Illini Basketball 2019-2020

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#76      
Great point Ptown. I think what people are not considering fully is that we had an exodus of players including our best and most experienced players. What do you think our record would have been if Leron and Finke had stayed? IMHO that would have made a huge difference in number of games won. People talk about other teams being competitive with 2 and 3 star players - I think that is very possible but don’t expect it to happen with a majority of underclassmen. Talent is important but so is experience.

But, if Leron and Finke had stayed, there's a chance we wouldn't have gotten had Giorgi...that's the problem with the "what if" game. It's impossible to definitely seen every repercussion of every decision. Maybe we did get Giorgi. Then did we miss out on TJ? If that's the case to do we beat MD at MSG and get on that hot roll?

I would GUESS we would have been better last hear with Black and Finke, but I'm not sure. And we probably wouldn't be as well positioned for the future if they had stayed.

I'm willing to admit my crystal ball doesn't work very well. I think we have more luck (although still very little) looking forward than playing the backwards guessing what-if game.

Efrem, this not a dig at you, its more a comment on ALL of us that have a tendency to get caught up this line of thinking.
 
#77      
But, if Leron and Finke had stayed, there's a chance we wouldn't have gotten had Giorgi...that's the problem with the "what if" game. It's impossible to definitely seen every repercussion of every decision. Maybe we did get Giorgi. Then did we miss out on TJ? If that's the case to do we beat MD at MSG and get on that hot roll?

I would GUESS we would have been better last hear with Black and Finke, but I'm not sure. And we probably wouldn't be as well positioned for the future if they had stayed.

I'm willing to admit my crystal ball doesn't work very well. I think we have more luck (although still very little) looking forward than playing the backwards guessing what-if game.

Efrem, this not a dig at you, its more a comment on ALL of us that have a tendency to get caught up this line of thinking.
I can appreciate that recruiting may have been affected (even possibly adversely) if certain players had stayed although I doubt that we wouldn’t have still recruited Giorgi . My point isn’t so much to postulate how much certain players could have helped our team as it is to highlight the fact that one of the things that hurt us the most is lack of experience. We had a single 4-year player on the team - AJ - and he didn’t play all of them under BU. Clearly we lost some momentum with the number of players that left the team and we can ill afford to go through that again but it’s all part of the rebuild, painful as it might be. I think we are a tourney team next year. There is still time to add some pieces and increase our chances to do it.
 
#78      
As we stand now:
Kofi/Samba
Giorgi/Kipper
Tevian/Alan
Trent/DaMonte
Ayo/Dre
Bernard?
First five good, but front court thin if not significant improvement from last year. Tough to judge from my armchair.
 
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#79      

RedRocksIllini

Morrison, CO
But, if Leron and Finke had stayed, there's a chance we wouldn't have gotten had Giorgi...that's the problem with the "what if" game. It's impossible to definitely seen every repercussion of every decision. Maybe we did get Giorgi. Then did we miss out on TJ? If that's the case to do we beat MD at MSG and get on that hot roll?

I would GUESS we would have been better last hear with Black and Finke, but I'm not sure. And we probably wouldn't be as well positioned for the future if they had stayed.

I'm willing to admit my crystal ball doesn't work very well. I think we have more luck (although still very little) looking forward than playing the backwards guessing what-if game.

Efrem, this not a dig at you, its more a comment on ALL of us that have a tendency to get caught up this line of thinking.
Another logical flaw in this "if so-and-so had stayed we'd be better" scenario is that it appears to assume that we're the only team that gets to play that game. I'm sure there were a bunch of teams on our schedule this past year that would have been better if they had also gotten the option to pick two players to keep another year.
 
#80      
As we stand now:
Kofi/Samba
Giorgi/Kipper
Tevian/Alan
Trent/DaMonte
Ayo/Dre
Bernard?
First five good, but front court thin if not significant improvement from last year. Tough to judge from my armchair.

I didn't think that we would play GB and Kofi at the same time. I love this projected team though.
 
#84      

Joel Goodson

respect my decision™
Tev has a significant athletic advantage but Griff has the basketball IQ advantage it will be interesting ti see especially if Griffs shots start falling.

Tev has athleticism in spades. But Griffin is a better athlete than a lot of reports had him pegged. Much better. Really wasn't expecting any defensive contribution from him at all. Thought he became a bit of a dawg on D & rebounding to close the season. Expecting a significant leap from both.
 
#85      
Tev has athleticism in spades. But Griffin is a better athlete than a lot of reports had him pegged. Much better. Really wasn't expecting any defensive contribution from him at all. Thought he became a bit of a dawg on D & rebounding to close the season. Expecting a significant leap from both.
Not knocking Alan's athleticism but if you get a chance to sneak into ubben and watch Tev just by himself you'll think WOW this guy can get up with ease. I also thought Alan finished the season strong on the boards and defensive end.
 
#86      

Joel Goodson

respect my decision™
Not knocking Alan's athleticism but if you get a chance to sneak into ubben and watch Tev just by himself you'll think WOW this guy can get up with ease. I also thought Alan finished the season strong on the boards and defensive end.

Didn't imply that you did (knock Griffin's athleticism). But, yeah, Tev's athleticism is off the charts.
 
#88      
The biggest Q by far: can Georgi -- the best freshman under the basket I have seen in 40 years for us -- now play the 4 on offense with nearly the same effectiveness, and let Kofi and Kane handle the 5. Georgi will have to show he can make jump shots. Underwood said Georgi had a thumb injury which hindered his jump shot the last half of the year, and was confident Georgi can do it. We're going to find out....
 
#91      
It will be interesting to see how team develops. Griffin has very good influences from his family, Jones is a phenomenal athlete and Samba Kane has some time with weights and high level nutrition to increase mass and strength. Williams has maintained health and if natural ability is returning with it might also show a substantial jump. The players with the heart and desire to make full use of offseason to improve will have a chance with early practice and Italy trip to assert themselves. Last years team leaders might have better support this season.
 
#93      
Meyers Leonard should win this award.:) Huge leap from Freshman to Sophomore.
Meyers for sure had to be the best by a long shot. Egwu also made a very nice leap as well as he went from almost serviceable to solid.
 
#94      
As we stand now:
Kofi/Samba
Giorgi/Kipper
Tevian/Alan
Trent/DaMonte
Ayo/Dre
Bernard?
First five good, but front court thin if not significant improvement from last year. Tough to judge from my armchair.

Tyler?
 
#95      
Malcom Hill?
Mostly just semantics, but for improvement I would probably put Malcom (& Kendrick) in a different category...Malcolm seemed to improve through his freshman year & I think most saw enough by the end of his freshman year that we were comfortable he was going to be a team leader going into his sophomore year, while Tev & Griffin are certainly less certain at this point and still need a significant jump to fill in as the 5th starter/6th man.
 
#96      
As we stand now:
Kofi/Samba
Giorgi/Kipper
Tevian/Alan
Trent/DaMonte
Ayo/Dre
Bernard?
First five good, but front court thin if not significant improvement from last year. Tough to judge from my armchair.
This lineup has a lot more "ifs" than I really was hoping we would have going into year 3. Holyfield would have patched a lot.
 
#98      
Black went from 20.2 mins, 8.1 pts and .453 shooting to 25.5 mins, 15.3 pts and .547 shooting. If we could get that type of improvement from Kipper our front court wouldn't be a problem.
 
#100      
The biggest Q by far: can Georgi -- the best freshman under the basket I have seen in 40 years for us -- now play the 4 on offense with nearly the same effectiveness, and let Kofi and Kane handle the 5. Georgi will have to show he can make jump shots. Underwood said Georgi had a thumb injury which hindered his jump shot the last half of the year, and was confident Georgi can do it. We're going to find out....

I'm actually more concerned about Giorgi on the defensive side of the ball. Every time he snuck out to play perimeter D he came away with a foul. He really needs to tighten that up. He tries to body-up too much and impede the freedom of movement.
 
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