Wait, am I understanding this right? There's going to be no discussion thread for the secret scrimmage?
Illini Basketball 2025-2026
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Joel Goodson
- how was I to know, she was with the Russians too?
Mirk did what I was half expecting all along. Thinking he is coming off the the bench is ridiculous.
I thought the finals were some of the most intense defense I’ve ever seen. Okc being about as physical as can be, and Indiana just in your shorts the entire length of the court all game.
And not to nitpick, but T had 19 and 6 in that game. He belonged just fine.
I'm a big fan of T, but you need to go through the numbers, then ask yourself what you want out of your 7'1" center. In that game, T took 15 shots and 12 of them were threes. He was 5/12 from three, 1/3 inside the line and 2 of 3 from the foul line. He never put any pressure on the UK bigs.
Defensively, he's not physical and I wouldn't put him in the intimidating category. Kentucky murdered us in the lane and while I like Oweh and Brea.....they made it look too easy and it really was. The got in the paint and hit a floater time after time after time.
It looks, to me, like our style of play from last year is going to be similar. We're going to score a ton, shoot a lot of perimeter jumpers, but let up a lot of points.
With regards to the NBA.....they only care when it's the playoffs, which is why the product is unbearable to watch until the playoffs. If 5 months of half effort play.
It was 40-32 points in the paint that game, we out rebounded them 44-36 and we had more blocks than them - Big T had as many blocks as the entire UK team combined. I’d hardly classify that as a “murder” in the lane.
Our problem that game was we couldn’t hit a 3 and lost the turnover battle 14-5. I think you’re off on this one.
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I will take 41% shooting 3’s from my 7’1 center! Should have shot 12 more! Pressure on the UK bigs? T drops 5/12 3’s puts a lot of pressure on their team D.
T is bigger and stronger this year… I would expect a stronger inside game.
Yeah… we will score a lot, likely an elite scoring team 85-90 per. I do think our D will be better than last year!
blackdog
- Champaign
The problem with last years team wasn't the lack of athletes its that two of our major players were absolutely atrocious defensively and it hurt everybody. Go back and watch the tape and you will see that Will and KJ were responsible for so many of the defensive lapses that happened. I love them and knew they weren't great defenders but watching a lot of the draft profile videos really drove home just how bad they were. It made everyone else and the scheme look a lot worse than it was.
Dan
Admin
Probably when the IL@Wisconsin football game time&tv gets announced- Mon, Nov 10 or the weekend of Nov 15.
(Last year when similar overlap happened, Rutgers football game was announced for 11am then Maryland Eastern Shore basketball was set for 3pm.)
I think this thread is fine to discuss Saturday's scrimmage, as we're not anticipating having live video of the event.
Govoner Vaugn Fan
- New Orleans
there is such a thread, but it's location is a secret.
If that's going to be the case, we cannot complain that we shoot too many threes in a game, which is the #1 complaint in game threads and in post game threads. Not sure that you've been on those? It's a treat.
Like I said, it's really what you want out of your big man. Do you want him 20 feet from the basket or would you rather have him in the pain, providing an inside presence(easy hoops, drawing fouls, inside/outside dynamic, etc). I don't mind our bigs shooting threes, just not 75% of his shots.
We absolutely need someone to step up and give us some interior play on both ends. That's what makes losing Morez difficult. He was that guy. He'd get dirty baskets, get second chance points, get muscle rebounds, etc. Admittedly, I have not seen Big Z play outside of against us otr Mirk outside of a scrimmage vs ISU. Those are my data points. I'm hoping that if T is going to make the perimeter game his MO........we have guys who have the size, physicality and explosive athleticism to play the interior. That was a major problem, especially defensively.
That's a fantastic point. Given the size of WR and KJ, they should have been far more disruptive than they were. A lot of times, they'd get beaten and it'd be a straight line drive to the hoop. In Will's case, he was just underdeveloped physically. What was he, 17, when he showed up? KJ was disappointing being a guy who came over from being in a pro league. He was a joy to watch when he got in a heater, but defensively, he got broke down and would often end up in foul trouble and offensively, he was a turnover machine.
If they would have provided what we thought they were going to, you could live with 7'1" being used as such.
This comment is going to get a lot of support, but drop coverage was just an awful scheme. That's where KY and MSU specifically hurt us. When you have NBA caliber people who can comfortably hit open 15 footers, it's a problem. That happened in Champaign vs MSU and vs KY in Milwaukee. The game against Duke and that alley oop fest .... we'll just leave that alone.
Your point is well taken however.
I actually don't hate this take. It does seem that more athletic teams are just better at overwhelming their opponents and are particularly dangerous in tournament settings where there's limited prep time.
However, the way you counter that is with good shooting, passing, and chemistry and I think we'll have all that this year.
Defense has always been the wildcard for this team though. The predictive analytics think we'll have a good defense which is why we're ranked so highly in their models. More qualitative analysis tends to be skeptical of our defense. That will likely be the difference between a top 10 type of season and a top 25 season.
Thanks for the info. That'd be sweet if its an afternoon game. Get a few more winks in before heading down.
blackdog
- Champaign
Illinois was #1 in the league in offensive rebounding so having Tomi out of the paint didnt hurt with second chance points and getting dirty buckets. In fact it almost makes it easier for other guys crashing the glass because you dont let the other team get easy position for a rebound.
The modern game has shown that floor spacing is king and the more you can space the floor the more efficient your offense is going to be. Keeping the defense spread out gives more room for drives and cuts, makes it easier to move the ball side to side, makes the defense work harder to cover more space, and puts defenders in positions they might not be used to covering.
Going back and watching old games where they used to have two big guys in the paint is just painful. It was ugly and made life so difficult for everyone on offense.
Ya, but per Morez and Fam, he doesn’t want to be that guy - he wants to be on the perimeter.
Even when Morez did play that role, my issue with him is that it actually didn’t translate to defense. He’s too small to rim protect.
Bigtex
- DFW
I think Purdue recently won 26 in a row at Mackey and they lost or it was broken last year. @Fighter of the Nightman Any data on longest Illinois home winning streaks and sellouts in row? At the end of this season they will have sold out Mackey 105 straight games.
If we shoot a lot of 3's we need to be more efficiant than last year. I like T out to stretch thinsg with the O running through him. He is a unique palyer.
Yes...we need to be good in the paint...T,Z,Mirk and Ben could be pretty good in the paint (better than last year with Rez)....last year when T was not on the floor we had stuggles...I don't see that this year.
BTW...I won't complain about shooting too many 3's! If I do you can call me on the carpet!
Tophe
- Middle TN
I'm not FotN but from the record book on fightingillini.com -
Longest Winning Streak - Home Games: 33 (Jan. 17, 2004 thru Jan. 28, 2006)
Most Consecutive Sellouts - 60, 1st vs. Wake Forest (12/1/2005), 60th vs. Minnesota (3/8/2008)
Mackey is a small arena (about 14k). That streak might be shorter if it was larger. There are 10 bigger stadiums in the conference.
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Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I was going to say, I am not sure if it was the longest ever, but I SO distinctly remember us losing at home to an unranked PSU team after a buzzer beater (by McBride??) was waived off, ending a home winning streak of 30+ games.
If that streak was 33 games, it REALLY is a shame that we dropped the ball so hard vs. a bad PSU team. If that buzzer beater counted and we survived, the home winning streak eventually would have reached 42 games (!!) before we lost to Maryland at home in the 2006-07 Big Ten/ACC Challenge. FWIW, these are the longest home winning streaks in the Underwood Era ... one aspect of this resurgence that has left a LOT to be desired, if you ask me. We need to get Champaign back to a place where opponents simply don't come away with a W.
10 games from Jan. 19, 2021 to Dec. 11, 2021 ... ended by losing to #11 Arizona
9 games from Feb. 24, 2020 to Jan. 10, 2021 ... ended by losing to Maryland
8 games from Jan. 24, 2023 to Nov. 14, 2023 ... ended by losing to #4 Marquette
7 games from Dec. 11, 2019 to Feb. 7, 2020 ... ended by losing to #9 Maryland
7 games from Nov. 17, 2023 to Jan. 14, 2024 ... ended by losing to Maryland
7 games from March 3, 2022 to Dec. 10, 2022 ... ended by losing to Penn State
We are currently on a 2-game winning streak in Champaign, dating back to our wins vs. Iowa (Feb. 25) and #18 Purdue (March 7) to close out last year. That streak SHOULD get to at least 4 if we can start out 2-0 this year vs. Jackson State and FGCU, haha. #7 Texas Tech will be a test, but if we can beat the Red Raiders, the door is wide open to get to a 12-game home winning streak before our boogeyman Maryland comes to town on January 21, and possibly up to 15 straight before we face #24 Wisconsin on February 10.
Going undefeated at home this season honestly isn't that crazy ... we haven't done it yet with Underwood, so I won't hold my breath. However, SFC will be extra-amped for Texas Tech in November, and we have just had Michigan's number ... everything between those games are home games we simply should win.
Winning is fun. But I didn't really enjoy watching us play like that.
I'm definitely concerned that a similar offensive scheme might run into adjustments this year that make it harder to win on nights when you go 10 of 35 from 3.
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