mattcoldagelli
- The Transfer Portal with Do Not Contact Tag
Early Projection for Next Season
Completely disagree. There's a lot of coaches who would have succeeded if they had Jawun Evans. Illinois doesn't have Jawun Evans, or anyone near his caliber. This is a completely new scenario for BU, and it isn't fair to compare to that season.
Peoria Illini
- Peoria, IL
He shouldn't need a Juwan Evans caliber of player to avoid not playing on Day 1 in the BTT. With the incoming class, TJL, JCL, Finke, Black and Kipper, if we play on Day 1, that's a bad season. Regardless.
mattcoldagelli
- The Transfer Portal with Do Not Contact Tag
This board somehow manages to still surprise me with how reductive it can be.
Let's congratulate Jawun Evans on his induction into the D.J. Cooper Hall of Fame, though.
I don't think we can be much worse defensively than we were to start big ten play this year (ended 35th). I also anticipate the offense taking a sizable leap forward. I'm guessing, but I assume the talent is better than BU's SFA teams, and those teams could fill it up. Even if our players aren't a perfect fit for the offense, I think we are going to have a top 50 offense in this system. Put that together and I predict a floor of 8th, and a ceiling of 3rd, depending on strength of the conference. I'm putting us 5th.
ChazzReinhold
Mom! The Meatloaf!
It doesn't make sense to have high expectations for our team, as we were not good this year and we lost our biggest contributors.
Of course, we're gaining a good recruiting class and a new coach with a very different system, who has won everywhere and scored lots of points everywhere.
So it also isn't unreasonable to hope for overachievement thanks to the major changes our program is seeing now.
I think it's going to be a very fun year, with much more exciting games. We'll have growing pains, but we'll probably have some pretty awesome upsets too. Can't wait to see this team in action.
Of course, we're gaining a good recruiting class and a new coach with a very different system, who has won everywhere and scored lots of points everywhere.
So it also isn't unreasonable to hope for overachievement thanks to the major changes our program is seeing now.
I think it's going to be a very fun year, with much more exciting games. We'll have growing pains, but we'll probably have some pretty awesome upsets too. Can't wait to see this team in action.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
It's nice to be under the radar with a team I truly believe can surpass those expectations. :thumb:
Clickbait article IMHO. Illinois has an excellent recruiting class coming in, some decent players left (It's not like other programs don't lose starting seniors to graduation) and frankly, the new head coach has made a positive impact in the win column everywhere he has been. 10/11 makes almost no sense at all.
It is really quite silly to expect next years team to be better than last years. Finke, Black, Nichols, Lands, Lucas and a bunch of freshmen are not going to be good. I will give Underwood a complete pass on 2018. I hope to see a tournament ready team in 2019. Play the freshmen a bunch and live with the results. I can't wait for the "Underwood....is the seat hot yet" thread to start next year.
Illini1221
Peru,IL
I don't see any reason why this team doesn't make the tourney next year. Our biggest weakness is obviously depth at the 5, but when you run and gun like we are going to do, it shouldn't be as glaring as some people might think. Smaller lineups will work with this system.
Illini1221
Peru,IL
It's also clear that Underwood knows how to work out some early season kinks, which we will have.
Not sure how a 1st round NBA draft pick compares to a someone who never played in it.
Losing Hill & Mav really hurts this team, no matter how you spin it. Couple that your optimism riding on unproven freshman and a brand new offense being established... yeah, I think we're at 10 or 11.
I think we will finish somewhere between 1st and 14th
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I've got to believe that the Illini will finish better than 11th. I'm super excited for the new "Huggins" style of pressing and converting turnovers into points. My thought is that perhaps underutilized athleticism like Kipper and Williams will bridge some of that offensive fire power gap with break away dunks.
You're going to be disappointed, that's not going to happen.
Project us in ending up at 7th place in the B1G next season, hopefully, if not better.
MainelyIllini
- uh, Maine
Or we will go Independent and win our league no matter what!
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northwestern
I think these two are overvalued. They had softer B1G schedules with respect to who they played twice and their out of conference schedule was rough. I'm almost inclined to say Minnesota will take a step back as well. I think Wisconsin should finish higher however. They're one of those programs that just finds a way to get it done.
Our performance will be dictated by defense. Although we lose a lot with Malcolm and Mav offensively, we should be getting more athletic next year which should help on the defensive end. In addition, maybe BU's offensive system can offset what we lose in the seniors production. If that's the case, we can finish from 5th-8th.
I think these two are overvalued. They had softer B1G schedules with respect to who they played twice and their out of conference schedule was rough. I'm almost inclined to say Minnesota will take a step back as well. I think Wisconsin should finish higher however. They're one of those programs that just finds a way to get it done.
Our performance will be dictated by defense. Although we lose a lot with Malcolm and Mav offensively, we should be getting more athletic next year which should help on the defensive end. In addition, maybe BU's offensive system can offset what we lose in the seniors production. If that's the case, we can finish from 5th-8th.
I really hope many of you are right and I'm surprised.
Unfortunately, I think many of you are going to be pretty disappointed.
Unfortunately, I think many of you are going to be pretty disappointed.
Illwinsagain
- Cary, IL
+ 1000