Illini Basketball 2022-2023

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#252      

ChiefGritty

Chicago, IL
And the talking heads saying the Big 10 will have a down year.
Which used to be the refrain every year, and then every year you look on New Year's Day at the schedule and it's an absolute meat grinder again.

As someone above said, the B1G is the best collection of coaches in the country and always recruits very well. There's almost never more than a couple easy wins in the group.
 
#253      
I think it's also an easy (or perhaps lazy) take to look at a conference that has had highly ranked teams but no nattys in 20 years. The last 2 years of early round flame outs haven't helped either
 
#254      
The B1G conference just doesn't scare me this year.

Michigan: More talented last season and it was a disaster, so why should they be better this year with less talent?

MSU: Lost some guys, and the guys they are expecting big things from have been shaky.

Iowa: Keegan Murray bailed them out a ton and they haven't added much

Indiana: Same core and some talented freshmen grow up, but they most likely still have shooting problems which almost always keeps your ceiling low.

OSU: Not even a tournament team according to preseason Torvik

Wisconsin: Same as OSU

Purdue: Edey will carry them, but other than him it looks meh. If guys don't step up they might be on the bubble come March.

The rest: Blah.

Someone please correct me if I'm missing something because I haven't followed the offseason super close. But I'm just not seeing it. That being said, it's still the B1G and there are some very good coaches in this conference.
With Edey my biggest question is his conditioning. Can he still be effective playing 30ish minutes a game?

And I’m with you on IU. I don’t get all the hype and how they go from a sub 500 bubble team to consensus favorite to win the league. Ironic thing is I think they went from a great matchup to a tough matchup for us, as TJD couldn’t handle Kofi and Trent could lock up Johnson. But I’m not sure those 2 guys alone can beat us. Shooting should limit their ceiling and cost them enough games to keep them from winning the league IMO.

5 weeks from today. Can’t wait for the season to start!
 
#255      
I think it's also an easy (or perhaps lazy) take to look at a conference that has had highly ranked teams but no nattys in 20 years. The last 2 years of early round flame outs haven't helped either

Seems worse than that. I believe the conference hasn't had a FF since MSU in 2019. Before that, you had UM in 2018, and a drought in 2017 and 2016. You have to go back to 2015 to get 2 in the FF (epic Wiscy team took down a ridiculously loaded Kentucky that year, and MSU was also in it).

Seems like the conference has had plenty of very good teams recently, but not a lot of elite teams. If the early stats guys are correct (e.g. Bart Torvik), it will be more of the same this year.
 
#256      

Bart Torvik is projecting Illini as the 4th most talented team in college bb.

Big 10 teams comprise 3 of his top 7 in projected talent level (not counting UCLA and USC, who are also in his top 7).


B1G has 4 in top 20, while Pac12 has 5 (incl UCLA and USC). When the Pac 12 has more top 20 teams than the B1G it is a down year.
 
#259      

pruman91

Paducah, Ky
My god, man. How do you have something ready for every situation?
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It's how I roll.......................................................It really really is ...............................

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where's that ManBearPig ????................................have you seen my ManBearPig ?????....................
 
#261      

pruman91

Paducah, Ky
Prumans gif collection...
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images - 2021-05-28T014333.475.jpg
images - 2021-05-28T015051.538.jpg


Pick one of the three above and enjoy.............You really really will.............................It's the time , time of the season , the season of redemption and mental growth in the carbon unit society as we know it ..............................................don't be afraid to expand your mental limits..............................420.........420........420.............
 
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#266      

pruman91

Paducah, Ky
The bit of trivia nobody knows from the third movie...

The original quote was "We named the dog Indiana. We named you Illini in hopes for a better life!"
Now that's some mental limits being stretched .........Impressive dw....which code did you pick ....?
 
#267      
Now that's some mental limits being stretched .........Impressive dw....which code did you pick ....?
I'm on the west coast. I just celebrated 420 here. Will have to figure out which path to take tonight! Love you, man!

Sorry to everyone else, we're getting a little off topic!
 
#268      
Not sure what you mean what isn't close. Sergio McClain was a tremendous player, perhaps with less of an NBA-type skillset than Rodgers has, but regardless, neither one is a PG.

Rodgers and the team will struggle if he needs to play PG, as would any college basketball team needing to play any true freshman forward there regardless of talent level, especially in the Big Ten. Much as the 98-99 team did playing Serge there despite him being a stud as a basketball player and that team having the beginnings of a B1G Champion #1 seed.

If Clark's not ready the 22-23 team is in major trouble. Him just being healthy and serviceable is the relatively narrow bridge to accessing the serious upside this team might have.
You are wrong. That’s it. That is the post.
 
#269      
I'm on the west coast. I just celebrated 420 here. Will have to figure out which path to take tonight! Love you, man!

Sorry to everyone else, we're getting a little off topic!
No apologies necessary...very few here know what the topic actually was.....including me!
We really need practice to start and get some actual hoops news going again!
 
#275      
Same as it ever was.
When they look at a "down" year for the Big 10, they only look at the guys who have left and fail to recognize all of the top 10 recruiting classes and the transfers in that replaced them. Illinois, Iowa, OSU, Wisconsin all lost key players and a substantial portion of their scoring from last year, but have reloaded. Sure, we'll beat each other up during the conference season, but we might be equally or even better suited for the tournament than previous years.

That's what makes college basketball so great--the make-up changes from one year to the next (except Northwestern...)
 
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