Illini Basketball 2025-2026

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#801      
Oranges
LvilleILL1 said:
The score was indeed 96-86.

Heard that it was extremely close throughout the game. Florida pulled away to win at the very end.

Mihailo played a little bit, but they did not have him out there much (heard 8 minutes-did not want to risk anything).

No Stojakovic as I mentioned earlier this week.

Tomislav Ivisic was on a minute limit and looked "extremely good." Heard he had over 15 points in 18 minutes.

Keaton Wagler with another big step, he was in double digits scoring and knocked down multiple threes.

Boswell led the team in scoring and looked really good. We are in for a big year from him.

Lastly, and most important:

David Mirkovic with 16 and 6 against one of the best frontcourts in the country. "He's the real deal."
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Can’t wait to see Mirk and Tomi play together
 
#806      
hoopsfan47
From the beginning of this team being finalized, it was a huge question as to their ability to keep other talented teams from scoring. That seems to be proving true, but does not need to be a permanent thing. I was hoping Z could play some great interior defense. Yet, while he is pretty athletic as a shot blocker, his defensive tendencies need work. DM is a frosh, Tomi is so-so, and Ben has a weak history but a new body. There is a definite hill to climb but that does not mean it is an insurmountable peak. Let's nope the coaching Serpas can lead them to the summit, providing the will is present..
 
#808      
Combo
hoopsfan47 said:
From the beginning of this team being finalized, it was a huge question as to their ability to keep other talented teams from scoring. That seems to be proving true, but does not need to be a permanent thing. I was hoping Z could play some great interior defense. Yet, while he is pretty athletic as a shot blocker, his defensive tendencies need work. DM is a frosh, Tomi is so-so, and Ben has a weak history but a new body. There is a definite hill to climb but that does not mean it is an insurmountable peak. Let's nope the coaching Serpas can lead them to the summit, providing the will is present..
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Realistically I'm hoping for just above average defense from this group. We just aren't that quick or athletic to be a great defensive team. Offense OTOH could be as good as any team we've had.
 
#809      
doowink
hoopsfan47 said:
From the beginning of this team being finalized, it was a huge question as to their ability to keep other talented teams from scoring. That seems to be proving true, but does not need to be a permanent thing. I was hoping Z could play some great interior defense. Yet, while he is pretty athletic as a shot blocker, his defensive tendencies need work. DM is a frosh, Tomi is so-so, and Ben has a weak history but a new body. There is a definite hill to climb but that does not mean it is an insurmountable peak. Let's nope the coaching Serpas can lead them to the summit, providing the will is present..
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When Ty returns that should be a big Defensive boost
 
#810      
BWA
LvilleILL1 said:
Jake Davis feels like the guys who may struggle for minutes right now, especially with Andrej S coming back soon.
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Really not a bad guy to have deep on the bench though for when injuries or fouls inevitably happen. Not a guy who’s gonna try to do too much and make mistakes
 
#811      
Troop44
Let's remember that Florida was without arguably their most important player in Boogie though.
 
#812      
Illinilosch
Troop44 said:
Let's remember that Florida was without arguably their most important player in Boogie though.
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And I assume we were minus Andrej as well. So not a bad showing.

It's just a exo after all...nothing much to judge or freak out from. Just a time to get guys some reps and for the team to gel.
 
#814      
Rebounding Dog
Welcome to Basketball 2025 … NBA no longer gives a rats behind about defense why should college.
Illini should be better D wise than last year! Hope that makes ya feel a little better!
 
#818      
cjw1901
steelmen72 said:
Once again Illinois is allergic to playing defense. Scoring is never a problem but defense needs major work even under the new assistant coach.
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Right, it's understandable that we didn't win this game and that our offense might be down with Stojakovic still out and with limited minutes for Tomi. But it's NOT okay to give up 53 points in the first half (96 on the game) and supposedly get outrebounded (42-39) partly due to giving up 18 offensive boards. Comparatively, we gave up only 9 offensive boards to ISU and averaged giving up 9.0 offensive boards last season. A lot better would be keeping the Gators to about 80 points (even if you lose) and winning that rebounding battle, due to our overall height and weight advantages. Disappointingly, we couldn't manage that against the Gators.

Instead, it sounded like two guys (6-11 235-lb Condon and 6-10 265-lb Chinyelu) dominated us inside (largely against the Ivisic brothers in the half) to the point that Coach Underwood was blowing his top at halftime about being more physical. A big part of the reason we got smoked for 53 points in the first half was seemingly due to all this rebounding by the Gators. It sounds like Underwood's fireworks had an effect in the beginning of the 2nd half though. Illinois reasserted themselves and somewhat evened out the rebounding game to come back to a position where they could have even won this game. But we still ended up giving up too many points down the stretch. Florida scored 43 in 2nd half or 96 total, likely led by Condon and Haugh (each with about 20 points on the game) and seemingly about 5 Florida guys (possibly their starting 5) in double figures. That's just not enough defense to win tough games on the road in the Big Ten Conference. It looks like this Illinois team is going to struggle their unless we learn to better use our height and weight advantages to rebound better and play better defense to limit good teams about 80 points, not almost 100 points.
 
#819      
Second place is 1st loser
This was my concern last year and again this year. Against any team that really hits the glass hard or has formidable athletes in the paint......unless we hit the three, we'll have major problems.

That was last year in a nutshell. Any time we played an Uber athletic team, we got handled.
 
#820      
lstewart53x3
cjw1901 said:
Right, it's understandable that we didn't win this game and that our offense might be down with Stojakovic still out and with limited minutes for Tomi. But it's NOT okay to give up 53 points in the first half (96 on the game) and supposedly get outrebounded (42-39) partly due to giving up 18 offensive boards. Comparatively, we gave up only 9 offensive boards to ISU and averaged giving up 9.0 offensive boards last season. A lot better would be keeping the Gators to about 80 points (even if you lose) and winning that rebounding battle, due to our overall height and weight advantages. Disappointingly, we couldn't manage that against the Gators.

Instead, it sounded like two guys (6-11 235-lb Condon and 6-10 265-lb Chinyelu) dominated us inside (largely against the Ivisic brothers in the half) to the point that Coach Underwood was blowing his top at halftime about being more physical. A big part of the reason we got smoked for 53 points in the first half was seemingly due to all this rebounding by the Gators. It sounds like Underwood's fireworks had an effect in the beginning of the 2nd half though. Illinois reasserted themselves and somewhat evened out the rebounding game to come back to a position where they could have even won this game. But we still ended up giving up too many points down the stretch. Florida scored 43 in 2nd half or 96 total, likely led by Condon and Haugh (each with about 20 points on the game) and seemingly about 5 Florida guys (possibly their starting 5) in double figures. That's just not enough defense to win tough games on the road in the Big Ten Conference. It looks like this Illinois team is going to struggle their unless we learn to better use our height and weight advantages to rebound better and play better defense to limit good teams about 80 points, not almost 100 points.
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Everything is not fine. Good night.
 
#821      
IlliniFan42
cjw1901 said:
Right, it's understandable that we didn't win this game and that our offense might be down with Stojakovic still out and with limited minutes for Tomi. But it's NOT okay to give up 53 points in the first half (96 on the game) and supposedly get outrebounded (42-39) partly due to giving up 18 offensive boards. Comparatively, we gave up only 9 offensive boards to ISU and averaged giving up 9.0 offensive boards last season. A lot better would be keeping the Gators to about 80 points (even if you lose) and winning that rebounding battle, due to our overall height and weight advantages. Disappointingly, we couldn't manage that against the Gators.

Instead, it sounded like two guys (6-11 235-lb Condon and 6-10 265-lb Chinyelu) dominated us inside (largely against the Ivisic brothers in the half) to the point that Coach Underwood was blowing his top at halftime about being more physical. A big part of the reason we got smoked for 53 points in the first half was seemingly due to all this rebounding by the Gators. It sounds like Underwood's fireworks had an effect in the beginning of the 2nd half though. Illinois reasserted themselves and somewhat evened out the rebounding game to come back to a position where they could have even won this game. But we still ended up giving up too many points down the stretch. Florida scored 43 in 2nd half or 96 total, likely led by Condon and Haugh (each with about 20 points on the game) and seemingly about 5 Florida guys (possibly their starting 5) in double figures. That's just not enough defense to win tough games on the road in the Big Ten Conference. It looks like this Illinois team is going to struggle their unless we learn to better use our height and weight advantages to rebound better and play better defense to limit good teams about 80 points, not almost 100 points.
Click to expand...
So basically the Ivisic brothers are not beating the defensive cone allegations
 
#822      
Big Jack
the walking dead smh GIF
 
#825      
Illini in Italy
cjw1901 said:
Right, it's understandable that we didn't win this game and that our offense might be down with Stojakovic still out and with limited minutes for Tomi. But it's NOT okay to give up 53 points in the first half (96 on the game) and supposedly get outrebounded (42-39) partly due to giving up 18 offensive boards. Comparatively, we gave up only 9 offensive boards to ISU and averaged giving up 9.0 offensive boards last season. A lot better would be keeping the Gators to about 80 points (even if you lose) and winning that rebounding battle, due to our overall height and weight advantages. Disappointingly, we couldn't manage that against the Gators.

Instead, it sounded like two guys (6-11 235-lb Condon and 6-10 265-lb Chinyelu) dominated us inside (largely against the Ivisic brothers in the half) to the point that Coach Underwood was blowing his top at halftime about being more physical. A big part of the reason we got smoked for 53 points in the first half was seemingly due to all this rebounding by the Gators. It sounds like Underwood's fireworks had an effect in the beginning of the 2nd half though. Illinois reasserted themselves and somewhat evened out the rebounding game to come back to a position where they could have even won this game. But we still ended up giving up too many points down the stretch. Florida scored 43 in 2nd half or 96 total, likely led by Condon and Haugh (each with about 20 points on the game) and seemingly about 5 Florida guys (possibly their starting 5) in double figures. That's just not enough defense to win tough games on the road in the Big Ten Conference. It looks like this Illinois team is going to struggle their unless we learn to better use our height and weight advantages to rebound better and play better defense to limit good teams about 80 points, not almost 100 points.
Click to expand...
Excuse Me What GIF by Bounce
 
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