Illini Basketball 2026-2027

#1      

Dan

Dan
Admin
Dan
Welcome to the Illini Basketball thread :illinois:

Tickets Info


Reported Non-Conference Games

DateOpponentLocationInfo
Mon, Nov 2Fairleigh DickinsonState Farm CenterLink
Tue, Nov 10at Texas TechUnited Supermarkets Arena (Lubbock, TX)Link
Tue, Nov 17at DukeCameron Indoor Stadium (Durham, NC)Link
Fri, Dec 4UConnUnited Center (Chicago, IL)Link
MissouriEnterprise Center (St. Louis, MO)


IL Big Ten Opponents
Home & Away: Northwestern, Purdue, Wisconsin
Home only: Iowa, Michigan State, Nebraska, Ohio State, Penn State, UCLA, USC
Away only: Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, Rutgers, Washington


IL Returnees
David Mirkovic
Tomislav Ivisic
Zvonimir Ivisic
Jake Davis
Andrej Stojakovic
Jason Jakstys
Blake Fagbemi

IL Newcomers
Ethan Brown
Landon Davis
Lucas Morillo
Zavier Zens
Quentin Coleman
Stefan Vaaks
Lincoln Williams


Last year
Non-conference schedule released on August 18th
Big Ten schedule released on September 18th
Time & TV info released on October 7th
 
#3      
Fly Illini Fly!
1st man: Vaaks
2nd man: Andrej
3rd man: David
4th man: Kooleymon
5th man: Tomislav
6th man: Jake
7th man: Zvonimir
8th man: Morillo
9th man: Lincoln
10th man: Zens
11th man: Brown
12th man: Jason
13th man: Landon
14th man: Fabgemi

projection by minutes played
 
#4      
Brosky
Fly Illini Fly! said:
1st man: Vaaks
2nd man: Andrej
3rd man: David
4th man: Kooleymon
5th man: Tomislav
6th man: Jake
7th man: Zvonimir
8th man: Morillo
9th man: Lincoln
10th man: Zens
11th man: Brown
12th man: Jason
13th man: Landon
14th man: Fabgemi

projection by minutes played
Click to expand...
No Coleman?
 
#8      
WhereDoWeStandWithStorr?
A good baseline for Z next season, is to make as many threes as games played in.

At Arkansas he played in 35 games and made 47 threes (shot 38%).

Last year at Illinois he played in 37 games and made 28 threes (shot 28%).

His shooting slump at the end of the year might have just been the worst I've seen from an Illinois player. Absolutely brutal. You could tell it was in his head.
 
#9      
Fly Illini Fly!
WhereDoWeStandWithStorr? said:
A good baseline for Z next season, is to make as many threes as games played in.

At Arkansas he played in 35 games and made 47 threes (shot 38%).

Last year at Illinois he played in 37 games and made 28 threes (shot 28%).

His shooting slump at the end of the year might have just been the worst I've seen from an Illinois player. Absolutely brutal. You could tell it was in his head.
Click to expand...
Yeah, he finished 2 of his last 31.

Very unsure what was happening.
 
#10      
PleaseMakeABowlGame
Andrej's shooting is a bigger key than Z.

Stojakovic needs to take the 3pt leap Boswell did. Doesn't need to be a good shooter, and likely won't be; just needs to be a respectable one.

Boswell shot 24.5% from deep his first year, and was up to 30.7% last year.

Andrej shot 24.4% last year. Just getting him to 30% would be massive.
 
#12      
NarrowJ
I definitely think Stoj getting to 30 percent is doable

33 percent on more attempts (104) as a freshman at Stanford
32 percent on more attempts (129) being the focal point of defenses at Cal

1781571884376.png



My opinion, of course, but samples are very small and his shot does look funny (not sure how to explain it, but looks like he shoots it from the center of his head).

I'm sure it is something he is focused on as a kid who as we heard really, really wants to play in the NBA.
 
#16      
kmunt09
WhereDoWeStandWithStorr? said:
A good baseline for Z next season, is to make as many threes as games played in.

At Arkansas he played in 35 games and made 47 threes (shot 38%).

Last year at Illinois he played in 37 games and made 28 threes (shot 28%).

His shooting slump at the end of the year might have just been the worst I've seen from an Illinois player. Absolutely brutal. You could tell it was in his head.
Click to expand...
Nice analysis.

Those two corner 3’s he made on a Sunday at Carver Hawkeye Arena are what turned that game in our favor.
 
#20      
rtbritt
NarrowJ said:
I definitely think Stoj getting to 30 percent is doable

33 percent on more attempts (104) as a freshman at Stanford
32 percent on more attempts (129) being the focal point of defenses at Cal

View attachment 50588


My opinion, of course, but samples are very small and his shot does look funny (not sure how to explain it, but looks like he shoots it from the center of his head).

I'm sure it is something he is focused on as a kid who as we heard really, really wants to play in the NBA.
Click to expand...
Someone else said this a few weeks ago, but even just 5 more makes for Andrej from 3 would be over 30% just 25-82 puts him there. So he is a few makes away from being considered respectable.
 
#25      
PleaseMakeABowlGame
WhereDoWeStandWithStorr? said:
Click to expand...
Lucas Morillo.

For all intents and purposes -- I'm counting Andrej as a starter, he was our second best player. It means we return 3 starters and replace Keaton and Boz with Vaaks and Coleman. That's a great starting 5, one of the best in the country (no it's not better than last year; losing too much in the backcourt to make that claim, Wagler was incredible).

We return 2/3 bench guys, but are losing Humrichous. We're bringing in Morillo to plug that void (yes I understand they're different players, but one's out and one's in).

Ben played lots of minutes last year and was very good. He played 22.5 minutes per game.

I think the starters will play more this year as a whole, but you still need Morillo to be able to play 15-18 minutes to truly feel we have a hardcore top 8 (which we need, since we don't have much of a 9th, at least as of yet).
 
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