Joel Goodson
- ties will be resolved
I don't have a big problem with Gard getting COY, but this is funny:
Big Ten All-Conference Awards
Illini_1979
- Oregon
Joel Goodson
- ties will be resolved
That is most definitely not true.
SampsonRelpenk
- Edwardsville, IL
Pretty good consolation prize!
So I guess this goes to show who Brad and Josh see as our true rivals.
Illini in Indiana
- Indiana
It's OK, Katz believed when others didn't. Our Illini are a better team than last year, with a lot of great players. We got some awards and the B10 tourney yet to come.
This team is made to make some noise in the NCAA tourney.
I strongly disagree that we are better than last year.
You take Ayo off of any team and it is NOT better! And Adam Miller??
Really hard to say. Easy to look back on our 1 seed and #2 finish in the AP Poll and feel like we were dominant all year, but at one point I think we were maybe 9-5 and needed Ayo to save our bacon against Ohio and Nebraska.
This year we’ve had so many injuries it’s impossible to fairly evaluate us. Our starting 5 (sans Belo) is in the top 4 of overall efficiency rating with Gonzaga and Arizona, 2 teams on everyone’s short list of national title contenders. What do we look like if we would have had a sophomore leap Belo, shooting close to 30% from 3 with his defense, rapport with Kofi and Plum coming off the bench?
Last years team was great but we sort of went how Ayo and Kofi went. We still go through Kofi but feel like this team has more versatility and more ways to beat you, if not quite the top end star power. Biggest concern to me is the big runs they give up, which seem to be caused by defensive breakdowns due to lack of playing time together. If we can figure out how to minimize those runs we are going to be a very tough out.
We are a very good team this year, but were significantly better last year. I don't think it's really debatable, and I think recency bias skews this discussion quite a bit. For the sake of comparison here's what the Kenpom algorithm thought of us last year:
And here's this year:
It's hard to replace Ayo's production. I like this team's chances to go further than last year's. This team is I think a great success already this year. But last year's team, over the course of the season, was one of the best we've ever seen in the orange and blue, despite the bitter aftertaste of one bad game.
Agree on losing Ayo - however, we seemed to have done OK replacing Miller’s 8.3pts/2.8/0.8ast with Plummer’s 15/2.5/1.1. While those stats don’t reflect the entire picture (defense most notably), most coaches would take that trade all day.
It is what it is at this point, but I'd think Miller this year would have put up a stat line closer to what Plummer had this year than what Miller had last year.
Our advanced metrics are probably also affected by the injuries we have endured. Last years' team was remarkably healthy throughout. Any game we play w/o Kofi is going to drastically affect our efficiency, and we had several.
Based on nothing but my own opinion, I think last year's team had a better best 5 and this years team has a better 1-12. We may not have a higher ceiling, but we are more flexible in what we can do, and more capable of dealing with foul trouble. Maybe that will get us farther... maybe not.
With wayyyyyyy better defense. Plummer is such a liability hopefully we'll be able to shelter him enough to keep his shooting on the floor next few weeks. We're very much in need to get beginning of the year hot from behind the arc. Trent has been in a funk for too long hopefully his shoulder isn't bothering him too much.
That was my point. Can’t argue we didn’t have a better regular season last year because we certainly did, only that this team hasn’t yet reached its ceiling due to injuries/illnesses. Why “are we better” is an unanswerable question IMO.
We lost 4 of the 8 man rotation (have included Belo with Ayo, Ace, and Giorgi because he still isn’t back completely). Do think, however that Kofi has more affect than any other player because he doesn’t have a close replacement on the roster or in the league. If Kofi is back next year we will compete for the championship even though we lose the other 4 starters. If sans Kofi it will be a tough test for the coaches and the team. However that is exactly what WI went thru this year and they certainly recovered. We have all summer to worry and predict those results. Let’s just enjoy this year this year.
Last year we had injury-free Belo, DMW and Giorgi coming off the bench. While we have a longer bench this season I am pretty confident our 1-8 at least was better last season.
As for injuries, I don't doubt that we'd have gelled better if we didn't have the injury problems we did, but at this point it appears to be baked in. If it were simply a matter of Kofi's absence earlier in the season dragging down our efficiency rating you'd see an improvement over time, since Kofi has been back since 1/29 v Northwestern, but to my recollection it's been pretty steady. Maybe someone can correct me if that's wrong.
It’s more the POY and COY. I can see the argument for Gard. I don’t see any statistical argument for Davis over Kofi.
In the context of his $4.3M salary, less than a 5% bonus. Someone should talk to the AD about treating his star employees better!
I highly doubt that Miller ever puts up numbers like Plummer has offensively this year. Just my opinion.
Probably not. But, there’s two sides to the game and Ace was a very, very good defender.