You're not wrong, but if we didn't have predictions on starting line-ups, this thread would only have like 3-4 pages until November.
Illini Basketball 2018-2019
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Rob, forgive my ignorance, but I'm newly retired and spent my spare time working in the past. Are any practices open to the public? If so, how do you find out about them? What kind of access does the public have to Ubben to just go see open gyms? Everyone is being encouraged to go there for the big recruiting day on Friday, but does the public always have this kind of access? Thanks.
Hear, hear
This is not about our defense being catastrophic or not catastrophic. It is about our defense being statistically better than it was last year.
But I am saying our defense will go up a level from catastrophic to simply just bad. Never once did I say it would even be average. Also I am sticking with the NIT prediction.
No the public does not normally have access except on certain days "like wooing a recruit"
I'm confused.
Anyway, to clarify, I would agree with you that we were catastrophic at interior D last year, and based on our personnel, I think any meaningful improvement in that area is something I'll need to see clear evidence of before I believe it.
Kane is definitely a building block toward being better in that area in a couple years, assuming he's here in a couple years. Higgs and Giorgi may be as well, but in any event will likely be better defenders in 2020 than they are today. We need to add more in the 2019 class.
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Thanks for chiming in Rob. For decades we've seen fans elevate players that have never stepped on the court ahead of players they've seen for a season or more.
I was thinking about those elevated expectations. I can think of only a handful of freshmen that actually exceeded the median expectation of the fan base. (IMHO) I'd put Bardo, Gill, Trent among those. Perhaps Kiwane. DWill possibly.
But that's part of being a fan.
Here's to a Kevin Turner like senior year for Aaron.
I was thinking about those elevated expectations. I can think of only a handful of freshmen that actually exceeded the median expectation of the fan base. (IMHO) I'd put Bardo, Gill, Trent among those. Perhaps Kiwane. DWill possibly.
But that's part of being a fan.
Here's to a Kevin Turner like senior year for Aaron.
Agreed, no one knows except maybe a select few outsiders and the coaches themselves, and they probably are not even sure at this point due to time of the year and practices to go.
Hope it's not in North Carolina.
Obviously you take Kane’s abilities over Finke’s any day. But defense is more than that. Can he stay on the court more than 5 min without getting in foul trouble? can he learn and understand where he needs to be? Will he be vocal and help out teammates? Will he be able to grab a rebound to finish off the defensive possession? These are all things freshmen bigs (especially ones as skinny as Kane) are bad at. Yes, Black and Finke were well below average defensively. But they were much much worse as freshmen. The list of bigs at UI and all around the conference who looked completely incompetent defensively as freshmen is endless.
With all the newcomers and BU’s unorthodox defensive strategy, we once again have no clue how our defense will be. Don’t forget many of these guys have never played a style like BU’s defensively or offensively.
I think you missed one question: Is he able to in fact leap tall buildings with a single, that is single, bound?
How could any interior defense be worse than last year?
Tevo
- Wilmette, IL
We could foul on every shot, have the opposition SCORE on every one of those shots, and then also make the and-1 freethrow, thus giving up 3pps, and fouling out our entire team by about halftime.
That's how.
Speculating is pretty much all we have until November. We speculate about the record and about playing time and starters and about recruiting and any other thing we can think of. We're diehard Illinois basketball fans in September, what else should we be doing? And if you think we got the starting lineup wrong in last years preseason speculation, you should go look at what we thought the record would be...
We could have only true freshmen and transfers with a bum knee playing, none of whom have any experience in the system? I'm not saying it'll be worse, but it's an impossibility.
Because we have not seen the freshmen play in any of their games. If Black, Finke, and Ebo were coming in as freshmen, you would not have predicted worse defense than current freshmen class either.
sbillini
- st petersburg, fl
I am constantly amused when any person that's even half an illini fan over the past decade says "how can [insert any illini football/basketball related reference] be worse than last year?" and actually mean it.
I had extremely low expectations after seeing Finke in high school. He actually exceeded my expectations and given what I've said about him before, that's really saying something.
KrushCow31
Former Krush Cow
- Chicago, IL
My main issue with this post is the laughable thought that Dan would allow moderators other than himself.
(Plz no ban
)illini80
- Forgottonia
I believe there were a couple others way back in the day, but apparently they all have jobs now.My main issue with this post is the laughable thought that Dan would allow moderators other than himself.
(Plz no ban
Easy Rob. Don't make me tweet your wife.
Most of the people who post here worked hard for their armchairs. Now they are taking their chance to play quarterback. Give their opinions, all of the weight they are due. I'd offer you some more salt, but I know you'd just get in trouble for that too.
Now where wuz we? (Settling back and lighting a cheap pipe) Way back in me youth, last year, me predictions wuz pretty durn good. I almost had the end of year lineup zactly right. No un coulda ken Smith'd bust, and Frazier'd sky aforehand.
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What a genius
No mention of Higgs injury and mention of picking up a sophomore walk on big..
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