A lineup of Nunn, Tilmon, JCL, Black, & Frazier would have clearly been top 15 and maybe top10. Certainly competing for the BIG title.
Illini Basketball 2017-2018
A lineup of Nunn, Tilmon, JCL, Black, & Frazier would have clearly been top 15 and maybe top10. Certainly competing for the BIG title.
That lineup would require Nunn to have redshirted one year at Illinois.
Yeah pretty much makes that lineup impossible. Groce would've never been able to coach a team full of his guys to top 15 status, at least not for more than a year. Nunn getting kicked off the team was the right move, for both parties.
I do think we have a better record this year if Groce is retained (assuming Tilmon and JCL stay). Though I'd rather go through a year or year of bad basketball, than another few of maybe we get into the tourney if we squeak by Rutgers.
So, if we were somehow able to match up our team last season with Hill, Tate, Abrams, TJL, Mav, Thorne, Finke Black and Kipper with AJ and DJW also on the bench coached by Groce with their 2016-17 individual strengths and weaknesses up against this year's team, who do you think wins? I think Hill gets his 20 still but Underwood beats Groce by 10-15.
No way Hill gets 20 with this kind of ball pressure. Those guards outside of Abrams handling would not have gotten it to him enough, and Abrams along with Lucas, would have gotten Hill double team and trapped consistently.
More like BU wins 13-14 out of 15...the sun does shine on a.....well you know.
Kostas
- Naperville, IL
Still waiting for this team to catch fire...a la OkSt last year. Maybe we'll get lucky and everything will start really clicking in 3 weeks and there's a run to win the conference tourney. At this rate, might be our only sniff at post season play because NIT seems like long shot without 5 more Ws.
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
College basketball: Top 10 conference heat check
https://sports.yahoo.com/college-basketball-top-10-conference-heat-check-074000256.html?src=rss
interesting read about conference strengths and weakness'
https://sports.yahoo.com/college-basketball-top-10-conference-heat-check-074000256.html?src=rss
interesting read about conference strengths and weakness'
and how bout that coach of the year candidate at Auburn. :hurl:
I noticed in the Recruiting Thread that there has been a lot of discussion about Mark Smith. I have seen some even hint about him being a possible transfer. It seems that we forget that most freshmen struggle.
Here is a tweet by Mark Tupper talking about Keita Bates-Diop...
Mark Tupper @MarkTupper Feb 5
He's a reminder that these kids are not finished products as freshmen or sophomores. They grow -- physically and mentally -- and they can improve by leaps and bounds. He's a perfect example.
Bates-Diop who will be All B1G Ten and possibly POY in B1G did not have a stellar freshman campaign!
He averaged 9.9min, 2.1 reb, 0.5 ast, and 3.8 pts.
Mark Smith is averaging 19.8min, 1.5 red, 1.4 ast, and 6.5pts
I am not saying that Mark Smith is going to be KBD good, but I also feel that he deserves a chance to prove himself over the coming years. He's an Illini and he deserves our support!
Here is a tweet by Mark Tupper talking about Keita Bates-Diop...
Mark Tupper @MarkTupper Feb 5
He's a reminder that these kids are not finished products as freshmen or sophomores. They grow -- physically and mentally -- and they can improve by leaps and bounds. He's a perfect example.
Bates-Diop who will be All B1G Ten and possibly POY in B1G did not have a stellar freshman campaign!
He averaged 9.9min, 2.1 reb, 0.5 ast, and 3.8 pts.
Mark Smith is averaging 19.8min, 1.5 red, 1.4 ast, and 6.5pts
I am not saying that Mark Smith is going to be KBD good, but I also feel that he deserves a chance to prove himself over the coming years. He's an Illini and he deserves our support!
And it isn't like he hasn't shown promise, either. He looked like the best player on the floor against Depaul (albeit against Depaul) and the 1st half of the Mizzou game was all Tilmon vs. Smith. He was 4-5 from 3 against UNLV. Ain't no patience round here.
If Frosh players are rated top 100, where would Trent Frazier fall this year?
haasi
- New York
I’d guess top 50. Lots of very good freshmen out there (many of whom will go pro). Here’s a link to an article about top freshmen classes to date across NCAA - https://bleacherreport.com/articles...ggest-impact-on-college-basketball-in-2017-18
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Paging TownieMatt
Im one of those people who believe we are about 5 plays away (half of which would've been mitigated by just holding the ball or in bounding correctly) from having 5 more wins. Even in situations that would be considered toss ups we've hung an o-fer up. Tough way to start a career but most of the talent is here, the system is so close to working, and our team is so young I think this will be the farthest low point this team sees in a while. Hard to swallow the NW, MD, and Iowa games because those are games teams win a vast majority of the time in, given our late game position in them. NEB even more so. WF, UNLV, NMSU, and OSU were all winnable, maybe not likely, but they hovered around 50/50 until late. This isn't the Groce team that gets down and stays there, there's fight in these guys.
That is close to where I would put him too. I was thinking 30-50 range. The reason I wonder this is I was trying to figure out how much he has outplayed his incoming ranking.
frozenrope9190
- Aurora, IL
Here's a listing of conference wins by the Big 10 teams over the last 40 years, along with a count of their Top 4 finishes. I colored the cells where they won their conference (or tied for the conference win).
Man, the 2010's have been rough for the Illini. No double digit conference wins since 2010. But this year we've really sunk to the bottom of the pool. Disappointing.
Man, the 2010's have been rough for the Illini. No double digit conference wins since 2010. But this year we've really sunk to the bottom of the pool. Disappointing.
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frozenrope9190
- Aurora, IL
If you want to go back further into the vault, here are the previous 40 seasons, up to 1939. Back when Michigan State wasn't even in the Big 10, but University of Chicago was.
(Note: I've got every conference going back to their first season, if anyone ever wants to see it).
(Note: I've got every conference going back to their first season, if anyone ever wants to see it).
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Deleted member 547530
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Frozenrope nice work. That graph really is very telling. I am surprised by how good some of the other BIG schools have been historically, that I did not think were that good - example 1 being theOSU having more first place finishes than us overall. Knew the were good since Thad but never thought they had that many old good teams.
BC a few years back went winless in both FB and MBB conference play.
Edit: Looks like WBB finished second to last in conference, though Clemsons team might have been historically bad
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Peoria Illini
- Peoria, IL
Not sure how last year's team would have handled the pressure defense of this year's team. I don't think we handled pressure very well last year.
illini80
- Forgottonia
Given the recent performance, I'd take Indiana on that bet.
Peoria Illini
- Peoria, IL
But there were really no high pressure defensive teams in the conference. We did get blown out by West Virginia and struggled to get the ball up the court. We had 24 turnovers in that game.
http://fightingillini.com/boxscore.aspx?path=&id=12368
Line has moved to IU -9