Adonis has been cleared to start practice next week.
Illini Basketball 2018-2019
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Adonis has been cleared to start practice next week.
No contact but still a great sign. I expect him to be ready for games about a month after being cleared for contact in practice which would probably still put us around mid December.
ILFaninFL
- Nature Coast in Florida
How many years do we have Feliz?
Very doubtful that’d be play. I’d love to be wrong but I’m just going off of the timeline I’ve seen with past players coming back from ACL injuries. Usually they get game time a month after being fully cleared for all activities.
I'd want to travel to Maui too.
I am traveling to Maui.
Deleted member 746094
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I agree that a winning record is a step in the right direction. I think we pull off a couple upsets, but I also think we have some let downs as we have a tremendous amount of youth still and B10 is a grind. Although we are young and unproven after TF and DW, I think the new guys play up to their hype and our depth in the back court gives teams trouble on offense and defense. Won’t predict a W-L, but I think we will be better than .500 and by B10 tourney will be team to recon with. NCAA is a stretch for me this year as I do think our bigs will struggle as it is such a jump in athleticism combined with size in high level D1 ball.
My one caveat is Adonis. If he can miraculously come in around mid-December and put up 10pt/6reb a game and clog the lane we may have a chance at the tourney. I think this is unrealistic though.
My one caveat is Adonis. If he can miraculously come in around mid-December and put up 10pt/6reb a game and clog the lane we may have a chance at the tourney. I think this is unrealistic though.
So according to SI power rankings, we are 98. That's 5th best in Illinois behind:
Loyola (25), Illinois State (68), Northwestern (74), Southern Illinois (77)
And ahead of:
DePaul (100), Bradley (120), UIC (145), EIU (222), SIUE (326), Chicago State (349)
5th best in the state! And nearly 6th if not for a toss-up with DePaul in the rankings. Obviously, SI isn't a primary source of this stuff typically so I take it with a grain of salt. But still, that hurts the pride a little bit. Still hopeful that this group can prove a bunch of people wrong this year and at least jump past SIU and Northwestern. Heck, even ISU.
Loyola (25), Illinois State (68), Northwestern (74), Southern Illinois (77)
And ahead of:
DePaul (100), Bradley (120), UIC (145), EIU (222), SIUE (326), Chicago State (349)
5th best in the state! And nearly 6th if not for a toss-up with DePaul in the rankings. Obviously, SI isn't a primary source of this stuff typically so I take it with a grain of salt. But still, that hurts the pride a little bit. Still hopeful that this group can prove a bunch of people wrong this year and at least jump past SIU and Northwestern. Heck, even ISU.
Deleted member 29907
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B1G is a grind and our style of play is a grind. We tend to wear down in the second half of games. i am hoping we get some good leads on the teams we should be beating and can tamper back to a zone or softer m2m. Deny pressure bball is alot of work on the defensive side and over the course of a season can wear a team down - unless of course you're sitting the bench in foul trouble much of the game.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
That would be tough, we were top 5 in the nation in forcing turnovers.
You would sacrifice a few of those to do better than the 313th in FG% defense we were last year.
It's a "break but don't bend" style, we just have to provide better help and contest more stuff at the rim. That will be tough with our interior personnel.
Last year we had some many games where a stupid foul or a backdoor alley oop or not making a bucket for 7 minutes caused our downfall....those pieces are gone and we have much better, more complete players. I expect us to be on the bubble and I'm looking forward to being surprised and being safely in the tournament. Can't wait for the season to start.
Not a lot of choices, I think our bigs will struggle to cover the 40 min at 5, so that leaves Kipper/Jones/AJ/DW. At the beginning of the season, I think Kipper ends up having to play some 5, so i suspect all of Jones/AJ/DW play some 4 or at least cover someone else's 4.
Personally I think Giorgi will have more minutes at the 5 than he can handle and it is unlikely he plays significant minutes at the 4. With regards to Kipper, I expect he ends up covering more minutes at the 5, than he does at the 3.
This team is a prime candidate to play a ton of zone, but thats basically the exact opposite of what BU wants to do. My hope is he already realizes this, and at least plays it momentarily, because i can't see man to man working for long. I would imagine some form of aggressive trapping 2-3 would be acceptable, but of course that doesn't exactly change much at that point.
BananaShampoo
Captain 'Paign
- Phoenix, AZ
98th is way underrating us. These preseason ranking always put way too much stock into past season performance and not enough in what is returning and newcomers. Obviously it would take a ton of research to do that for 300+ teams so they probably spend time on maybe the top 50 or so then the rest they just WAG or throw darts at a dartboard. At the very least all these poor preseason prognostications should be good bulletin board materials for our guys. Expect them to play with a chip on their shoulder and prove most everybody wrong.
My guess is that we'll be pressing a lot, but yeah... it'll be interesting to see how BU approaches it when a team can handle the press. I could also see opposing teams having to play a lot of zone as well when we go small - mainly because there will be times when the opposing center won't have anyone they can guard on the perimeter. So I see major mismatches on both ends and a lot of scoring. I also see A LOT of adjustments for both teams over the course of a game. For example, when we go small, if we start trading 3 for 2 and our press is effective, the other team may have to go small too just so they can guard us on the perimeter. However, if our threes aren't falling and the other team can handle the press, then I could see BU going bigger for awhile until he gets another matchup he likes where he can go small again. Should be a very interesting season from a strategic standpoint with most games being a struggle of wills to make the other team have to adjust first.
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I don't understand how he can practice without contact. Thought he had been shooting all along. .???
I think Kane missing those 8 weeks because of transcript issues is going to greatly affect this team. He could have been a solid defensive contributor and addition to our thin front court much earlier. Now he likely won't emerge as anything substantial until January-ish.
I remember reading a quote somewhere about how Kane had never picked up a weight before. He REALLY needed Fletch this past summer...
I remember reading a quote somewhere about how Kane had never picked up a weight before. He REALLY needed Fletch this past summer...
FeelYourPaign
- So Cal
Completely agree. Think I also read that when practice started, he was just totally lost. I can understand that, I am sure that BU would have me lost, too.
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