Illini Basketball 2026-2027

[Illinicpa14]

My two cents: I think it’s a bit crazy to still not consider us a top 10 or higher team at this point. We’re without 2 starters, but knocking on the door of getting one, a NPOY candidate, back imminently. We were shell-shocked from TTU, but even down these starters who are our best communicators, we still came back to within 1 of a top contending team.

We’ve been playing sloppy, but that’s not indicative of our best or even normal performance. The things we’re struggling with are the easiest to train and fix in practice, but also have seemed more like a mentality thing than anything else. Duke will be tough, but we could still do damage and even win. They’re not a finished product either.

We just need to lock in more and we’ll meet the expectations we started the season with. We’ve had a truly microscopic sample size this far.

Sky is not falling

Of course not - yet half the board does this every year.

Every year we drop 1-2 bad games in November/early December because they’re humans and this isn’t NBA2k that you win every game.

Then Brad and team make adjustments in December and we come out and play great basketball in January/February

 

[wncillini]

Of course not - yet half the board does this every year.

Every year we drop 1-2 bad games in November/early December because they’re humans and this isn’t NBA2k that you win every game.

Then Brad and team make adjustments in December and we come out and play great basketball in January/February

I mean 2 things can be true at the same time.

This team on the court now looks more like a borderline tournament team than a borderline championship team.

Also, there's plenty of reasons to be optimistic the team we see in the tournament will be much improved over what's currently on the court.

Since having everyone ready during summer to make a run at Texas tech, duke, uconn, and Missouri already appears to be an uphill battle, getting them ready for the grinder between mid January through mid February is next.

 

[EmpoweredIllini]

I mean 2 things can be true at the same time.

This team on the court now looks more like a borderline tournament team than a borderline championship team.

Also, there's plenty of reasons to be optimistic the team we see in the tournament will be much improved over what's currently on the court.

Since having everyone ready during summer to make a run at Texas tech, duke, uconn, and Missouri already appears to be an uphill battle, getting them ready for the grinder between mid January through mid February is next.

i would just say team on the court now is missing an all american and another starter, so what do we expect?

but more than that, its won games by 75, 42 and 22 points and losing by 6 to the #16 team on the road in a crazy hostile environment

further, team is rated 6th on kenpom, 9th on torvik and 3rd on evan miya (all adjusted to comp level)

joe lunardi just picked us to win the national championship

the team as it is now (which its way too early to say this, but its also way too early to say borderline tourney team too) profiles as a high seed

and we get to add david and jake to this

 

[lstewart53x3]

I mean 2 things can be true at the same time.

This team on the court now looks more like a borderline tournament team than a borderline championship team.

Also, there's plenty of reasons to be optimistic the team we see in the tournament will be much improved over what's currently on the court.

Since having everyone ready during summer to make a run at Texas tech, duke, uconn, and Missouri already appears to be an uphill battle, getting them ready for the grinder between mid January through mid February is next.

Borderline tournament team is a bit of a stretch. Removing Torvik’s preseason expectations and only looking at this seasons data, we’re still ranked #22. Pretty solidly a tournament team even before two starters return:

 

[SkyysNotFalling]

This season I predict will go a lot like Kofi & Trent’s final year.

For those that remember- Kofi was suspended to begin the season & we started something like 5-4. We played UTRGV and won something like 100-87. We also lost to Cincinnati early and we looked pretty discombobulated.

In March we sealed a B1G title on the last day of the regular season with a win over Iowa.

It’s still really early, our best guy and team leader is out due to injury. We’re playing 4 freshmen big minutes.

The season, and our success, is far far far from finished.

And this team, once it starts to click and guys get back on the floor, will be a national title contender, no doubt.

 

[CleverHandle1]

Any Insider have any info on Mirk's potential return? J. Davis?

 

[SkyysNotFalling]

Also,

If going into the season our rotation was going to be

Brown
Coleman
Stojakovic
Williams
T

Z
Zens
Vaaks

We’d be happy we fought hard to comeback against tech & encouraged by how far along our freshmen are and daydreaming of where we could be by January/Febraury.

Expectations dilutes happiness.

We still got a NPOY candidate on the way.

We’re fine

 

[wc_illini]

Borderline tournament team is a bit of a stretch. Removing Torvik’s preseason expectations and only looking at this seasons data, we’re still ranked #22. Pretty solidly a tournament team even before two starters return:

View attachment 52627

Counterpoint:

The claim was "This team on the court now looks more like a borderline tournament team than a borderline championship team."

At #22, we're definitely in the "Tournament Team" range, but we're ~13pts/100 away from #1 and only ~6pts/100 away from #45.