Illini Basketball 2026-2027

#1      

Dan

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

Tickets Info | Schedule


Newcomer First Look Series by IlliniMBB
Ethan Brown
Quentin Coleman
Lincoln Williams
Stefan Vaaks
Landon Davis
Lucas Morillo
Zavier Zens



Illini Basketball 2026-2027
DateOpponentTime/TV
Sat, Oct 17at Cincinnati
(Exhibition Game)
Fri, Oct 23Baylor
(Exhibition Game)
Wed, Oct 28UIC
(Exhibition Game)
Mon, Nov 2Fairleigh Dickinson
Thu, Nov 5Penn
Tue, Nov 10at Texas Tech
Fri, Nov 13Sam Houston
Tue, Nov 17at Duke
Fri, Nov 20Eastern Illinois
Mon, Nov 23Winthrop
Fri, Nov 27Western Kentucky
Fri, Dec 4UConn
(Chicago)
Sun, Dec 20Missouri
(St. Louis)
Tue, Dec 29Seattle
Sat, Jan 30North Carolina
(Nashville)


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

illini-basketball-2026.jpg

[Via]
Landon Davis, Zavier Zens, Lincoln Williams, Ethan Brown, Lucas Morillo, Quentin Coleman, Stefan Vaaks
Not pictured: Quentin McCoy


Last year
Big Ten schedule was released on September 18th
Time & TV info was released on October 7th
 
#7      
thefalcon5
Truly the most anticipated season since 04 right?

Believe that team opened at 5th in the ap. This team most likely matches that if not a spot or two ahead. Duke/florida will surely be ahead of us but I’m not sure Arizona, UConn, or Texas have enough hype to leap us.

We’ve got question marks and the Mirk injury is a black eye (on the preseason), but it’s really hard to believe this team doesn’t remain in the top 10 most if not all season long. Too much proven, retained talent, too much incoming talent, and too much depth to not be excited.

Truly, I believe the only hurdle we have to being a national championship favorite is defense. Of course I’ve seen zero game D out of this current group, but I trust Brad and cam to get us to be top 30ish in defensive efficiency. That’s good enough when you have an elite offense.
 
#8      
NarrowJ
thefalcon5 said:
Truly the most anticipated season since 04 right?

Believe that team opened at 5th in the ap. This team most likely matches that if not a spot or two ahead. Duke/florida will surely be ahead of us but I’m not sure Arizona, UConn, or Texas have enough hype to leap us.

We’ve got question marks and the Mirk injury is a black eye (on the preseason), but it’s really hard to believe this team doesn’t remain in the top 10 most if not all season long. Too much proven, retained talent, too much incoming talent, and too much depth to not be excited.

Truly, I believe the only hurdle we have to being a national championship favorite is defense. Of course I’ve seen zero game D out of this current group, but I trust Brad and cam to get us to be top 30ish in defensive efficiency. That’s good enough when you have an elite offense.
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I think on September 1, everybody has question marks, so I'm not necessarily sad that we do.

Duke is deep, but is a collection of 'good' players... they're living "Life After Star Dominance" post-Flagg/Boozer. We'll see if someone like Sarr emerges, but right now they do not have a top 10 pick type of player on their roster. Lot of youth there as well (though that's never stopped them before).

Florida's backcourt is now a question mark again with no Lee or Aberdeen. I think they have a couple guys who could step into a secondary guard role, will have to see. They shot an absolutely putrid .301 from three point range as a team last season, and added no shooting in the offseason.

As to being the national championship favorite, its been 20 years since the preseason #1 cut down the nets. Much of what we think is the current top 10 will be greatly rearranged, if not different altogether, come March.
 
#10      
PleaseMakeABowlGame
NarrowJ said:
Duke is deep, but is a collection of 'good' players... they're living "Life After Star Dominance" post-Flagg/Boozer. We'll see if someone like Sarr emerges, but right now they do not have a top 10 pick type of player on their roster. Lot of youth there as well (though that's never stopped them before).
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This feels like an unfair critique.

If Blackwell had come to Illinois, pretty sure you would’ve labeled him “great” instead of “good,” because he would’ve been our best player.

But because he went to Duke, he won’t be. Why? Because they have a lot of great players, but they all need bites at the apple, and so one guy can’t emerge with stats (like Boozer). Therefore, they’re as a whole downgraded to “good.”

2015 Kentucky’s leading scorer averaged 11.0 points. They had a lot of great players, but one guy couldn’t emerge with stats. That’s exactly what’s happening with your logic here.
 
#11      
NarrowJ
PleaseMakeABowlGame said:
This feels like an unfair critique.

If Blackwell had come to Illinois, pretty sure you would’ve labeled him “great” instead of “good,” because he would’ve been our best player.

But because he went to Duke, he won’t be. Why? Because they have a lot of great players, but they all need bites at the apple, and so one guy can’t emerge with stats (like Boozer). Therefore, they’re as a whole downgraded to “good.”

2015 Kentucky’s leading scorer averaged 11.0 points. They had a lot of great players, but one guy couldn’t emerge with stats. That’s exactly what’s happening with your logic here.
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Blackwell was the 2nd leading scorer on what I'll call an 'above average' team. He isn't a great defender, he isn't a playmaker. He can score at all 3 levels and that's what he is good at. Torvik has him as basically their 6th man, so my opinion is in line with that.

I also don't think he would have been our best player (that's David).

Wasn't meaning 'one guy emerge with stats' at all, not my point. My point is they have 12 guys who are all pretty good but none of them are stars. We had this discussion the other day where I felt like you conflated 'star' with 'scoring points'. The 2015 Kentucky team had 4 guys drafted in the first 13 picks, Duke might not even have one guy drafted in the top 13.
 
#12      
PleaseMakeABowlGame
NarrowJ said:
Blackwell was the 2nd leading scorer on what I'll call an 'above average' team. He isn't a great defender, he isn't a playmaker. He can score at all 3 levels and that's what he is good at. Torvik has him as basically their 6th man, so my opinion is in line with that.

I also don't think he would have been our best player (that's David).
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Blackwell was 3rd team All BIG. Mirkovic was honorable mention.
NarrowJ said:
Wasn't meaning 'one guy emerge with stats' at all, not my point. My point is they have 12 guys who are all pretty good but none of them are stars. We had this discussion the other day where I felt like you conflated 'star' with 'scoring points'. The 2015 Kentucky team had 4 guys drafted in the first 13 picks, Duke might not even have one guy drafted in the top 13.
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This mock draft by bleacher report has Duke with the #7 pick and #15 pick.


That’s also ignoring JBB, who’s the consensus favorite to go #1 in 2028.

NBA talent is not an issue for Duke.

- - -

You mentioned them being “young.” Their not. 6 of their top 10 are above 20 years old and not freshman.

Duke is by far the most bulletproof roster. Florida’s team has way more question marks. They lack depth, and their outside shooting is awful.
 
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#14      
PepeSilvia
NarrowJ said:
Blackwell was the 2nd leading scorer on what I'll call an 'above average' team. He isn't a great defender, he isn't a playmaker. He can score at all 3 levels and that's what he is good at. Torvik has him as basically their 6th man, so my opinion is in line with that.

I also don't think he would have been our best player (that's David).

Wasn't meaning 'one guy emerge with stats' at all, not my point. My point is they have 12 guys who are all pretty good but none of them are stars. We had this discussion the other day where I felt like you conflated 'star' with 'scoring points'. The 2015 Kentucky team had 4 guys drafted in the first 13 picks, Duke might not even have one guy drafted in the top 13.
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You could make an argument that the 2024 team is the best recent Illini team and they barely had a guy drafted in the 1st round.

2021 didn't have anyone picked in the 1st.

2025 had two first round picks.

Not having a bunch of high draft picks doesn't mean you can't be a fantastic college team.
 
#16      
OB positive
PleaseMakeABowlGame said:
Blackwell was 3rd team All BIG. Mirkovic was honorable mention.

This mock draft by bleacher report has Duke with the #7 pick and #15 pick.


That’s also ignoring JBB, who’s the consensus favorite to go #1 in 2028.

NBA talent is not an issue for Duke.

- - -

You mentioned them being “young.” Their not. 6 of their top 10 are above 20 years old and not freshman.

Duke is by far the most bulletproof roster. Florida’s team has way more question marks. They lack depth, and their outside shooting is awful.
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I don't know where you are getting that from. This is Dukes least impressive roster of the last three years. No way to argue that. especially with no obvious alpha top 5 lottery pick. No Cooper or Boozer to save them in close games.
 
#17      
NarrowJ
PleaseMakeABowlGame said:
Blackwell was 3rd team All BIG. Mirkovic was honorable mention.
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Cool. But one of them was the 2nd best player on a blah team, the other was the 2nd best player on a Final Four team.

PleaseMakeABowlGame said:
NBA talent is not an issue for Duke.
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Not in general, but you chose the mock that has them the highest. I found mocks that have no Duke players in the lottery. In fact, a mock I found on Bleacher Report has only one Duke player (Bryson Howard) in the top 25 picks AT ALL.

PleaseMakeABowlGame said:
You mentioned them being “young.” Their not. 6 of their top 10 are above 20 years old and not freshman.
Click to expand...

Duke has an average experience of 1.43 years and half their team are freshmen. Only 3 upperclassmen in the rotation.

PleaseMakeABowlGame said:
Duke is by far the most bulletproof roster. Florida’s team has way more question marks. They lack depth, and their outside shooting is awful.
Click to expand...

If you mean 'high floor' by bulletproof, yes for sure (also agree on Florida having more question marks: guards, 3 point shooting)

PepeSilvia said:
You could make an argument that the 2024 team is the best recent Illini team and they barely had a guy drafted in the 1st round.

2021 didn't have anyone picked in the 1st.

2025 had two first round picks.

Not having a bunch of high draft picks doesn't mean you can't be a fantastic college team.
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Totally agree. They'll be really good. Illinois is ranked between 1st and 4th in most of the rankings I've seen this coming year, but nobody translates super well to the next level. My point was they don't have an elite top 10 pick type of guy, let alone a Flagg/Cam Boozer level player, unless one emerges this season (Sarr could really take a jump offensively, imo).

This was my initial comment (don't think I ever came close to making the claim that they 'can't be good'):

NarrowJ said:
...they're living "Life After Star Dominance" post-Flagg/Boozer. We'll see if someone like Sarr emerges, but right now they do not have a top 10 pick type of player on their roster. Lot of youth there as well (though that's never stopped them before).
Click to expand...
 
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#18      
HoopsterMan
NarrowJ said:
Blackwell was the 2nd leading scorer on what I'll call an 'above average' team. He isn't a great defender, he isn't a playmaker. He can score at all 3 levels and that's what he is good at. Torvik has him as basically their 6th man, so my opinion is in line with that.

I also don't think he would have been our best player (that's David).

Wasn't meaning 'one guy emerge with stats' at all, not my point. My point is they have 12 guys who are all pretty good but none of them are stars. We had this discussion the other day where I felt like you conflated 'star' with 'scoring points'. The 2015 Kentucky team had 4 guys drafted in the first 13 picks, Duke might not even have one guy drafted in the top 13.
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I lean your way on Duke. Their depth is being talked about, but Scheyer has never gone more than 7-8 deep. Playing with depth is a strategy in of itself. The last time he had a team full of "good" player was 2023, with Filipowski, McCain, Roach, Mitchell, Proctor, they went 27-9.

Running your offense through a NPOY stud is a lot different than what he has coming in this year.

Blackwell is not what they are used to, as he's not an NBA talent with a physical advantage. We should remember he played alongside Nick Boyd, who drew a ton of attention.

It's a fairly flawed roster - Sarr is a great defender, lacks offense. I personally think Ngongba is overrated, oft hurt, was fed a ton by a double teamed Boozer.

Tend to think that their upside goes only as far as these two freshman four, who are mocked as 1 in 2028 and somewhere mid first. I've seen some Cam Williams - he tends to be a slight, finesse jump shooting 4.

They feel soft to me, as Duke tends to. Boozer brought a lot of their toughness. They'll have some seniority this year with Foster, Blackwell and Ngongba all upperclassmen. That's a new look for them. I'm not a big believer in Foster.

This Illinois squad, if Vaaks can play PG at a high level and Coleman rises, is as good as anyone.

Right now most preseasons poll have us 3-4 with UConn, which is fair. I think UConn will be very good, especially if Khamenia can take on the Karaban role successfully. I'm not sure what to think of him - him and Mullins are the highest ranked kids of last years stud freshman class. He's exactly the type of profile I feel Scheyer doensn't know what to do with, that Hurley will squeeze every drop out of.

Next group is Texas, MSU and AZ. I could see Miller being the best of the three.
 
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#19      
NarrowJ
HoopsterMan said:
I lean your way on Duke. Their depth is being talked about, but Scheyer has never gone more than 7-8 deep. Playing with depth is a strategy in of itself. The last time he had a team full of "good" player was 2023, with Filipowski, McCain, Roach, Mitchell, Proctor, they went 27-9.

Running your offense through a NPOY stud is a lot different than what he has coming in this year.

Blackwell is not what they are used to, as he's not an NBA talent with a physical advantage. We should remember he played alongside Nick Boyd, who drew a ton of attention.

It's a fairly flawed roster - Sarr is a great defender, lacks offense. I personally think Ngongba is overrated, oft hurt, was fed a ton by a double teamed Boozer.

Tend to think that their upside goes only as far as these two freshman four, who are mocked as 1 in 2028 and somewhere mid first. I've seen some Cam Williams - he tends to be a slight, finesse jump shooting 4.

They feel soft to me, as Duke tends to. Boozer brought a lot of their toughness. They'll have some seniority this year with Foster, Blackwell and Ngongba all upperclassmen. That's a new look for them. I'm not a big believer in Foster.

This Illinois squad, if Vaaks can play PG at a high level and Coleman rises, is as good as anyone.

Right now most preseasons poll have us 3-4 with UConn, which is fair. I think UConn will be very good, especially if Khamenia can take on the Karaban role successfully. I'm not sure what to think of him - him and Mullins are the highest ranked kids of last years stud freshman class. He's exactly the type of profile I feel Scheyer doensn't know what to do with, that Hurley will squeeze every drop out of.

Next group is Texas, MSU and AZ. I could see Miller being the best of the three.
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Right, and we don't have to defend Duke a ton here because I wasn't saying they will not be extremely good.

The point was just 'every team has question marks' and I tend to think they have a similar question mark as Illinois where they just don't have an obvious top 5 player.

You can be a great team without one, its just a question, that's all. Can this Florida team be great despite the poor shooting? Of course, but it's just a question.

There's also a lot of youth there with Duke and 6 freshmen and when you only return 29% of your production, that's also a question mark I suppose. There's talent, but what will it accomplish?
 
#20      
HoopsterMan
NarrowJ said:
Right, and we don't have to defend Duke a ton here because I wasn't saying they will not be extremely good.

The point was just 'every team has question marks' and I tend to think they have a similar question mark as Illinois where they just don't have an obvious top 5 player.

You can be a great team without one, its just a question, that's all. Can this Florida team be great despite the poor shooting? Of course, but it's just a question.

There's also a lot of youth there with Duke and 6 freshmen and when you only return 29% of your production, that's also a question mark I suppose. There's talent, but what will it accomplish?
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Being a great team with the sum of all parts is a lot different than what he's been running the past two years, where he's effectively been running his power forward as the point, and as the leading passer. That's a big adjustment and I'm not sure I'm a believer in Scheyer there.

The reason they're losing so much production is because they were so dependent on Boozer, Flagg the year before. They lost Evans as well, but I tend to think he's a wash with Blackwell. To me, this team is last years team without Boozer (that's a big without). That's why I think these two freshmen four are going to determine just how good they can be.

As good as that UF frontcourt is, that 2025 champ won with a really strong backcourt. Last year they had a mediocre OOC, then built all their 1 seed equity in a soft SEC, then got bumped in the round of 32 by a really soft Iowa team. They are no slam dunk.

Uconn has another manchild at center. He won't be as refined as Reed was, but he's a beast. They also have a freshman 3 that played with Coleman in U18 that looks different. Him and Quentin were the two best players on that team. He had a full scholly to play WR at Bama and is built like a dude. I could see us squaring up again with them deep this year. Illinois - UConn in the NC, best place for revenge on those bastages.
 
#21      
HoopsterMan
NarrowJ said:
Cool. But one of them was the 2nd best player on a blah team, the other was the 2nd best player on a Final Four team.



Not in general, but you chose the mock that has them the highest. I found mocks that have no Duke players in the lottery. In fact, a mock I found on Bleacher Report has only one Duke player (Bryson Howard) in the top 25 picks AT ALL.



Duke has an average experience of 1.43 years and half their team are freshmen. Only 3 upperclassmen in the rotation.



If you mean 'high floor' by bulletproof, yes for sure (also agree on Florida having more question marks: guards, 3 point shooting)



Totally agree. They'll be really good. Illinois is ranked between 1st and 4th in most of the rankings I've seen this coming year, but nobody translates super well to the next level. My point was they don't have an elite top 10 pick type of guy, let alone a Flagg/Cam Boozer level player, unless one emerges this season (Sarr could really take a jump offensively, imo).

This was my initial comment (don't think I ever came close to making the claim that they 'can't be good'):
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It's hard to be bullet proof without a top defense, as there are just days that shots don't fall. Defense is a constant. Michigan last year had a bullet proof roster construction. They couldn't shoot in the final and still won. 2024 UConn had it. To me it starts with rim protection and some ability to shut down the opposing teams best perimeter scorer. Meanwhile, you need a great offense too.

Neither team was preseason 1, but they generaly established best team in the country early and took it right through the finish line.

Duke's defense should be good as they'll be huge on the frontline. They have a very high floor, but a limited ceiling unless Williams or JBB becomes All ACC good.
 
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#22      
March2TheArch
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Had grabbed the tickets on Sunday. Went full send today on the jersey to pair. I know recency bias. But Keaton being our highest draft pick since Deron and similarly leading us to the Final Four... I felt like the jersey would be a long term heirloom of good memories.

And it's going to be surreal to see the past (Keaton 25'-26') and the future (Illini 26'-'27) in a span of weeks! You can bet your backside I'll be getting ROI rocking the new jersey both times!

I-L-L

1788317567938.png
 
#23      
PleaseMakeABowlGame
NarrowJ said:
Cool. But one of them was the 2nd best player on a blah team, the other was the 2nd best player on a Final Four team.
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Statistically, Blackwell was the better player (pretty clearly).

Wisconsin wasn't a "blah team." They had a top 10 offense. They had the best collection of wins in the country (including 2-0 against Illinois).

Boyd & Blackwell was the best Big Ten backcourt in the last decade.
NarrowJ said:
Not in general, but you chose the mock that has them the highest. I found mocks that have no Duke players in the lottery. In fact, a mock I found on Bleacher Report has only one Duke player (Bryson Howard) in the top 25 picks AT ALL.
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Timing matters.

Latest Wasserman article had Howard at 10 and Ngomba at 13:


Latest ESPN article had Williams at 10:


You said Duke won't have anyone in the top 13. I think its very likely one of them ends up there.
NarrowJ said:
Duke has an average experience of 1.43 years and half their team are freshmen. Only 3 upperclassmen in the rotation.
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Right, but of the top 10 rotation, only 4 are freshman. That's good enough for it to not be a problem.

Callipari's last KY team had 8 of the 10 who were freshman.
NarrowJ said:
If you mean 'high floor' by bulletproof, yes for sure (also agree on Florida having more question marks: guards, 3 point shooting)
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Higher floor and higher ceiling. Duke is better offensively, better defensively, has more depth and talent (which is essentially all we judge in the preseason).

Florida has no business being ahead of them. But they will be because they're the more "likeable" brand and Duke is the monopoly / blueblood. It's more "fun" to have them at #1. Kind of like the NBA mvp award when a guy wins it multiple times in a row.
 
#24      
RollChief
HoopsterMan said:
Next group is Texas, MSU and AZ. I could see Miller being the best of the three.
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I hate to bet against Izzo but I’m really not sold on MSU. There front court is so good but I’m not sold on Bonke and Ethan Taylor didn’t look good at all in the U18 tournament. It seems like they have a very big question mark in their front court
 
#25      
NarrowJ
PleaseMakeABowlGame said:
Statistically, Blackwell was the better player (pretty clearly).

Wisconsin wasn't a "blah team." They had a top 10 offense. They had the best collection of wins in the country (including 2-0 against Illinois).

Boyd & Blackwell was the best Big Ten backcourt in the last decade.

Timing matters.

Latest Wasserman article had Howard at 10 and Ngomba at 13:


Latest ESPN article had Williams at 10:


You said Duke won't have anyone in the top 13. I think its very likely one of them ends up there.

Right, but of the top 10 rotation, only 4 are freshman. That's good enough for it to not be a problem.

Callipari's last KY team had 8 of the 10 who were freshman.

Higher floor and higher ceiling. Duke is better offensively, better defensively, has more depth and talent (which is essentially all we judge in the preseason).

Florida has no business being ahead of them. But they will be because they're the more "likeable" brand and Duke is the monopoly / blueblood. It's more "fun" to have them at #1. Kind of like the NBA mvp award when a guy wins it multiple times in a row.
Click to expand...

I think Blackwell was better statistically if all you care about is PPG. David averaged more assists and 3 more rebs while playing nearly 5 mins less per game. I've noticed you're pretty casual about things like this as you also wanted to cling to this "Kentucky with 11ppg scorers" while ignoring actually what matters: how good the players are. You also can’t just conveniently block out the vast difference in team success like you’re trying so hard to do either: it matters.

I’ll take the team that returns every player except the weak link (Lee) over the team figuring out how to replace 70% of its production with a good-but-certainly-not-great group of returners, a transfer class ranked outside the top 10, and 6 freshmen.
 
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