Illini Basketball 2025-2026

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#251      
21ChampaignSt
Combo said:
I call BS. No way Tyler would be that open. And if he was, he should be fired.
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Exactly. Fired and disbarred. Clear violation of player / coach confidentiality.

/s

Where do you think our insiders get their information? Should they / their sources be fired?

Do you seriously think coaches and staff should take a solemn oath of silence about what happens in practice?

Should BU be fired when he steps in front of the media and says someone is an elite shooter? Or is that allowed because it's positive and it's only wrong to be "open" when you're openly critical?

Or are you assuming that everything Brad Underwood (if that is his real name) says publicly is a lie and therefore he shouldn't be fired for being "open" about what happens in practice?

Is it even considered being "open" when you say something privately?
 
#252      
BretMyBeachHouse
I understand your point. But actually none of the basketball staff should be relating any news to anyone without BU's permission.

I'm actually not a fan of the "insider" stuff. Leaking the dirt behind the scenes should not be happening.
 
#254      
BalloonsTheElephant
Illiniforlife said:
I completely agree with this statement. I’ve spoken with a few people who’ve had conversations with Tyler Underwood, and it sounds like the staff has been somewhat disappointed in Andrej. According to what I heard, Tyler mentioned that while Andrej is clearly a good athlete—as we all know—he really struggles with shooting, which is obviously a concern.

Of course, time will tell, but based on what we've heard so far, I’m not expecting him to live up to the reported $2.5 million investment.
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But his lower shooting percentages were because he was THE guy. At least that what we were told. This may also be trolling. Either way, as long as he shoots 32% on volume from three, he will be fine here.
 
#255      
IlliniFan42
BalloonsTheElephant said:
But his lower shooting percentages were because he was THE guy. At least that what we were told. This may also be trolling. Either way, as long as he shoots 32% on volume from three, he will be fine here.
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I interpreted what he was saying as what you're saying was the hoped for explanation, but it's turning out he might actually just be a bad shooter.

Also I'm not sorry, but 32% for our sharpshooter would be a joke. He's gotta be at minimum 34% for the role we need him to play here.
 
#258      
hoopsfan47
PleaseMakeABowlGame said:
Sleepers guys think Andrej will be a bust.
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Well, they are the experts. I am assuming they have never been wrong... wait...on second thought....disregard the previous. They know nothing and have proven it.

But, I do know better than to make predictions against BU being a poor judge of talent and how it fits his team's needs. So I won't.

And 34% from the arc is OK as long as he is over 50% inside the arc, feed the big dogs, and open up others with his drives. We shall see, I think he wants to win and those kinds find a way.
 
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#259      
Poe's Law
21ChampaignSt said:
I'll play.

If we're talking about ceiling and floor in terms of the NCAA tournament, the ceiling is always going to be national champ and the floor is always going to missing the tournament. If you simulated the season 100,000 times, we'd probably win at least 1 Natty and would probably miss the tourney at least 1 time.

It sounds like what the OP is calling floor and ceiling are the upper and lower limits of the interquartile range of a normal distribution. Basically a range of what he believes are the most probable outcomes. And honestly, this is probably the best way of thinking of it - even if I don't necessarily agree with the prediction...or the assertion that those are the only possible outcomes of the season.

This discussion though has me questioning the entire point and application of floors and ceilings. It's so theoretical and impossible to prove.

I motion to start talking about our potential in terms of "to the window" and "to the wall".

If our season goes to the window, we'll still at least make the tournament through talent and coaching alone. But if we go all the way to the wall, we could be looking at a Final Four. We have the 12th most returning minutes of any high major team. But looking just at high major teams that made the tournament last year (teams who return minutes from a good team) we are 5th. Absolutely the profile of a Final Four team.
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Lil Jon, he always tells the truth.
 
#261      
IlliniFan42
Not to reopen the ceiling discussion, but here's last season's Sweet 16 3-Pt graph-


You could see why there's reasonable concern if our shooter is shooting sub-34% from 3. It's also getting close to a decade since a team made the Final Four shooting sub-34% from 3.
 
#265      
the juiceman cometh
Mobi said:
That's where I don't agree with Brad. If you want to be a 3pt shooting team, at least find a really good one or two shooters (Plummer qualified as one for me.) Perhaps they thought KJ and Kylan would be very good shooters but obviously they were wrong.
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He kinda did that, but they regressed. BH was a 41% 3pt shooter who came here and shot 34%. KB was a 38% 3p shooter who came here and shot 25%.
 
#266      
BalloonsTheElephant
IlliniFan42 said:
I interpreted what he was saying as what you're saying was the hoped for explanation, but it's turning out he might actually just be a bad shooter.

Also I'm not sorry, but 32% for our sharpshooter would be a joke. He's gotta be at minimum 34% for the role we need him to play here.
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My whole part was laden with sarcasm. I had initially worried about his shooting percentages, but was constantly told it was because he was the best option on the team and had the ball late in the shot clock.

Either way, his value isn't derived from his 3P%, but it would be nice to see it at 35%. He's supposed to be a much better Tre White.

If he is a bit of a bust, it will be a bad look since we supposedly were attempting to turn him for months before he came here. Not saying that's the case, I'd only be concerned if one of the insiders were saying the same thing.
 
#268      
Fly Illini Fly!
Illiniforlife said:
I completely agree with this statement. I’ve spoken with a few people who’ve had conversations with Tyler Underwood, and it sounds like the staff has been somewhat disappointed in Andrej. According to what I heard, Tyler mentioned that while Andrej is clearly a good athlete—as we all know—he really struggles with shooting, which is obviously a concern.

Of course, time will tell, but based on what we've heard so far, I’m not expecting him to live up to the reported $2.5 million investment.
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Sell.... unless there's confirmation from our very own insiders.
 
#271      
Bigtex
BalloonsTheElephant said:
But his lower shooting percentages were because he was THE guy. At least that what we were told. This may also be trolling. Either way, as long as he shoots 32% on volume from three, he will be fine here.
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unfortunately Illinois has had plenty of 32% 3 point shooters. Need 40+% 3 point shooters and I am not saying AS should/will shoot that effectively but Illinois needs a couple of 40% 3 point shooters on the team.
 
#272      
Bigtex
the juiceman cometh said:
Since when is Stoj supposed to be our "sharpshooter"? Did I miss something? Even when he was "the guy" at Cal he was only 3rd on the team in 3pt attempts (and by the way, 5 Illini had more attempts than Stoj did last season).
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But his father could shoot....
 
#274      
RollChief
In exactly one month from now we'll be 3 days away from the ISU exhibition game and the unofficial start of basketball season. Pretty cool if you ask me, even if Stoj shoots 32% instead of 34% from 3
 
#275      
21ChampaignSt
217sports said:
I am once again here to beg people to stop listening to their trash and especially stop bringing it up on the board. All they are trying to do is get clicks from Illini fans.
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I would argue the publicity is a net positive for our brand / program. You want people talking about you. And while they enjoy their hot takes, it's not like they troll our program. On the contrary, they're usually pretty quick to hop on our bandwagon and sing our praises when we look good.

And sure, they just want clicks from Illini fans. But so does Illini Inquirer, et al.
 
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