 Braggin' Rights wins and 6 NCAA Tournament victories. 2019-20 was the last time we ACTUALLY seemed to wear all three colors with any sort of regularity, and our results by uniform for away games were:

Regular Orange: 2-0
W at Michigan
W at #9 Penn State

Regular White: 1-0
W at GCU

Orange Flyin' Illini: 2-1
L at #14 Michigan State
W at Purdue
W at Northwestern

Regular Navy: 1-6
L at #21 Arizona
L at #3 Maryland
W at Wisconsin
L at #18 Iowa
L at Rutgers
L at #19 Ohio State

So you are definitely right that the navies had a materially worse record, but they were also worn in WAY tougher games overall. Sure, we got our best road win in the regular orange (at PSU) ... but we got our second best (at Wisconsin) in the navy. I think after we lost vs. top 25 Baylor and Rutgers teams early in the 2020-21 season in the navy uniforms, we pretty much decided they were bad luck, and then it became a self-fulfilling prophecy, haha. The meltdown at PSU in 2024 was their first debut in like over a year, and that pretty much cemented their fate.

And I am fine with a little bit of superstition in sports; I played baseball, after all! However, what kind of annoys me is that we are very clearly willing to give the regular orange uniforms chance after chance after chance without declaring THEM bad luck, but the navy ones are never given another chance to pick up a big win. In the last year and a half, we have worn the regular orange uniforms during the 30-0 run UConn put on us, the embarrassing loss at Nebraska last year, Wisconsin absolutely humiliating us in Madison last year, the jaw-dropping beatdown vs. Maryland in the BTT and finally our season-ending loss to Kentucky in the Second Round ... but they continue to breathe!
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So, you’re saying it’s harder to win games, on the road, against good teams regardless of which color jersey we wear?

Duck Dynasty GIF by DefyTV
 
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