Illini Basketball 2026-2027

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#76      
NarrowJ
Fly Illini Fly! said:
I don't think it'd be like that because it was apparent Wagler would start over Petro, at least in the 1-2 months leading up to the season.

Keaton came off the bench for exactly zero games last year.

And even before Ty got hurt -- Ben or Mirk were seen as the likely starters at the 4.

So, neither of them were the likeliest starters.
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Lets go back to August 2025-26 Illini thread.

People are talking about Wagler maybe being a good 6th man. There's a Werner update in there talking about Wagler could be the best freshman and push for a 6th man role.

Then, lets go back to when Ty got hurt (June 16, 2025)

People are talking about how Mirk and Ben will have to step up because we just lost a starter at forward. Most everyone still hated Ben at this point (and also there are actually a couple of comments pointing out correctly that Ty was a guard/ballhandler and not a PF).
 
#77      
Fly Illini Fly!
Fly Illini Fly! said:
I don't think it'd be like that because it was apparent Wagler would start over Petro, at least in the 1-2 months leading up to the season.

Keaton came off the bench for exactly zero games last year.
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NarrowJ said:
Lets go back to August 2025-26 Illini thread.

People are talking about Wagler maybe being a good 6th man. There's a Werner update in there talking about Wagler could be the best freshman and push for a 6th man role.
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IlliniInquirer pod on Oct. 4th.

19:23 — Petrovic talk
23:36 — Wagler hype talk


Notable quotes include:

• “Is he gonna start, I don’t know if that’s guaranteed.” (Petrovic)

• “People out there like, ‘Jeremy, Kyle if Petrovic doesn’t start who would it be?’ … The Keaton Wagler hype, the train, has left the station. The secret is out, on Keaton Wagler.”

• “(Wagler) pushing for a starting spot.”

• “Reason for real excitement for what Keaton Wagler can do.”

• overall talking points: 1) dissecting all the different things Underwood and Boswell said about Wagler. 2) lesser expectations for Petrovic than when he first committed; acclimation process, language barrier, but potential to work himself into an Andre Curbelo type.

…..

That, on top of the fact that Petrovic started exactly zero games over Wagler during the season — tells me Keaton had the starting spot locked up in the weeks and months beforehand.
 
#78      
NarrowJ
Fly Illini Fly! said:
IlliniInquirer pod on Oct. 4th.

19:23 — Petrovic talk
23:36 — Wagler hype talk


Notable quotes include:

• “Is he gonna start, I don’t know if that’s guaranteed.” (Petrovic)

• “People out there like, ‘Jeremy, Kyle if Petrovic doesn’t start who would it be?’ … The Keaton Wagler hype, the train, has left the station. The secret is out, on Keaton Wagler.”

• “(Wagler) pushing for a starting spot.”

• “Reason for real excitement for what Keaton Wagler can do.”

• overall talking points: 1) dissecting all the different things Underwood and Boswell said about Wagler. 2) lesser expectations for Petrovic than when he first committed; acclimation process, language barrier, but potential to work himself into an Andre Curbelo type.

…..

That, on top of the fact that Petrovic started exactly zero games over Wagler during the season — tells me Keaton had the starting spot locked up in the weeks and months beforehand.
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This is from October 4th.

October is still 2 months away, and your quotes still don't have Wagler penciled in as a starter.

Proved my point better than I did (appreciate the research, btw).

EDIT: Lets go even further to October 25th - Brad named Keaton as the backup PG to Kylan Boswell in his final preseason press conference
 
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#79      
Kernal12
HoopsterMan said:
I'd say that's playing out as expected.

Why wouldn't it be Coleman? Don't love putting this together with glue and tape, as every CBB team needs a primary ballhandler and leader at the POA. I feel like that is exactly what outdid that 2025 Duke team, which may have been the most talented of this decade 2-5, yet had no PG and looked lost when the heat was on.
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I love Coleman but he seems like more of an off guard ... more scorer/finisher than creator-for-others at this stage of his development. He could eventually grow into a PG role but I didn't see that role watching the U18 games this summer.
 
#80      
Fly Illini Fly!
https://twitter.com/x/status/2087902426061816107

“1. David Mirkovic, Illinois​

In addition to being arguably the sport’s most entertaining personality, Mirkovic is also an incredible talent coming off a monster freshman season. He has a unique skill set offensively, capable of being deployed as a jumbo ballhandler who can create for others, dribble into post-ups and hunt mismatches all over the floor. And buzz out of Champaign is that he has made a massive jump this spring and summer, with Illinois planning to use him as its primary offensive engine at times.”
 
#82      
RollChief
Fly Illini Fly! said:
That, on top of the fact that Petrovic started exactly zero games over Wagler during the season — tells me Keaton had the starting spot locked up in the weeks and months beforehand.
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NarrowJ said:
This is from October 4th.

October is still 2 months away, and your quotes still don't have Wagler penciled in as a starter.

Proved my point better than I did (appreciate the research, btw).

EDIT: Lets go even further to October 25th - Brad named Keaton as the backup PG to Kylan Boswell in his final preseason press conference
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I may be wrong but I think the nail in the Mihailo Petrovic starter coffin and the takeoff of the full-on Keaton Wagler hype train was MP injuring his hamstring during the scrimmage against Florida on Oct. 25, the same day as that press conference. Up until that point, I think it was believed (at least by outsiders) that MP had a really good chance at starting.

I'm not sure how much credence I would put behind this, but Borzello had MP starting at PG throughout the entirety of his preseason rankings, including the AP men's college basketball preseason Top 25 poll breakdown on Oct. 13.
 
#83      
Illini92and96
skyIdub said:
Panic in August?

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I wish we could have learned this two weeks ago. If that were the case the panic could have started in July, thus increasing the total amount of panic.
 
#84      
RabidDawgClassic
Fly Illini Fly! said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/2087902426061816107

“1. David Mirkovic, Illinois​

In addition to being arguably the sport’s most entertaining personality, Mirkovic is also an incredible talent coming off a monster freshman season. He has a unique skill set offensively, capable of being deployed as a jumbo ballhandler who can create for others, dribble into post-ups and hunt mismatches all over the floor. And buzz out of Champaign is that he has made a massive jump this spring and summer, with Illinois planning to use him as its primary offensive engine at times.”
Click to expand...

They forgot to mention one kinda important thing, though. 🤔
 
#85      
PleaseMakeABowlGame
RollChief said:
I may be wrong but I think the nail in the Mihailo Petrovic starter coffin and the takeoff of the full-on Keaton Wagler hype train was MP injuring his hamstring during the scrimmage against Florida on Oct. 25, the same day as that press conference. Up until that point, I think it was believed (at least by outsiders) that MP had a really good chance at starting.

I'm not sure how much credence I would put behind this, but Borzello had MP starting at PG throughout the entirety of his preseason rankings, including the AP men's college basketball preseason Top 25 poll breakdown on Oct. 13.
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I think for the coaching staff it was always Wagler.

For the outsiders, it was Petrovic.
 
#86      
PleaseMakeABowlGame
Fly Illini Fly! said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/2087902426061816107

“1. David Mirkovic, Illinois​

In addition to being arguably the sport’s most entertaining personality, Mirkovic is also an incredible talent coming off a monster freshman season. He has a unique skill set offensively, capable of being deployed as a jumbo ballhandler who can create for others, dribble into post-ups and hunt mismatches all over the floor. And buzz out of Champaign is that he has made a massive jump this spring and summer, with Illinois planning to use him as its primary offensive engine at times.”
Click to expand...
His rankings have been a bit strange.

He left Andrej Stojakovic off the top 10 Small Forwards.

But the weirdest part is that when he first released the top 10 Point Guards, the list had Vaaks at #8. Then he changed it, and Vaaks is nowhere mentioned in the article. Wonder what that was about?
 
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#87      
NarrowJ
PleaseMakeABowlGame said:
I think for the coaching staff it was always Wagler.

For the outsiders, it was Petrovic.
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I just posted video commentary re: an October 25th, 2025 press conference from Brad stating that Keaton would be the backup point guard. Though it was said he'd be backing up Kylan, not Mihailo (though as RollChief says, this was after Mihailo had the injury).
 
#88      
HoopsterMan
PleaseMakeABowlGame said:
His rankings have been a bit strange.

He left Andrej Stojakovic off the top 10 Small Forwards.

But the weirdest part is that when he first released the top 10 Point Guards, the list had Vaaks at #8. Then he changed it, and Vaaks is nowhere mentioned in the article. Wonder what that was about?
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You wonder how much effort the author puts into these, or if they're just pushing these out for content's sake. Jamie Shaw of on3 posted his best sophomore list the other day and he had junior Pat Ngongba on it, then scrubbed it off later.
 
#90      
Ga65
Am curious as to defensive changes for this season.
1. Have had everyone for summer (mostly) to install defensive nuances.
2, have some serious athleticism in Dre, QC, and Lincoln. Could enable some pressure defense ala Houston.
3. With scouting and excellent players any defense will be challenged in BIG. Believe it is important to change the defense throughout the game to keep the offenses off balance.
4. Thinking any guard is going to stay in front of players like Fears isn’t realistic in my opinion. There must be rim protection in the paint. We seemed to do that much better in the tournament.
5. Rebounding solves a lot of shooting problems and may be toughest for us to duplicate from last year. Keaton, Kylan, and Ben were all excellent offensive rebounders. Ben doesn’t have a replacement and Mirk is missing in the short term.

Don’t want to see any close games to lose in OT. When you have them down, stomp on them.
 
#92      
Fly Illini Fly!
#96      
Illini4Christ
His rankings have been a bit strange.

He left Andrej Stojakovic off the top 10 Small Forwards.

But the weirdest part is that when he first released the top 10 Point Guards, the list had Vaaks at #8. Then he changed it, and Vaaks is nowhere mentioned in the article. Wonder what that was about?
Click to expand...


Sharpshot’s recent post on this board must have been read by the author.
 
#97      
PleaseMakeABowlGame
ugottabjoshinme said:
"Keeps him on the court" when he scored 15.8 ppg in the Big East last year and will only get better this year.
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“Keeps him on the court” meaning he'll play no doubt starter minutes.

AJ Storr averaged 16.8 points in the big ten, transferred, and played only 15.7 minutes at Kansas.

Owen Freeman averaged 16.7 points and 6.7 rebounds in the big ten, transferred, and played only 11.9 minutes on an awful Creighton team.

Ian Jackson averaged 11.9 points in the ACC, transferred, and played only 18.3 minutes at St. John's.

I'd be very careful about penciling in huge, immediate impacts from first-year-transfers (compared to returners like Mirkovic and Stojakovic).

Now yes, I WOULD NOT predict Vaaks ends up like one of those examples because of his shooting ability. It’s about skill set (not some mere point total at your previous stop).
 
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#99      
RollChief
PleaseMakeABowlGame said:
Owen Freeman averaged 16.7 points and 6.7 rebounds in the big ten, transferred, and played only 11.9 minutes on an awful Creighton team.
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The Owen Freeman case is a particular one. He was injury-prone at Iowa as a sophomore and tore his meniscus shortly after transferring to Creighton, and missed the entire summer. After that it seems like he never recovered. It looks like he's on a similar trajectory at Auburn. Not disagreeing with your point here but it stinks for him since he showed a ton of promise his Freshman year at Iowa.

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