Illini Basketball 2026-2027

#1,077      
NarrowJ
PleaseMakeABowlGame said:
Coleman played 31.5 minutes per game.
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I don't know if we're calling CH a liar here, but he missed 2 or 3 games near the beginning of the 2023-24 season with a knee injury and then played the rest of the season with the bad knee.

illiniguys.com

Coleman Hawkins Continues Playing Through Pain in Illini’s NCAA Tournament Run - IlliniGuys.com

Illinois senior forward Coleman Hawkins says he’s more intensely monitoring an injury situation to his left leg that has hampered most of his 2023-24 season. Matt Stevens, IlliniGuys Staff Writer March 23, 2024 OMAHA, Neb. — During each of the three open locker room sessions of this NCAA...
illiniguys.com illiniguys.com

Paid article, but the relevant quote is: "It felt like (Thursday) I was playing on one leg"
 
#1,078      
PleaseMakeABowlGame
NarrowJ said:
I don't know if we're calling CH a liar here, but he missed 2 or 3 games near the beginning of the 2023-24 season with a knee injury and then played the rest of the season with the bad knee.

illiniguys.com

Coleman Hawkins Continues Playing Through Pain in Illini’s NCAA Tournament Run - IlliniGuys.com

Illinois senior forward Coleman Hawkins says he’s more intensely monitoring an injury situation to his left leg that has hampered most of his 2023-24 season. Matt Stevens, IlliniGuys Staff Writer March 23, 2024 OMAHA, Neb. — During each of the three open locker room sessions of this NCAA...
illiniguys.com illiniguys.com

Paid article, but the relevant quote is: "It felt like (Thursday) I was playing on one leg"
Click to expand...
I’m not calling CH a liar. I’m saying despite playing hurt, he still played 31.5 minutes per game.

Which means, playing hurt has less to do with your minutes than how much the team values you.

About the original point - Andrej not playing 30 minutes a night has more to do with him not being valuable enough to play that amount, than just being hurt.

We couldn’t play Kylan and Andrej together, because they were two subpar shooters. Tough decisions had to be made with different lineups.
 
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#1,081      
NarrowJ
PleaseMakeABowlGame said:
I’m not calling CH a liar. I’m saying despite playing hurt, he still played 31.5 minutes per game.

Which means, playing hurt has less to do with your minutes than how much the team values you.

About the original point - Andrej not playing 30 minutes a night has more to do with him not being valuable enough to play that amount, than just being hurt.

We couldn’t play Kylan and Andrej together, because they were two subpar shooters. Tough decisions had to be made with different lineups.
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Eh... 2 different guys with possibly 2 different injuries (or varying severity).

Boswell averaged 30.0 mpg and Andrej 26.3 so of course they played together. They were in the starting lineup together for 20+ games and according to on/off data our 3 most used lineups included both players. So I think you are wrong.
 
#1,082      
Rap47
Fly Illini Fly! said:
I'll be honest: the ONLY thing that's holding me back with Vaaks, is his lack of ability to get to the rim. He only attempted 2.1 shots per game at the rim last year.

For context, Keaton was at 3.9. Kylan was at 3.7. Kasparas was at 3.4.

.....

He also only attempted 3.9 twos per game.

Every starter on our team last year minus Tomislav, was above 5.0. In 2025, 4/5 starters were above 5.0 as well (with Tre White at 4.8).

.....

His 51.7% 2pt percentage will improve, I have no doubts. Quite literally every transfer we've gotten has improved their 2pt% after arriving here.

It's the ability to not be purely perimeter oriented, and get downhill for more of those opportunities, that I think he needs to work on.
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Do you have a stat on how many at the rim Keaton made?
 
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