Illini Basketball 2026-2027

#101      
pweo
Ifund braggin rights ticket requests went out this week
 
#103      
NarrowJ
Curbelo Fanboy said:
That is one knock that remains w/ Brad. I admit to being a Brad critic but he shoved it up my keister last March. I would like to see a bit more creativity on those inbound plays. 1 or 2 cheapies per game really can matter. Especially in those high leverage games that we hope to play in late March/early April. It's a bit of a nitpick but with the potential for this season you want to leave no stone unturned.
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Its been far better the last 3 seasons. In building my analytics site, I purchased a subscription to Synergy Sports to help with building out the modeling and metric algorithms. I no longer have access to it (wish I did now with your comment) but Illinois has been top 15 percentile in BLOB and SLOB each of the past 3 seasons. In 2024-25, in particular, we were top 10 in the sport in BLOB/SLOB efficiency.

EDIT: I also seem to recall a reporter last year (or maybe year before) asking him about how the SLOB/BLOB plays have not been good, and he replied that they've been near the tops in the country in those metrics. If anyone can find that. The data Synergy Sports has aligns with that.
 
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#104      
Curbelo Fanboy
NarrowJ said:
Its been far better the last 3 seasons. In building my analytics site, I purchased a subscription to Synergy Sports to help with building out the modeling and metric algorithms. I no longer have access to it (wish I did now with your comment) but Illinois has been top 15 percentile in BLOB and SLOB each of the past 3 seasons. In 2024-25, in particular, we were top 10 in the sport in BLOB/SLOB efficiency.
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I'd be curious as to how that is defined. Maybe it means scoring at end of that possession cause it seems (and maybe it's just perception) that we virtually never score on the quick hitter type of inbound play. There is also probably some of these repressed memories of games earlier in Brad's tenure where we pissed away games by failing to get the ball inbounds (Maryland at home in particular).
 
#106      
ChiefGritty
NarrowJ said:
I no longer have access to it (wish I did now with your comment) but Illinois has been top 15 percentile in BLOB and SLOB each of the past 3 seasons. In 2024-25, in particular, we were top 10 in the sport in BLOB/SLOB efficiency.

EDIT: I also seem to recall a reporter last year (or maybe year before) asking him about how the SLOB/BLOB plays have not been good, and he replied that they've been near the tops in the country in those metrics. If anyone can find that. The data Synergy Sports has aligns with that.
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Is the metric based on scoring out of those plays, not turning the ball over, what?

I feel like in the Tyler era our inbounds philosophy is a bit like soccer teams that take corner kicks and free kicks short. We feel we have an advantage running half-court offense so we just keep running half court offense. And with our height advantage we can do so with very little risk in terms of just dumping it in to a guy way taller than his defender.

The risk/reward of getting a few quick easy buckets in exchange for a few turnovers doesn't fit our broader strategy.

All of that said, we are going to play faster this year so maybe that tweaks a few things.
 
#108      
NarrowJ
Curbelo Fanboy said:
I'd be curious as to how that is defined. Maybe it means scoring at end of that possession cause it seems (and maybe it's just perception) that we virtually never score on the quick hitter type of inbound play. There is also probably some of these repressed memories of games earlier in Brad's tenure where we pissed away games by failing to get the ball inbounds (Maryland at home in particular).
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ChiefGritty said:
Is the metric based on scoring out of those plays, not turning the ball over, what?

I feel like in the Tyler era our inbounds philosophy is a bit like soccer teams that take corner kicks and free kicks short. We feel we have an advantage running half-court offense so we just keep running half court offense. And with our height advantage we can do so with very little risk in terms of just dumping it in to a guy way taller than his defender.

The risk/reward of getting a few quick easy buckets in exchange for a few turnovers doesn't fit our broader strategy.

All of that said, we are going to play faster this year so maybe that tweaks a few things.
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It was just your basic Points per Possession metric.

I had to pay Synergy about $600 for a one month trial so no chance I resubscribe now to get the exact numbers, but I do clearly recall Brad being annoyed/appalled at the reporter's question I referenced :ROFLMAO: (and he corrected them using the data).

Think there is merit to some availability bias/heuristics here, maybe even compounded by confirmation bias. Our eye test has selective memory and failed plays are obviously more memorable than possessions where we end up scoring. Those out-of-bounds plays where we throw the ball away tend to stick our minds far longer than the X number of successful, routine plays throughout the rest of the game(s).
 
#112      
the juiceman cometh
NarrowJ said:
Think there is merit to some availability bias/heuristics here, maybe even compounded by confirmation bias. Our eye test has selective memory and failed plays are obviously more memorable than possessions where we end up scoring. Those out-of-bounds plays where we throw the ball away tend to stick our minds far longer than the X number of successful, routine plays throughout the rest of the game(s).
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Exactly. I think BLOBs/SLOBs is kind of like injury luck and bad calls from refs where every single fanbase thinks their program is particularly bad. Failures stick out in your memory but the times where they've been successful just fade into background noise.

Kinda like the "man bites dog" theory of news, where a common occurrence (like a dog biting a man) is not newsworthy and does not receive new coverage while a less common occurrence (man biting dog) does, therefore skewing people's estimates on the prevalance of such occurrences. The most common example is how surveys show that people routinely think violent crime is far more prevalent than it actually is, because it gets reported so heavily (since it is in actuality relatively rare and therefore newsworthy).
 
#120      
Curbelo Fanboy
Fly Illini Fly! said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/2108021240128577712

https://twitter.com/x/status/2108022728624095388
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I put a $100 on it at the South Point in Vegas a couple weekends ago. 15/1 odds there for any locals who might be interested. Everywhere else was 12/1 or 13/1. IF they win of course I have to fly back out there to collect. That'd be one heck of a celebration should it come to pass. My normal pessimistic self has extreme optimism for this season. I have a weird feeling it's gonna happen this year.
 
#121      
Ga65
SkyysNotFalling said:
Great answer by Tomi in that interview about wanting to allow Cam to play whatever defense he wants without him feeling like a liability
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He needs some mean pills. Should be much more of a bully both offensively and defensively. Maybe some of what they feed the Houston players.
 
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