Illini Basketball 2025-2026
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I am certainly no expert nor someone who has witnessed practices, etc., in person, but I would venture a “no” to the question about Wagler starting over Petrovic. First, Wagler is a freshman. Not that some freshmen haven’t started, but it doesn’t happen all that often (I think). But, he might and probably will play starter’s minutes at some point. Second, as Indy stated about Petrovic, "He’s the best pure PG Brad has ever had”. And I think once he gets acclimated to everything, he is going to be really good. And third, I forget, but isn’t there a maxim about BU being reluctant to start freshmen?
I also think that the reason why some might think Petrovic’s stock is down is because all the hype has been around how much KW has exceeded expectations. Greatly so. And I think Petrovic has just met expectations, which isn’t a bad thing, quite the opposite. Because he was already considered to be really good (elite). But his progress is not as newsworthy as KW’s unexpectedly being so much better than anyone thought a while ago.
GrayGhost77
- Centennial, CO
Our staff can evaluate talent.
Wagler was a Tyler recruit correct?
Unless they do away with medical redshirts entirely (and players given 5 years max), it makes zero financial sense for him to come back this season.
Right, I heard last season Coach Underwood did the 23andMe thing, and his origins came back 100% Balkan. Specifically, his father, Bradley Cole Underwood of Kansas, was born in Bulgaria with the surname Undurruud, which he Americanized to Underwood, after he moved to McPherson, Kansas.
Tyler will be a great head coach in the future when his number is called.
And don’t forget, they can count
Some might say Elite...
What happens is those games get forfeited. Cannot do that.
I'd just like to see the best players start. Not doing so last year was unideal, IMO.
Yea it was very frustrating when Ben would have one of his bad games and he’d have 32 minutes while Morez had like 9 minutes.
I have him at 6.5 PPG on just 15.0 MPG, but that is a nice scoring clip of 6.5 / 15.0 = 0.43 PPM. Yes, this could easily hit double digits with just 10.0 / 0.43 = 23.3 MPG, say if Andrej's knee injury lingered or if Mihailo's eligibility were delayed. Obvious, we don't want either of those though, so that it makes it hard for Keaton to get more PT. I expect him to play well with his limited time (similar to what Will did last season) and have you wondering how much this kid could score, if our team just weren't so loaded with talent.
why have people suddenly started discussing that petrovic has a more difficult path than tomi or that he will miss the start of the season. there is nothing to suggest that for now
Well, imho, and without a shred of evidence, I think Petrovic will be cleared at least by the start of the season (Nov. 3). I also don’t see why he would not start for the ISU exhibition game and the secret scrimmage with Florida. They don’t count. If he is playing those games without being cleared yet, so what? I don’t know if whoever makes the decision that Illinois forfeits those games, would they? What would be the point? Can they forfeit a game that does not count as either a win or a loss?
On the other hand, maybe they would suspend him for playing in those games?
I would believe that your last sentence might raise some red flags. I would also think that the AD would want to keep the basketball team in compliance with the rules.
He has been cleared to practice, and exhibitions are glorified practice. There shouldn't be an issue with those games.
I doubt that the NCAA will intentionally let the review process drag into the start of the season. It seems like it would be a net negative to not have reviews/approvals sorted out for high-impact players in major (high-revenue) markets.
If I had to guess, even though there have been more legal precedents set in these cases, it seems like this year there are substantially more overseas players, thus more cases to work through. If you've been following Kevin Sweeney's daily top 25 updates, it seems like each team has its shiny new European player. It would be interesting to see the percentage difference in foreign-born NCAA basketball players from last season to this season.
Thanks for the reminder. So, I looked at last year’s schedule, and he played in the Ole Miss exhibition game on Oct. 24th. So, I would assume MP will play the exhibition game, and I don’t think there is any question that he would play in the secret scrimmage. It’s secret, so the powers that be who would determine forfeiture or suspension won’t know about it.
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