College Sports (Basketball)

#251      
Uihoop2023!
PleaseMakeABowlGame said:
Jaland Lowe played 9 games (in two of those games he played 3 minutes and 8 minutes).

Quaintance played 4 games (in one of them played 7 minutes).

That's the sample size you're using to support your point-per-game loophole.

Quaintance was a 1st round pick. Lowe averaged 17 & 6 in the ACC the season prior.

The only comparable one is Ty here (and he wasn't as significant to our team as Lowe or Quaintance).

Z didn't miss any games.
Tomi only missed 1 High Major game (maybe 2 if we count BAMA).
Andrej missed 2 high major games.
Kylan missed 7 High major games, which is significant, but nothing close to a season ender.
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Come on Quaintance was severely injured late the year before and it was common knowledge that he was not going to be ready to start the year. After tweaking the injury his camp made the decision that he wouldnt play for the rest of the season to not jeopardize his draft status.
 
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#252      
NarrowJ
Fly Illini Fly! said:
Because they were playing hurt. Obviously scaling the production won’t look good if they were playing on one arm or one leg. (and honestly Lowe’s pts/ast numbers aren’t that bad scaled to 30 minutes)

Let’s say it was an Illinois player, and they only played 4-9 games in low minutes while visibly hurt… would you really be willing to criticize their games based off of scaling that small/injured sample?
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Any players playing hurt (debatable anyway) is merely another coaching failure by Pope.

If it were an Illinois player I’d consider factual data exactly as I am in Kentucky’s case.

Pope put together an exorbitantly expensive roster that couldn’t overcome injury setback headlined by an awful shooter (26% threes at Pitt on volume) as a main perimeter option and paid a ton for an already badly injured center. I think that’s far more significant than trying to claim Kentucky played wheelchair basketball all year.
 
#253      
PleaseMakeABowlGame
This was Indy Illini Fan's reporting about Kentucky"s team last offseason:

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#254      
PleaseMakeABowlGame
NarrowJ said:
Pope put together an exorbitantly expensive roster that couldn’t overcome injury setback headlined by an awful shooter (26% threes at Pitt on volume) as a main perimeter option and paid a ton for an already badly injured center. I think that’s far more significant than trying to claim Kentucky played wheelchair basketball all year.
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Poor shooter doesn’t automatically mean not a good player.

Andrej shot 24% from 3 and I’d argue he was our second best player (at worst third).

Lowe averaged 17 & 6 in the ACC. He was a big addition and a big loss.
 
#255      
NarrowJ
PleaseMakeABowlGame said:
Poor shooter doesn’t automatically mean not a good player.

Andrej shot 24% from 3 and I’d argue he was our second best player (at worst third).

Lowe averaged 17 & 6 in the ACC. He was a big addition and a big loss.
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I didn't say he wasn't a good player, but lets be real here: Andrej was a driving force behind Illinois' F4 appearance (.530 eFG%) and Lowe was a poor volume chucker on a 17-15 Pitt team (.396 eFG%).

With all due respect Lowe couldn't hold Andrej's jock.
 
#258      
March2TheArch
RollChief said:
I believe they lost to the National team yesterday and the B team today...

To be fair, they didn't play Thiam or McKenney.

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McCoy and Costello look very good as freshmen in their first competitive games in Michigan unis.

Costello looks like a prototypical Brad forward. Sad he joined the enemy. I know we were recruiting both him and Morillo off the same team.
 
#259      
March2TheArch
March2TheArch said:
McCoy and Costello look very good as freshmen in their first competitive games in Michigan unis.

Costello looks like a prototypical Brad forward. Sad he joined the enemy. I know we were recruiting both him and Morillo off the same team.
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That said…

McCoy’s shot looks horrible - from 3 and FT stripe. People will play a half foot off him until he can prove he can hit’em. And no one was going to replace Yaxel.

Estrella is a major downgrade at the 4 from Morez. Better shooter and that’s about it.

Thiam, assuming minor injury, will be a problem. Skilled 5-man ala Mara.

Michigan does not have a proven secondary ball handler. The team looks clanky without Cadeau.

McKenney is a major upgrade on Nimari.

In summary, a top 5 back court. But definitely behind UConn and Duke.

On the whole, this is a top 10 but not top 5 team. Assuming full health, I would definitely take Florida, Duke, UConn, and us over them.
 
#260      
EmeraldCityIllini
March2TheArch said:
That said…

McCoy’s shot looks horrible - from 3 and FT stripe. People will play a half foot off him until he can prove he can hit’em. And no one was going to replace Yaxel.

Estrella is a major downgrade at the 4 from Morez. Better shooter and that’s about it.

Thiam, assuming minor injury, will be a problem. Skilled 5-man ala Mara.

Michigan does not have a proven secondary ball handler. The team looks clanky without Cadeau.

McKenney is a major upgrade on Nimari.

In summary, a top 5 back court. But definitely behind UConn and Duke.

On the whole, this is a top 10 but not top 5 team. Assuming full health, I would definitely take Florida, Duke, UConn, and us over them.
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I said the same thing last year, so ill be cautious. But McCoy, Thiam, and Estrella is a ROUGH 3 - 5 shooting lineup.
 
#261      
March2TheArch
EmeraldCityIllini said:
I said the same thing last year, so ill be cautious. But McCoy, Thiam, and Estrella is a ROUGH 3 - 5 shooting lineup.
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Cadeau is not a marquee shooter either. He’s streaky. Lot of scoring pressure on McKenney who was dribbling the ball off his foot vs. Lithuania.

Both the Michigan teams struggle to shoot the ball. And they don’t have a cheat code in Mara lobs and Yaxel and Morez checking 1-5 full court while taking no material cardio hit on the offensive end. That was a generational front line that would have bothered UConn 2024 and trounced numerous other recent champs such as Florida, Baylor, Kansas, Virginia. The Brunson teams, UConn 2023/24, and Michigan 2026 are the best title teams since the AD Wildcats.
 
#263      
PepeSilvia
EmeraldCityIllini said:
RJ Luis lol.

I swear. If some of yall got your wish on will Wade being here I think I would have had to give up on Illini hoops and probably all college basketball.
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There is no way this is going to hold up. Honestly probably good for the NCAA in their fight if this kind of ridiculous stuff is getting through along with NFL guys coming back after getting cut in preseason.

The crazier it seems now, makes it more likely they get some help from Washington or it gets escalated into an appellate court(or even supreme court) for a ruling.
 
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