Illini Basketball 2025-2026

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#576      
I trust your opinion on all things related to Illini basketball. However, you have to admit our (fan base) ability to overhype players in the preseason.
Never fails. There are always a good number of fans who delude themselves into thinking we're the most talented team in the country and anything less than a FF is a failure.
 
#579      
Fan base? How about an insider telling us about Booth and his "first round upside?"

Some insider hype is definitely fueling much of the insanity.

Definitely feel like this happens, and cuts both ways though - yesterday someone comped our 2 very highly regarded Euro recruits to former zero star recruits Nico Morretti & Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk.

And to be a little fair here, Carey Booth was pretty highly thought of coming into Illinois as I recall, and not just people here on this forum. He was on 2nd round 2025 mocks after his initial season with Notre Dame, so 'first round upside' could be a bit of hyperbole but not out of the complete realm of possibilities, imo.

NBADraftRoom #57 for 2025 (7 spots ahead of Andrej Stojakovic)

EDIT: web.archive.org giving me fits trying to look up more mocks, but there's at least one, I suppose
 
#583      
He needs 259 wins to pass him. Since 2020, he has average 23 wins per season. So at this rate, it'll take him 12 more seasons. Which would put him at 73 years old.
Vladdy Brad had better give up the cigs if he wants to make it to 73… 😁
IMG_0348.jpeg
 
#584      
I might be repeating what's been said, but Ty is going to valuable to this team because he is so versatile defensively and he can pick up some PG reps if we're in need. His level of energy and strength, along with Boswell, are exactly what Brad wants from his team. I can see Ty helping alter a game when we're flat. I don't expect him to be an outside threat, but he's always been a beast on the boards.
I believe this is spot on. Ty may attempt and make an occasional three-pointer, but he just needs to stick to his strengths about which you mentioned in your post.

We will see a better version of Ty from two years ago. He's going to be an asset.
 
#585      
Not trying to cause an argument, but do you actually know what any of the players are making? Is it published somewhere?
If you read my post I said if what I heard was correct. Although the person that told me was correct with the years NIL money split up between players so I believe that he has a good idea
 
#586      
I believe this is spot on. Ty may attempt and make an occasional three-pointer, but he just needs to stick to his strengths about which you mentioned in your post.

We will see a better version of Ty from two years ago. He's going to be an asset.
He was an asset 2 years ago

Not calling you out. Just saying.
 
#587      
Ty shooting the ball? Don't hold your breath. You don't learn to shoot at age 21 or 22.
Plenty of NBA centers learned to shoot as the game evolved just in the past 10-15 years. i.e Brook Lopez, Jonas Valenciunas, Dewayne Dedmon. Even Kawhi Leonard drastically improved his shooting. If you can hoop, you can learn to shoot better at almost any age.
 
#589      
GrapplingIllini,

Do you know what Isaiah Martinez is up to these days?
 
#591      
The FTC banned noncompetes as of Sept '24 for every one except "policy making" individuals earning more than ~150k/year. (Court cases had shown tech industry non-competes to be unenforceable long before that.)

Is head coach formally a policy making position?
 
#594      
Fan base? How about an insider telling us about Booth and his "first round upside?"

Some insider hype is definitely fueling much of the insanity.
Yes. Our insiders are awesome(!!!!), but the hype of some of our players coming in is, at this point, just as insane as those who think they'll max out at being decent role players. We just don't know. Then, the fans jump on the kids because of unrealistic expectations we upon them.
 
#595      
With automatic extensions when he makes the tournament, that contract won't be up for a long time, hopefully...
Yeah, people seem to not understand we've gone through this already. Before his new contract, he was already contracted through 2030 due to his auto-extensions, it's just that his contract didn't allow for any more, so they had to give him a new one and pack his already-earned extension years into it.
 
#598      
With the nature of recruiting now(who knows what it will be 3 years from now) and the motor required to do it successfully.....bless him if he wants to keep going after five more years. The non coaching part has to be an absolute drain to the system.

Is there a feeling that Brad's ultimately goal is to hand this over to Tyler? When you sign this type of deal, there's generally a back end plan in place.
 
#599      
I don't think that there's any criticism in this case. They, too, are fans and have a habit of overrating our talent. We all do it, but their voices, on this board, carry more weight. So, when Ben H gets brought in and is advertised as Marcus D and he's not that.....the kid gets destroyed and was the whipping boy all year.

Carey Booth came in with comments that he has an NBA future. He obviously struggled and got torn up because he was viewed as a wasted roster spot, while in reality, he needs a lot of development and the thirst for instant gratification wasn't met.

Petrovic and Mirkovic have been anointed as major contributors to our 2025-2026 roster. Some point to their play in Euro pro leagues as the reason that they are ready to role on day one. People take the opinion as law, then when they struggle or the transfer isn't clean....the pitchforks come out.

The reality is that these kids are packing up their bags and are moving to a different flipping country, then have to carry expectations that shouldn't be created yet. Some people get immediately home sick. Who knows? Their expectations, on this board however, have been set.

The original poster, IMO, wasn't being critical of anyone, but was just pointing out that the picture painted is usually viewed through the lens of O & B goggles at the beginning, but in November, when the goggles come off....the picture doesn't look the same and there's disappointment.
 
#600      
Definitely feel like this happens, and cuts both ways though - yesterday someone comped our 2 very highly regarded Euro recruits to former zero star recruits Nico Morretti & Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk.

And to be a little fair here, Carey Booth was pretty highly thought of coming into Illinois as I recall, and not just people here on this forum. He was on 2nd round 2025 mocks after his initial season with Notre Dame, so 'first round upside' could be a bit of hyperbole but not out of the complete realm of possibilities, imo.

NBADraftRoom #57 for 2025 (7 spots ahead of Andrej Stojakovic)

EDIT: web.archive.org giving me fits trying to look up more mocks, but there's at least one, I suppose
I swear the first time I saw BBV he made like 3 threes in a game? Seemed like a good spot up shooter who would play here and there and then about a season later he had this complete body transformation, got so much bigger, and was a complete non-shooter. Is my memory serving me deelu? Bit of a strange situation.
 
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