Illini Basketball 2025-2026

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#205      
sacraig
Fly Illini Fly! said:
I think he leads the B10 in blocks.
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#213      
Mobi
PepeSilvia said:
My only disagreement is that I think Stojakovic is a good shooter and can be an effective shooter this year.

His stats don't necessarily show that but he's a genuinely capable 3pt shooter and I think that will show this year.

He shot 82% from the line last year on good volume, will now have more talent around him that gives him more catch and shoot looks vs pulling up off the dribble, he was touted as a great shooter out of high school, and he obviously has the bloodlines(spent his life being taught by a guy who was arguably the best shooter in the NBA at his peak).
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Andrej can potentially be a good 3 pt shooter like TSJ but not a great one. I think he can be good on the C&S but I am not confident in this off dribble since I have not seen that a whole lot in his highlights.
 
#214      
logjam
SkyysNotFalling said:
This has nothing to do with reality but I just got an Austin Hutcherson flashback just from the way him and Keaton sort of look alike, and have similar frames. Along with the hype they’re getting from practice.
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#217      
Birdus
Bigtex said:
More wagler love from sleepers

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The thinking is here with Greg is that the 4 is going to hold this team back. Greg saw Johnson as the answer to our dilemna. I Don't see it that way. We are in much better shape with the 4 this year. Z, Ben and the YOUNG stud will do fine at the 4 spot. Ben should be better and we have three guys that can play out. Tre could have helped and still might if he is cleared down the stretch anytime.
 
#218      
Mobi
Birdus said:
The thinking is here with Greg is that the 4 is going to hold this team back. Greg saw Johnson as the answer to our dilemna. I Don't see it that way. We are in much better shape with the 4 this year. Z, Ben and the YOUNG stud will do fine at the 4 spot. Ben should be better and we have three guys that can play out. Tre could have helped and still might if he is cleared down the stretch anytime.
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I think it depends on how effectively we can play Tomi and big Z together. Ben might be OK offense wise but his D is still susceptible. Big Z is very mobile for a five and a good shot blocker. But making him defend 4 is still putting his capability to test a little bit IMO. Morez is an entirely different player of course. I am not saying he will defend better at 4 since he needs to limit his fouls. Personally I do not need an all-out type of lineup like Brad prefers especially when we only have perhaps 1.5 good slashers. I like to optimize the defense a bit. With that being said, if we can keep Tomi and big Z on court together long enough w/o sacrificing the D, perhaps we will be a decent defense team this year.
 
#220      
PepeSilvia
lstewart53x3 said:
Personally, I don’t care all that much how we do in any individual offensive metric, so long as the offense as a whole is efficient. I’d be fine with the 3rd ranked offense in the nation again that shoots 34.1% from 3 like 23-24.

Capable shooters shooting a lot of 3s can be a net positive for the offense as a whole, even if they don’t go in at an elite clip. They space the floor, open driving lanes (increasing 2 point % along with free throw rate), and unclog the lane for offensive rebounding.

Btw, for a staff that doesn’t understand how to put together a good offensive scheme, they sure do seem to churn out a lot of good offenses (3 top 15 offenses in 5 years with 3 different schemes / groups of players).
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I never said Brad or the staff were incapable of putting together a good offensive scheme(I think Oklahoma State was #1 on Kenpom when Brad was there).

I just said that last year's team was plagued by poor shot selection and decision making. They were a talented team but I think those issues explain why they struggled to find any sort of consistency even with injuries and illnesses.

Brads teams have always been pretty good on the offensive boards which mean shooting a lot of 3s and not being great doesn't kill you if you get the rebound.

On the other hand let's not pretend like Brads success has been the result of him being a great X's and O's coach. Brad is a recruiter and his best teams have just been a result of being more talented and generally physically dominating opposing teams.

The 21 team had two all American caliber players in Ayo and Kofi. You don't really have to do much outside of play a two man game with those two especially since most teams did not have a big capable of guarding Kofi. Stephen Gentry was also the supposed mastermind of the offense.

The elite 8 team did adapt it's offense and have a ton of success after a conversation with Jay Wright. However, TJ was just an absolute cheat code that created free points without really running an offense. That team really just physically imposed their will on teams though Credit to Brad for adapting mid season and switching to Domask being the primary initiator, but I think a decent amount of their success was simply being bigger, faster, and stronger than everyone until they played UConn.

That team was just a matchup problem for nearly everyone, the starting lineup was all 6'6+ with 4 plus athletes and Domask was not a statue, he would bully smaller defenders inside while pulling bigger defenders outside and then get past them. Then while your defense was focused on Domask and Shannon you also had to somehow keep Ty, Guerrier, and Coleman off the offensive glass while also trying to stop Guerrier and Coleman from getting open 3's. Really the only team in the country that was physically capable of defending that roster was UConn.
 
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#221      
RollChief
Alright folks, it’s mid-August, the content drought is in full swing, and I’ve officially reached that point in the offseason to fire up my favorite stat about recent Illini teams: projected average height.

Last year, I guessed we’d check in at 79.0 inches based on % of minutes played. KenPom’s final tally? 78.9 inches.

I ran the numbers again with my estimated minutes split (let me know if I'm high/low with anyone) and the early projection comes out to 79.4 inches.

For context:
  • That’s a smidge over 6’7” across the board.
  • Based on last year’s data, we’d be the 4th tallest team in America.
  • If you drop this roster into 2024’s standings, we’re sitting #1 in height nationwide.
I will simply not accept that this team won't be elite again at rebounding, I don't care how "soft" they seem.

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#223      
ptgrd23
Our team is not perfect but we will look good walking thru airports

Tomas 7'1"
Big Z 7'2"
Jason 6'10"
Mircovic 6'9"
Ben 6'9"
 
#224      
Ga65
Comparing this year’s team to last years:
Tomi > Tomi
Ben > Ben
Stoj > Tre (but not on Tres best games)
Boz > Boz
Petro ~ Kasparas ( but not on K best nites)
Big Z > Rez ( especially at center)
Wagner< Riley
Davis > Davis
Mirk > Booth
Lee < DGL
Only see two definite minus but put floor ahead of last year but ceiling probably lower due to Riley and Kasparas. Not seeing all hype about Mirk as he is young and really don’t see him playing before Z and Ben. Having the combination of T and Z will improve defense but believe league competition has improved also. Solid team but not top ten.
 
#225      
Fly Illini Fly!
Zvonimir is the X factor. If he gets to around 10 points/6 boards/2.3 blocks... that significantly elevates your ceiling.
 
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