You need a good lawyer.
Illini Basketball 2018-2019
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You need a good lawyer.
Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
Master of Hot Takes.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I apologize if this has already been posted, but the top 25 was released today. Our opponents are bolded (opponents in orange, potential opponents in Maui in blue):
1. Kansas (37)
2. Kentucky (19)
3. Gonzaga (1)
4. Duke (4)
5. Virginia (2)
6. Tennessee (1)
7. Nevada
8. North Carolina
9. Villanova (1)
10. Michigan State
11. Auburn
12. Kansas State
13. West Virginia
14. Oregon
15. Virginia Tech
16. Syracuse
17. Florida State
18. Mississippi State
19. Michigan
20. TCU
21. UCLA
22. Clemson
23. LSU
24. Purdue
25. Washington
RV: Loyola (IL), Marquette, Indiana, Florida, Nebraska, Maryland, Wisconsin, Notre Dame, Cincinnati, Alabama, UCF, Buffalo, Arizona, Louisville, Miami (FL), San Diego State, USC, Butler, Texas Tech, Texas, Arizona State, St. John's, Providence, Xavier, Missouri, NC State, Marshall, Davidson
We play a lot of almost ranked teams.
1. Kansas (37)
2. Kentucky (19)
3. Gonzaga (1)
4. Duke (4)
5. Virginia (2)
6. Tennessee (1)
7. Nevada
8. North Carolina
9. Villanova (1)
10. Michigan State
11. Auburn
12. Kansas State
13. West Virginia
14. Oregon
15. Virginia Tech
16. Syracuse
17. Florida State
18. Mississippi State
19. Michigan
20. TCU
21. UCLA
22. Clemson
23. LSU
24. Purdue
25. Washington
RV: Loyola (IL), Marquette, Indiana, Florida, Nebraska, Maryland, Wisconsin, Notre Dame, Cincinnati, Alabama, UCF, Buffalo, Arizona, Louisville, Miami (FL), San Diego State, USC, Butler, Texas Tech, Texas, Arizona State, St. John's, Providence, Xavier, Missouri, NC State, Marshall, Davidson
We play a lot of almost ranked teams.
Thats the exact type of schedule we should be playing. There's obvious reasons to schedule some cupcakes, but the return you get from those games diminishes exponentially after each game. You can learn a lot from beating a top by 50, but the same can be said by going against future NBAers early in a season.
It will probably be rough and the record may not be pretty, but this one of the many steps to get back to being the team everyone on this board wants to be.
It will probably be rough and the record may not be pretty, but this one of the many steps to get back to being the team everyone on this board wants to be.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Yep. We could easily start out 1-4 and then 2-7 or something with people freaking out, but playing this non-conference schedule will hopefully REALLY help the team mature and be better going into next season (when I think we can be a Tournament team):
vs. Evansville
vs. Georgetown
vs. #3 Gonzaga (Maui)
vs. Arizona State/Iowa State (Maui)
vs. #11 Auburn/#4 Duke/San Diego State/Xavier (Maui)
vs. Mississippi Valley State
at Notre Dame
at Nebraska
vs. Ohio State (Chicago, IL)
vs. UNLV
vs. East Tennessee State
vs. Missouri (St. Louis, MO)
vs. Florida Atlantic
While that could produce a REALLY rough record going into conference play, scrapping together wins over Georgetown, one in Maui, OSU at the UC, UNLV, Missouri in St. Louis and beating all of the cupcakes would really develop this team into one that will be taken seriously come Big Ten play, IMO. And that's really the goal this season for me - be a team that has a tad bit of hype going into 2019-20.
I agree. But who is going to be able to play interior defense? We're going to get shredded in there. All year....
Giorgi and Adonis.
Alternative best case scenario: We take a few L's early on, maybe have a couple of good wins in that stretch, and then play really well when De La Rosa is cleared which gives our record prior to De La Rosa an asterisk. We make the tournament because our record prior to De La Rosa is ignored to a certain extent.
Always next year... recruiting? Maybe next year. NCAA tournament? Maybe next year.
Deleted member 29907
D
Guest
Definitely should be prepared going into B1G play. We were so often caught off guard by weak early teams which allowed bad habits and false successes and then when we got to the conference - ugh (thus our January swoons).
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Uh, yeah? Sure, it's annoying, but anyone with a brain knows that each and every time we fire a coach, we are starting over. You don't fire a coach when things are going well, and things don't fix themselves over night. I'm as sick of being mediocre to bad as anyone else, but what can be said at this point? Again, no one who isn't completely delusional or intentionally ignoring reality thought we would be back to being happy with Illini basketball before year 3 or so...
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I approve!
Nobody has talked about firing, when you make a coaching change you are realistically stuck for 5 years, even if you have made a bad choice.
But more importantly, we made a coaching change because other than the first year were Groce overachieved and made the NCAA, we were pretty much an NIT bubble team. Taking an NIT bubble team and expecting to make it a consistent NCAA team is not the impossibility that people present. And the statement that "anyone not delusional" shouldn't have expected NCAA before 3+ years is disingenuous at best given that before the EIU game, 75% on this board expected NCAA and 95% at least NIT. You should have a talk with them
And recruiting too? We shouldn't expect any better before years 3+? That is what people had expected?
If it turns out that we have significant roster turnover every year then this excuse won't fly but just because you're sick of it doesn't make it invalid for Brad Underwood's situation this year.
First, Brad Underwood created much of the roster turnover when most of his own choices, players that he brought in himself (Smith, Ebo, Matic) decided to leave. Additional players also left after playing for BU (Black, Finke, TJL) so it is not that Underwood had nothing to do with it. But more importantly, roster turnover is the core of our problems, inability to close with recruits and failure in Fall recruiting (when you start carrying open scholarships to the Spring and you become desperate trying to fill gaps) exemplified by inability to address positional gaps (i.e., frontcourt) is the problem. Quite a few coaches have started their tenures with better recruiting.
As far as roster turnover, the chances that we will not have additional turnover this Spring are very slim. We took many chances with recruits last Spring and the chances that all of them pan out and nobody decides to leave (voluntarily or involuntarily) are slim to none IMO.
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Not a lot of teams do very well with only 4 or fewer returning players. A few examples are Pitt last year with a 8-24 (0-18 in conference) record. IU in the year after ground zero, 2008-2009, with a 6-25 (1-17) record and Frank Martin's first S.C. team, 2012-2013, with a 14-18 (4-14) record. Four returning players does not bode well for UI.
How is that different from last year? Black, Finke and Kipper all got shredded last year, so this year can't be any worse and the offense will be better.I agree. But who is going to be able to play interior defense? We're going to get shredded in there. All year....
illiniCA
- DC Area
It's different because freshman bigs really struggle. Even ones that turn out great.
ILL in IA
- Iowa City
Hope that the offense is better like you said, and that the backcourt can turn up the pressure so much, that they just turn the ball over before the other team can work it into the bigs. That and foul less.
Our frontcourt is extremely shallow and there is currently no indication that anyone will be better than Black. If Black was here, it is a hard case to make that he would not be starting under any circumstances (sans injury). Even Finke, I know there is the current wave of Giorgi love, but it will be extremely hard for Giorgi to not only replicate Finke's 9.8 points but also his 4.6 rebounds. That is a lot for a freshman (especially not a very highly ranked one). Our backcourt will be much improved (and we hope they cover some of the slack, especially offensively) but our frontcourt is a big concern. JMO.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Unless Jordan and De La Rosa are irreplaceable contributors for us, we ought to be better in 19-20 with so many returning young players gaining another year of experience in BU's system.
We need to wait and see who is on the roster for 19-20. It is currently so far away with so many unknowns that I am not sure it is even worth discussing. But in general, the purpose is not to just hit one season where we make the NCAA. The key is to become a team that consistently makes the NCAA, and with current level of recruiting, that is very doubtful. Given that Ayo has said himself that his goal is to stay 1 year, maximum 2, recruits next year (2020 class) may not even play with Ayo (if he is the real thing).
Consistency in recruiting is extremely important. I am much more concerned with recruiting right now than the 2019-20 season.
Conference play Finke was 7.0 and 3.2. DeLaRosa will exceed those nos and Kipper's rebounding nos in prorated mins were better than Black's. Our depth after Kipper is the biggest problem. It will need to be Jones matching Kipper's nos from last year and that would be a stretch. Kane should be able to match or exceed Ebo's nos. Wonder if DeLaRosa and Giorgi can play together against larger teams. Foul problems will probably be the issue.
While I understand your point of an unranked or low ranked player duplicating a former players output, I would argue that Finke go most of those numbers while being for the most part rather inactive of an inside type of player.
I would also argue that Giorgi or Kane will be more active if not by sheer default and thus get those numbers either combined or more even...is it hard to believe Giorgi at 5-7 points per game and 2-3 rebounds and Kane at 3-5 points per game and 5-7 rebounds dependent on playing time, which they both should get?
illiniCA
- DC Area
I think it is. Has any freshman of the same caliber stayed out of foul trouble and scored that much?
This is CoachSpeak catching on. Anthony Davis' senior year his school went 6-19. It really doesn't matter at this level.
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