Illini Basketball 2025-2026

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#27      
illinifan1987
BretMyBeachHouse said:
That percentage would be very disappointing. Week night. No way Bama basketball travels like that.
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I Hear You No GIF by ION
 
#29      
illinifan1987
RollChief said:
I think one thing that you may be understating in your guess is the amount of Bama alumni in Chicago. My best guess is that there are probably 10K-15K Bama alumni living in Chicago currently. For a good part of the 2010s, Alabama had very lax guidelines for full-ride scholarships, which attracted a lot of Chicago/Illinois students.

At one point, Illinois accounted for the second largest group of students by state after Alabama for total enrollment. I would venture to guess that 80-90% of those students ended back up in Chicago after graduation. Alabama tightened up the parameters for these scholarships, so Illinois enrollment at Bama has dropped to 5th (was 3rd in 2022) to around 1,500 students, but there is still a pretty healthy Bama alumni base in Chicago.

My point is that you probably have more fans than you think who don't have to travel all the way from Alabama for this game. Certainly way more Bama fans in Chicago than BYU, Oregon, Auburn, UNLV, Gonzaga, Georgia, Arizona, or any others on the list of teams the Illini have played at the United Center (outside of B1G teams).
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Exactly! Bama has to have the highest number of bandwagon fans in the country. With them doing incredibly well in basketball over the last few years, I'm expecting 70/30. If Illini fans don't buy the tickets, I'm certain there are plenty of Bama fans that would buy cheap ones.
 
#32      
cjw1901
Rebounding Dog said:
I don’t know …. unlikely! lists at 6-9 still. I think Brad said he gained 20-25 lbs of muscle!
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Right, but still noticeably smaller in the chest, shoulders, and arms than 19-year-old David Mirkovic, especially standing side-by-side in recent practice videos. Markovic was 1st in rebounding for SC Derby last season with 6.4 RPG, while Humrichous was 7th on Illinois in rebounding at just 3.8 RPG. Let's not kid ourselves (or use his age of 23 as a factor) to wrongly start Ben over David. Yes, Ben shot 3s better at 34% vs 28%, but that is honestly not what we need in the #4 spot. We need to fill the huge void left by Morez Johnson leaving for Michigan, and 19yo Mirkovic is the man for that job. Obviously, I do see a smaller but helpful supporting role for Humrichous of about 10 minutes per game.
 
#33      
BretMyBeachHouse
cjw1901 said:
Right, but still noticeably smaller in the chest, shoulders, and arms than 19-year-old David Mirkovic, especially standing side-by-side in recent practice videos. Markovic was 1st in rebounding for SC Derby last season with 6.4 RPG, while Humrichous was 7th on Illinois in rebounding at just 3.8 RPG. Let's not kid ourselves (or use his age of 23 as a factor) to wrongly start Ben over David. Yes, Ben shot 3s better at 34% vs 28%, but that is honestly not what we need in the #4 spot. We need to fill the huge void left by Morez Johnson leaving for Michigan, and 19yo Mirkovic is the man for that job. Obviously, I do see a smaller but helpful supporting role for Humrichous of about 10 minutes per game.
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We need to see it on the court before we know. Chest size doesn't equal playing time.

That said, the fan base will be hyper sensitive, and rightly so, about Ben's minutes when good substitutes are on the bench.
 
#35      
Big Jack
cjw1901 said:
Right, but still noticeably smaller in the chest, shoulders, and arms than 19-year-old David Mirkovic, especially standing side-by-side in recent practice videos. Markovic was 1st in rebounding for SC Derby last season with 6.4 RPG, while Humrichous was 7th on Illinois in rebounding at just 3.8 RPG. Let's not kid ourselves (or use his age of 23 as a factor) to wrongly start Ben over David. Yes, Ben shot 3s better at 34% vs 28%, but that is honestly not what we need in the #4 spot. We need to fill the huge void left by Morez Johnson leaving for Michigan, and 19yo Mirkovic is the man for that job. Obviously, I do see a smaller but helpful supporting role for Humrichous of about 10 minutes per game.
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I agree to an extent with your comment but Tomi is going to play the 4 with Big Z at the 5. Then we will see the sub patterns but like you I see Ben as a 10 minute sub
 
#36      
Guest
PizzaHutParkingLot said:
Anyone in the know have an idea of when this thing will tip?
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I went to the UC website in search of tickets, and it says 7 p.m.

ILLINOIS VS. ALABAMA MEN'S BASKETBALL November 19, 2025 7:00 PM

And the reason I was searching for tickets is that I don’t like paying the exorbitant prices those third-party suppliers, like Ticketmaster, charge (plus they just seem to be very slimy businesses). So, I was wondering if there are any other ticket outlets that aren’t as slimy. I tried U of I tickets, but for some reason, it won’t load in any of my browsers. And UC didn’t seem to have a way to buy from them directly (although, evidently, I could book a suite).
 
#37      
CoalCity
cjw1901 said:
Right, but still noticeably smaller in the chest, shoulders, and arms than 19-year-old David Mirkovic, especially standing side-by-side in recent practice videos. Markovic was 1st in rebounding for SC Derby last season with 6.4 RPG, while Humrichous was 7th on Illinois in rebounding at just 3.8 RPG. Let's not kid ourselves (or use his age of 23 as a factor) to wrongly start Ben over David. Yes, Ben shot 3s better at 34% vs 28%, but that is honestly not what we need in the #4 spot. We need to fill the huge void left by Morez Johnson leaving for Michigan, and 19yo Mirkovic is the man for that job. Obviously, I do see a smaller but helpful supporting role for Humrichous of about 10 minutes per game.
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I'm kinda shocked about the stat of 3.8 RPG. I would have guessed about 1. I agree about Mirk, I think some will be surprised by his game
 
#38      
jjv0004
illinifan1987 said:
Exactly! Bama has to have the highest number of bandwagon fans in the country. With them doing incredibly well in basketball over the last few years, I'm expecting 70/30. If Illini fans don't buy the tickets, I'm certain there are plenty of Bama fans that would buy cheap ones.
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Just curious. Why would Bama have the most bandwagon fans in the U.S.? Because they won 6 national championships in football over 12 years? I thought most people actually tend to dislike the teams that win.
 
#39      
IlliniFan42
jjv0004 said:
Just curious. Why would Bama have the most bandwagon fans in the U.S.? Because they won 6 national championships in football over 12 years? I thought most people actually tend to dislike the teams that win.
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People who are already fans of other teams hate the winning team, but non-fans become fans of the winning team because it makes them feel like they're not wasting their time when they pay attention for a month.
 
#40      
Fighter of the Nightman
jjv0004 said:
Just curious. Why would Bama have the most bandwagon fans in the U.S.? Because they won 6 national championships in football over 12 years? I thought most people actually tend to dislike the teams that win.
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This is over ten years old now and has obvious flaws for predicting ACTUAL fan breakdown in a given area, but take a look at the New York Times' college football fan map based on Facebook likes. Here are some random zip code examples from seemingly random areas of the country. Keep in mind, they only show the top three, so even if the third has a relatively small percentage ... it's still the third most popular team in that zip code.

30064 (Atlanta, GA) ... 32% Georgia, 9% Alabama, 8% Georgia Tech
37203 (Nashville, TN) ... 24% Vanderbilt, 20% Tennessee, 8% Alabama
62901 (Carbondale, IL) ... 11% Illinois, 9% Kentucky, 6% Alabama
70126 (New Orleans, LA) ... 66% LSU, 3% Alabama, 3% Tulane
63123 (St. Louis County, MO) ... 60% Missouri, 2% Alabama, 2% Ohio State
44105 (Cleveland, OH) ... 68% Ohio State, 2% Alabama, 2% Florida
72401 (Jonesboro, AR) ... 57% Arkansas, 22% Arkansas State, 2% Alabama
26621 (Morgantown, WV) ... 71% West Virginia, 5% Ohio State, 2% Alabama

Definitely higher in the South like you'd expect, but there are definitely just bandwagon casuals everywhere who shamelessly cheer for Alabama football because they're good ... but they usually pick up someone like Duke for hoops. :ROFLMAO:
 
#46      
Rap47
You don't even know if he is even capable to help any. I hope Ben is improved enough to be the player we hoped he would be.
 
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#47      
hoopsfan47
Indy Illini Fan said:
I’ll just leave this here … 😎

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Not remotely trying to say I told you so. From the first time I started to gather info. about Wagner, I felt like he might be highly undervalued by this board. It all depended upon his athleticism and skills, especially shot-making, as to how much he could contribute as a frosh. But those things have been reported to be quite surprising and even potentially elite. Obviously, his confidence has grown as he has been exposed to big, quick, skilled, talented, and experienced teammates. I think we all are somewhat surprised. My hope is that when he sees competition, we will see a very capable frosh who is growing confidence and skill with every game. I was never convinced that a kid who impressed those who saw him play as a state champion was going to be a non-factor in is first year in B1G play. That may still turn out to be the case, but I am certainly in this kid's corner and cannot wait to see him contribute big time at some point in the next couple of seasons.

Also hoping Lee can do the same.
 
#49      
Illiniforlife
Here’s what I’ll also say—and Indy Illini Fan or LvilleILL can correct me if I’m wrong—but I’ve been told by my source that Tyler and Hammer are the ones essentially running the program right now. Personally, I’m not thrilled about that, but that’s what I was told.


I was also told that Hammer said Keaton is a one-and-done player and could be one of, if not the best, players. Now, I don’t necessarily believe that—not because I doubt my source, but because I don’t trust Hammer’s ability to evaluate talent. He’s out here offering a bunch of 3-star guys, when, with our NIL support and program prestige, we should be targeting 4- and 5-star players.

Just wanted to share this again for anyone questioning my scores—just to clarify and set the record straight.
 
#50      
Joel Goodson
I know it's way early, but helluva ID/eval job by our staff. looks like both kids were underrated, Wagler monumentally. in Wagler's case, a fair chunk has to do with not being on a shoe circuit, high vis AAU team. but still, looks like they missed the boat, big time
 
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