Illini Basketball 2026-2027

#701      
EmeraldCityIllini
WhereDoWeStandWithStorr? said:
Last season was different, because Petro and Lee were too unreliable.
Click to expand...

Unreliable and situational are different though.

I’m not sure Petro “was unreliable” as much as “well our best player plays his position and is a top 5 pick”.

The perceived/real dropoff from Keaton to Petro was partly situational. Whereas if you looked at floridas guard spots, would be Petro be as “unreliable” there?

Maybe the answer is yes. But the drop off wouldn’t be nearly as pronounced and the trade off more with it. I don’t think we’d call Petro unreliable during the skyy Clark and Jayden Epps year
 
#703      
Joel Goodson
NarrowJ said:
I think a lot of Petro not living up to the hype had to do with Keaton dominating the available minutes at the only position in which Petrovic could feasibly play. EDIT: Also, Boswell.

Brandon Lee actually got in the game with 12 mins left in the first half of that Wisconsin game everyone keeps referencing (aside: funny we care about one singular game as if Brad is the first coach ever to play 6 guys when two players are out).

When Koa Peat went down for Arizona, 6 players played 93% of the minutes

When Nate Mast went down for Nebraska, 6 players played 95% of the minutes

When Ngongba went down for Duke, 6 players played 94% of the minutes

We had TWO players out, one of them was a last second DNP in warmups (as someone else mentioned).
Click to expand...

stop making sense
 
#705      
Fly Illini Fly!
EmeraldCityIllini said:
Unreliable and situational are different though.

I’m not sure Petro “was unreliable” as much as “well our best player plays his position and is a top 5 pick”.

The perceived/real dropoff from Keaton to Petro was partly situational. Whereas if you looked at floridas guard spots, would be Petro be as “unreliable” there?

Maybe the answer is yes. But the drop off wouldn’t be nearly as pronounced and the trade off more with it. I don’t think we’d call Petro unreliable during the skyy Clark and Jayden Epps year
Click to expand...
As much as it’s “at his position,” the 9th man can’t be a purely on-ball player. Because it means you’re taking the ball out of Keaton’s hands and Kylan’s hands.

It has to be someone who can provide value off the ball, and not clog a ton of usage. Jake Davis is the perfect example (he was a very good 9th man his first year).

Unfortunately, Petro was the exact opposite of that. He needs the ball in his hands, or his value is zero.

Someone like Lincoln Williams or Zens could be more suited for that role, this year. Perhaps neither have Jake’s ability as a shooter, but neither need the on-ball usage and can still impact the game.
 
Last edited:
#706      
Combo
BretMyBeachHouse said:
My point is that while we trust the staff on talent evaluation, we also know that they've recruited guys who aren't up to filling the task of 9th or 10th man. Do they see Brown as only a filler?

Nevertheless, I trust that between those last four guys (I include Morillo) we're going to be fine at 8 and 9.
Click to expand...
Absent, god forbid, serious injury, I'm not worried about our depth. You generally use an 8-man rotation. We're very good 1-7. Morillo is likely to be 8th and he's a top 50 recruit who can contribute at multiple positions. After that, I'm confident we can get a few minutes our of Williams, Brown, JJ, etc.

Now if something happens to one of our top 7 guys, everything changes. I actually think our most crucial guy is Vaaks. He just looks like the perfect PG for what we do offensively. I don't think we have anyone else like that on our roster.
 
#708      
EmeraldCityIllini
Fly Illini Fly! said:
As much as it’s “at his position,” the 9th man can’t be a purely on-ball player. Because it means you’re taking the ball out of Keaton’s hands and Kylan’s hands.

It has to be someone who can provide value off the ball, and not clog a ton of usage. Jake Davis is the perfect example (he was a very good 9th man his first year).

Unfortunately, Petro was the exact opposite of that. He needs the ball in his hands, or his value is zero.

Someone like Lincoln Williams or Zens could be more suited for that role, this year. Perhaps neither have Jake’s ability as a shooter, but neither need the on-ball usage and can still impact the game.
Click to expand...

I think we’re saying the same thing - you can’t take the ball out of their hands because they’re studs, one a mega-stud - that was our situation last year.

If it was Skyy Clark at point guard, or heck even KJ at times of insanity (basic frosh stuff), Petro absolutely could have been brought in onball.
 
#710      
Fly Illini Fly!
PleaseMakeABowlGame said:
It doesn’t make or break a roster, but it does mean we aren’t as deep as that team and other top teams in the big ten (especially when the difference is that severe - one’s a boarderline 5 star guy and the other’s barely ranked top 150).

It also means one team is significantly more equipped to handle injuries, while the other isn’t.
Click to expand...
Combo said:
Absent, god forbid, serious injury, I'm not worried about our depth. You generally use an 8-man rotation. We're very good 1-7. Morillo is likely to be 8th and he's a top 50 recruit who can contribute at multiple positions. After that, I'm confident we can get a few minutes our of Williams, Brown, JJ, etc.

Now if something happens to one of our top 7 guys, everything changes. I actually think our most crucial guy is Vaaks. He just looks like the perfect PG for what we do offensively. I don't think we have anyone else like that on our roster.
Click to expand...
I do think the injury point is valid.

If we get an update that one of Vaaks / QC / Andrej / Mirk has a broken foot and will be out until February… then yes, I would be extremely concerned about our depth.

If it’s a few games in the middle of the year, but nothing too rash, then I’d have much more confidence as we always seem to work through it.

At full strength, we have a legitimate top 8. One of Brown, Zens, Williams should emerge as the low workload 9th man.

…..

I think Vaaks and Andrej are the two most irreplaceable players. Vaaks because of his ball handling — no one else has PG level ball skills. And Andrej because of his two way ability. He’s our best defender, paired with he might be our leading scorer.
 
Last edited:
#711      
NarrowJ
Fly Illini Fly! said:
I do think the injury point is valid.

If we get an update that one of Vaaks / QC / Andrej / Mirk has a broken foot and will be out until February… then yes, I would be extremely concerned about our depth.

If it’s a few games in the middle of the year, but nothing too rash, then I’d have much more confidence as we always seem to work through it.

At full strength, we have a legitimate top 8. One of Brown, Zens, Williams should emerge as the low workload 9th man.

…..

I think Vaaks and Andrej are the two most irreplaceable players. Vaaks because of his ball handling — no one else has PG level ball skills. And Andrej because of his two way ability. He’s our best defender, paired with he might be our leading scorer.
Click to expand...

Any team losing one of its two star players is cooked (as far as being an elite team)

#9th man can’t fix that
 
#712      
Fly Illini Fly!
IMG_1212.jpeg
 
#714      
Fly Illini Fly!
People seem to be all aboard on Vaaks.

When we got him, I figured he’d be a bit underrated nationally, since he’s the “new guy” amongst all these returners… and then would really show out and prove himself.

But there seems to be no hesitation that he is that guy right now.

…..

With transfers, many people put stock into the PLAYER and not the SCHOOL they’re going to. To me it seems Vaaks had the biggest “stock up” of any player in the portal based on where he committed. It’s probably not even close.

If he went to, say, Ohio State… don’t think he’d be talked about the same way he is at Illinois. (for whatever reason that may be — development, recent program success, coaching, etc)
 
Last edited:
#717      
wc_illini
I posted this a month ago- it's a way to see how our past freshman have fared relative to their incoming composite rating. The "Freshman Season Rating" is an average of Torvik's PRPG! and D-PRPG. For an elite team, a starter is 3+, primary reserves are 2+, and much below that is probably garbage time only.

The 0.85-0.97 range was surprisingly uniform (the floor was lower below 0.90, but anything below 0.5-1 wouldn't help us anyway), and in that range 10% were "stars" (Wagler and Mirk), 14% were "bench" players, 14% were "borderline bench" players (9th+ men?), and 62% probably shouldn't see the floor much on a team this good.

Give a bump to guys with defensive contributions that are notoriously hard to capture.

1784221549621.png
 
Last edited:
#724      
NarrowJ
Fly Illini Fly! said:
How does Purdue have a better lead guard?

Freshman Luke Ertel is better than Vaaks? Omar Meyer over Vaaks?

He has the weirdest takes ever.
Click to expand...

I have been so surprised listening to various outlets/analysts who are normally very well informed refer to Vaaks as if he is an off-ball guy
 
Back