Illini Basketball 2025-2026

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#151      
RollChief
I’m working on a theory that Illinois has one of the oldest rosters in college basketball (possibly the oldest) with an average age around 21.2.

Ben is 23, the Ivisic's are 22, Mihailo is 22, Ty is 21, Stoj is 21, KB is 20, Mirk and Brandon Lee are 19)

My theory is that this maturity will give them an edge in high-pressure moments (I’ve been calling it the “developed prefrontal cortex theory", though the name’s still a work in progress).

Compiling the data to prove this is tricky, but it should become clearer once KenPom releases the full 2025–26 roster information.
 
#152      
BWA
RollChief said:
I’m working on a theory that Illinois has one of the oldest rosters in college basketball (possibly the oldest) with an average age around 21.2.

Ben is 23, the Ivisic's are 22, Mihailo is 22, Ty is 21, Stoj is 21, KB is 20, Mirk and Brandon Lee are 19)

My theory is that this maturity will give them an edge in high-pressure moments (I’ve been calling it the “developed prefrontal cortex theory", though the name’s still a work in progress).

Compiling the data to prove this is tricky, but it should become clearer once KenPom releases the full 2025–26 roster information.
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So outside of our freshman out youngest Guy is a 20YO senior. Wild.
 
#153      
ImGonnaBeILL
Love we've went older route but it will ultimately depend how all the pieces fit together on the court. Petrovic & Peja have spent little time with others and little to no time together

I think the average age of Kansas's roster last season was 40 and they had zero passion and never felt they gelled

JMO Id be absolutely fine with Ben playing some minutes at the 5 off bench. I thought he was his most productive as backup 5 when Morez was out. The absolute last thing I want to see him doing is roaming the perimeter and getting toasted due to slow feet. I think the extra weight will also help him in post defensively
 
#154      
sacraig
RollChief said:
I’m working on a theory that Illinois has one of the oldest rosters in college basketball (possibly the oldest) with an average age around 21.2.

Ben is 23, the Ivisic's are 22, Mihailo is 22, Ty is 21, Stoj is 21, KB is 20, Mirk and Brandon Lee are 19)

My theory is that this maturity will give them an edge in high-pressure moments (I’ve been calling it the “developed prefrontal cortex theory", though the name’s still a work in progress).

Compiling the data to prove this is tricky, but it should become clearer once the selection committee releases the full 2026 NCAA tournament bracket.
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FIFY
 
#155      
RollChief
sacraig said:
FIFY
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Sorry should have clarified, meant if they actually are one of the oldest teams, not the success of age yet.

Turns out tracking down birthdays of full rosters is pretty time-consuming. D-1 experience is tracked by KenPom, so I'm going to use that as a starting point (I'm expecting their D-1 experience calculation to be pretty high too, but understated as we have several players with professional basketball experience but no D-1 experience).
 
#156      
21ChampaignSt
RollChief said:
Sorry should have clarified, meant if they actually are one of the oldest teams, not the success of age yet.

Turns out tracking down birthdays of full rosters is pretty time-consuming. D-1 experience is tracked by KenPom, so I'm going to use that as a starting point (I'm expecting their D-1 experience calculation to be pretty high too, but understated as we have several players with professional basketball experience but no D-1 experience).
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Torvik has this available. We're 43rd in experience among high major schools if I counted correctly. That is because, as you noted, we have some older international guys who don't have much D1 experience.

Just from glancing, it doesn't seem like in Torvik's model there's a high correlation between experience and where he has the team ranked preseason. This makes sense if you think about it. The most experienced rosters are full of guys who aren't next level talents (broadly speaking).

For returning minutes though, we're ranked 12th among high majors and that does seem to correlate more strongly with higher rankings in his model. And actually (🤓) it's been shown time and time again in the transfer portal era and before, that the more returning minutes you have the more likely you are to be better than the year before. And teams who go deep into the tournament also tend to have a higher percentage of returning minutes.

Being able to build off the previous year rather than starting from scratch is such a huge competitive advantage.
 
#159      
RollChief
The exhibition might be interesting!

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#160      
IlliniFan42
You think we're gonna lose because it's UConn in NYC.

I think we're gonna lose because 12:30 Eastern translates to 11:30 Central and we hate morning games.

We are not the same.
 
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