This 9th man stuff is such a nothingburger to me. It blows my mind that it has consumed this much talk in here. I guess we need something to talk about since the remaining 99% of the offseason hit the best case scenario.
Illini Basketball 2026-2027
If he were a 3 & D guy, sure. He's a 3, no D guy and not a good rebounder, passer, or creator. He has one NBA skill. It's the best skill to have in this context, but not enough to get him drafted anywhere near the number he would need to get a contract in the neighborhood of what UK likely shelled out.
Its a recruiting thread, and there is just nothing else to talk about here... It's like complaining about the color of the upholstery in our Lamborghini.
Agreed. The argument for wanting more depth this year shouldn't be that we have less than previous years, but that this year seems like one to put all our chips in for.
Maybe the rumored final addition will put this to rest, or maybe there wasn't enough $ to upgrade any of the depth we have, or maybe no proven reserves were available by the time our roster was settled enough to know what would fit (while I've pointed out that guys have accepted such roles on other teams in the past, I do know that they aren't plentiful).
Well, that's the point. They (Zens) needs to be an upgrade from Petro and on-level with those other guys... just for a playable body in case of necessity.
How likely is that? Fair question to discuss and opinionate, and time will tell.
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#1 - you made the number of threes part of the criteria, not me.
#2 - Why do you think Zens can't register an appearance in 28 games? Like, you do realize most of that is spot minutes and garbage time right?
2021 Co-Hawk played for 10+ minutes in just 6 games, and played less than 5 minutes in 10.
2022 Goode played 10+ in 9 games and less than 5 in 4. But also remember, he was #8 on that team, and basically #7 for the half the season Curbelo was out with injuries. The actual #9 on that team is probably either BBV, Payne, or Melendez who all played a lot less than Goode.
In 2023 Ty Rodgers ended up #7 in minutes. He was a solid part of the rotation. Not sure why we're counting him as the #9thman
2024 DGL got some solid minutes in November against a bunch of Q4s, and then played 10+ minutes exactly three more times, all in blowouts. He had 12 games with less than 5 minutes. (BTW, Freshman DGL was also bad. .395 eFG%, 1:1 assist/turnover ratio, bad defense, box plus/minus of -4.1).
2025 Jake - I agree he is the 9th man that ZZ probably can't replicate. But the flipside of that team was the lack of experience further up the roster. I think I'd happily take the tradeoff of having that experience and proven quality in the 1-8 rotation and being a little weaker on the #9thman
So, with the exception of stepping into the 2nd guy off the bench role like Ty did in 2023, or being 2025 Jake, why do you not think ZZ can be every bit as impactful as those other guys?
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I’m no psychologist
but I think it’s just people trying to sound smart. If all you’ve got to offer is sweeping praise for an offseason that’s resulted in us being ranked between 1 and 4 by every notable publication, that’s nice and all but it doesn’t portray the wanted level of intelligence of a super granular and critical over-think!That guy passed the eye test from a height, explosiveness standpoint, but was completely lost, even in mop up duty. Being lost is what kept Petro off the floor. He got out there and was a chicken with his head cut off.
A lot of what we do is read, react and is pretty cerebral and definitely effort based. If you don't want to find a body to box out and hit the glass....you won't see the floor. He didn't seem overly keen on participating, whatsoever, in the paint. He was 6'10"/6'11" and wanted to park behind the three point line.
I'm not saying, by ANY MEANS, that the kid was dumb, but he shouldn't have been that lost. He wasn't a wide-eyed true freshman. The fact that it came out that his teammates were frustrated enough to bring it up says a lot.
Well it's not that I think he downright can't, but it's up in the air since it's not ALL garbage time.
Freshman DGL (who actually got the least tick amongst the group) played: 6 min against Iowa State. 7 against Wisco. 4 against Nebraska. 4 against OSU.
Those are pretty legitimate minutes considering they were 1) postseason games and 2) close games down to the very end.
Bottom line is you need to be ready to play. If it were that simple then Petro could've achieved that last season.
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28 games seems unlikely to me. We only have 8 or so cupcake games a year, so that would mean he's part of the rotation (albeit not by a ton).
Our roster is quite thin after Morillo. Hard to think we'll have that option.
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Right. He'd be a liability in all aspects other than shooting.
Smart play is to come back and make 6 mil.
What you're not grasping as part of the major issue is that NIL and the portal have changed the ability to get the kind of player you, specifically you, want.
DGL - Transferred out
Ty - Transferred out
Luke - Transferred out
Petro - Transferred out
Booth - Transferred out
Lee - Transferred out
Lieb - Transferred out
Podz - Transferred out
These guys don't want to be the 7th man, much less the 9th man. There are just too many other opportunities out there. Ty and DGL went to the Mountain West to get their minutes. Lee, Podz and Lieb went to mid majors. They want significant minutes.
You want a proven commodity to come in and give you a guaranteed, quality, 8 to 10 minutes. Why come here when you can go somewhere else and start AND get paid more?
Davis came in from Mercer, didn't look like much at first, but he was fine with his role. If he would have sat last year and only got spot minutes, would he be back?
I have news for you. If Morillo and/or ZZ get iced out, they'll transfer out too unless they fully understand that being a rotational guy on the back end would be the role. Given the roster make up, a LOT has to happen for them to crack a rotation. Playing time and money matters. We're in a different world where the players have unlimited options because they can transfer unlimited times.
It seems there is an inverse correlation between the quality of the team and the number of games played by the 9th man.
Here's hoping the 9th man plays in no games this season.
Exactly right. I'm not sure why this has been such a huge topic. If we get to the point where we're hanging on by a thread and the 9th man has to bail us out with critical minutes.....things didn't go as planned for our team in 2026-27.It seems there is an inverse correlation between the quality of the team and the number of games played by the 9th man.
Here's hoping the 9th man plays in no games this season.
P.s....I hope he plays in every game because it'll mean we were up 20 with 3 minutes to go.
This all along...It seems there is an inverse correlation between the quality of the team and the number of games played by the 9th man.
Here's hoping the 9th man plays in no games this season.
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FIFYIt seems there is an inverse correlation between the quality of the team and the number of games played by the 9th man.
Here's hoping the 9th man plays in no Close games this season.
It seems there is an inverse correlation between the quality of the team and the number of games played by the 9th man.
Here's hoping the 9th man plays in no games this season.
Well, in that case bring on the #8thman debate then
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
And in those games he scored 0 (0-1), 2 (1-2), 0 (0-1), and 0 (0-0).
So if the 9th man bar to clear against high major competition is to play 5.25 minutes and score 0.5 points on 25% shooting, I’m pretty confident one of the freshman can provide that.
The reason Petro didn't work out is because he was a high usage guy. He needs the ball in his hands.
LaTulip explained it perfectly on one pod. That type of guy is fine for a 25min role because he'll make mistakes, turnovers, etc... but he'll be able to get it back with 5 assists eventually.
But for a limited minutes role, you need consistency and not volitility.
LaTulip explained it perfectly on one pod. That type of guy is fine for a 25min role because he'll make mistakes, turnovers, etc... but he'll be able to get it back with 5 assists eventually.
But for a limited minutes role, you need consistency and not volitility.
The bar to clear was 28 games played (which is what I responded to).
In order for that to happen, the coach has to trust you to play against good teams (even for a limited sample). All of which are not garbage time minutes.
So this thread boils down to the question:
Over/Under: 27.5 games played for the #9thMan next season.
(jokes aside, that's a pretty decent number.)
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
This conversation was started by you saying you’ve never felt worse about our 9th man than you do this year.
It was then pointed out to you that our 9th man every year except one was a freshman that was rated at or below Zavier Zens, so if you were confident in those freshman, it would make sense to be just as confident in this one.
Then you brought up the bar is appearing in X percent of games and it was pointed out to that the majority of minutes played by our previous 9th men were in garbage time blowouts.
So you pointed to 4 games that one of our 9th men appeared in that were not garbage time. And in those 4 games, the player averaged 5.25 minutes and 0.5 points.
So if the question is:
“How confident are you that Zavier Zens can appear in 80% of games and do at or above nearly nothing with the minutes he plays?”
I’m very confident.
So:
April 17th last year: Andrej Stojakovic enters transfer portal
April 17th this year: Andrej Stojakovic announces his return AND we landed #9thManZens.
April 17th last year: Andrej Stojakovic enters transfer portal
April 17th this year: Andrej Stojakovic announces his return AND we landed #9thManZens.