I also didn't understand that, athleticism is measured in different ways. Bottom line is how effective will he be, and I believe with his combined size and "unexplosive" athleticism he will be fine.
Illini Basketball 2016-2017
I also didn't understand that, athleticism is measured in different ways. Bottom line is how effective will he be, and I believe with his combined size and "unexplosive" athleticism he will be fine.
Maybe I'm a homer and blinded by my bias. I just don't see Illinois being 9th best in the BT. When I looked at our seasoned and quality senior players (Hill, Thorne, Mav, Abrams) and overall balanced deep team I think we will be competitive against the best teams.
Best comparison will be this team vs Groce first team. Which one would you take? If Nunn was back I probably would take this team. Without Nunn, I would still take this team because Hill I think can give us what Paul gave us and the front line should be much stronger than what we had 4 years ago.
Best comparison will be this team vs Groce first team. Which one would you take? If Nunn was back I probably would take this team. Without Nunn, I would still take this team because Hill I think can give us what Paul gave us and the front line should be much stronger than what we had 4 years ago.
Might be nitpicking words here, but IMO I'd call Mav a "scoring big man" because you can actually run plays for him on the offensive end. With his efficiency I'm very comfortable with Groce drawing something up for him. Depends how you look at I suppose.
Come on man.. Sure he is.
I would agree, I think that it may be the only thing he can be called.
Especially nOw that he's in a back up spot. Not being relied on 30 minutes a game. There really shouldn't be much, if any, drop off in scoring production when he comes in.
So Groce will be in hot water if the results of the season aren't what you want because you think we should be better than impartial, outside observers think.
Tisdale/Davis? I mean, they weren't big time scorers, but they were both credible threats. Davis wasn't so much a back to the basket scorer but he had some moves. Tisdale had a nice baby hook and was automatic from the top of the key
I consider Mav a scoring big man because he is a threat to score, even out to about 15 feet. His game is more versatile than just rebound and putback. The threat of the score is what the defense has to respect, and when they have to respect that, it doesn't matter if you actually score because you help the team.
See Tate, who I think I actually like more than most people (I really can't explain why, just do), for the reverse.
See Tate, who I think I actually like more than most people (I really can't explain why, just do), for the reverse.
Groce will be in hot water if the results are what the impartial outside observers are.
His only hope is to greatly exceed those impartial predictions
No. I think what he is saying is that if outside observers are right and they finish at the bottom half of the big ten and miss the tournament his results would put him in hot water. That would be 4 years in a row without the tournament.
Tourney or he's gone.
Normally I hate subscribing to "put up or shut up" style ultimatums, but I think this one's spot on.
Captain Bubbles
- Fairfield, IL
I think there are fans of college basketball teams who only look at the conference part of a team's schedule as the utmost focus now. I understand the reason why....conference championship, conference seeding come post-season tournament time, and hopes for an NCAA Tournament berth. However, I want to stress the importance of a non-conference part of a schedule. I believe it is as equally important as the conference slate is, and the non-con should be the focus now with the season around the corner.
I saw a post online on another site and thought it was interesting. The overall rating average of teams in Illinois' non-conference schedule equaled 143. The highest rated team they will face is West Virginia at 25, N.C. State at 32, and VCU at 45. The list goes on from there. BYU and Winthrop round out the top five.
There's some good teams with good players that Illinois will be facing for in the first two months. Don't be afraid to do some research on these teams that Illinois never gets a chance to see, you might be surprised when you look at their stats and their accomplishments. Who knows? Illinois may face that team IF they make the NCAA Tournament, and that would be somethin'.
I hate to bring this team up, but for the sake of this I must. Kansas State has a super easy non-conference slate. If you've not seen it yet, check it out because I have. You will come to appreciate how much tougher the Illini's is. I hope analysts don't give K-State all the love during the early going, because their strength of schedule in their non-con is low...it's weak. I'll take a tough non-conference schedule over one that is filled entirely with cupcakes.
Kudos to the person/staff who came up with the Illini's non-conference schedule because I like this year's. I can see Illinois having a minimum of two losses, with a maximum of four. Anything can happen on any given night. Illinois has to have a great non-conference to help with their confidence going into Big Ten play.
I saw a post online on another site and thought it was interesting. The overall rating average of teams in Illinois' non-conference schedule equaled 143. The highest rated team they will face is West Virginia at 25, N.C. State at 32, and VCU at 45. The list goes on from there. BYU and Winthrop round out the top five.
There's some good teams with good players that Illinois will be facing for in the first two months. Don't be afraid to do some research on these teams that Illinois never gets a chance to see, you might be surprised when you look at their stats and their accomplishments. Who knows? Illinois may face that team IF they make the NCAA Tournament, and that would be somethin'.
I hate to bring this team up, but for the sake of this I must. Kansas State has a super easy non-conference slate. If you've not seen it yet, check it out because I have. You will come to appreciate how much tougher the Illini's is. I hope analysts don't give K-State all the love during the early going, because their strength of schedule in their non-con is low...it's weak. I'll take a tough non-conference schedule over one that is filled entirely with cupcakes.
Kudos to the person/staff who came up with the Illini's non-conference schedule because I like this year's. I can see Illinois having a minimum of two losses, with a maximum of four. Anything can happen on any given night. Illinois has to have a great non-conference to help with their confidence going into Big Ten play.
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Captain Bubbles
- Fairfield, IL
He is a scoring big man. He has a nice soft touch. It's not the prettiest shot, yet it did warrant him a respectable field goal percentage when he was rockin' during the latter part of the season.
icengineer
- Southern Illinois
All season actually. MM finished with the 7th highest FG percentage in the B1G! Not too shabby!!
1. Thomas Bryant, Indiana .683
2. Deyonta Davis, Michigan State .598
3. Isaac Haas, Purdue .594
4. A.J. Hammons, Purdue .592
5. Mark Donnal, Michigan .575
6. Diamond Stone, Maryland .568
7. Maverick Morgan, Illinois .564
8. Matt Costello, Michigan State .561
9. Robert Carter, Maryland .554
10. Ethan Happ, Wisconsin .538
11. Alex Olah, Northwestern .525
12. Jae'Sean Tate, Ohio State .521
13. Max Bielfeldt, Indiana .516
14. Troy Williams, Indiana .513
15. Jake Layman, Maryland .500
Yeah, clearly the conference is where we've struggled the past few years. We know the teams better, and we know the competition should be tourney level for half or more of the conference. If we can't handle that, what's the point?
That said, every game will count on our resume, and the non-conf schedule looks pretty forgiving, but includes a few tests. I'm ok with that given where we're at.
I guess I'm not sure what you mean by "explosive", then.
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I guess I'm not sure what you mean by "explosive", then.
I assume he meant that Sam Thompson had more of a gliding athleticism rather than a quick stop-start way of moving. I agree with that more or less, but he's a world class athlete either way. He could probably have been an Olympic level long jumper or hurdler if he'd trained for it from an early age. I think Tupper was implying that Kipper is more of a Ray Rice/Roger Powell type athlete than a head-above-the-rim guy. I think we were all hoping from Kipper's limited HS highlights, build, and testing numbers that he'd be a big time athlete.
If he's a notch below Leron and DJW (maybe a slight notch above Malcolm and AJ), that means he's not going to physically overwhelm B1G competition. Not going to be a terror in the open court or jump over anyone's head. That's fine. I don't think anyone expected him to be Andrew Wiggins or anything. From the little bit we've seen, he's obviously not a poor athlete. If he's just decent athletically, but brings his lunch pail every day and plays smart basketball, sign me up.
When I think of an explosive athlete I think of someone who is extremely quick within their athleticism. For example, 2 guys with 40 inch verts, the guy who hits 40 inches firsts is more explosive. For sprinting, 2 guys of equal speed, the guy who hits top speed first, I'd consider more explosive. In a football sense, I think they'd call it twitch.
I would tie explosiveness most closely with leaping ability, particularly being able to leap with little to no run-up. And that's where I think Tupper was going, too.
I agree being explosive is different than athletic, there are many aspects to "athleticism", could be raw strength, speed (Dee), agility, etc.
And yes Bertrand is explosive, sure. Even by your definition, he was i.e. when he took over the Braggin Rights game. He just didn't do it very often. It seems like your definition would be more along the lines of people saying someone has a "high motor", i.e. they give extreme effort more regularly then many players.
I'd also say someone can take over a game as an "explosive scorer" but that wouldn't necessarily cause me to call them "explosive". For example, Andy Kaufmann.
The videos show that's not the case. To me, Sam Thompson is nearly the very definition of explosive. Which is why I was surprised to see that posted.