There’s been reports he’s gotten stronger. Also he was sick for like 75% of the season last year? I think that alone is going to sap strength.
I think Tomi is in for a massive year.
Illini Basketball 2025-2026
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I think Tomi is in for a massive year.
I mean, I'd love this, but the fact is, there's an experience factor that is always going to affect teams where the majority of your roster is new to the program, the teachings of the coach, and to each other.
There's a reason that teams who have played a long time together often seem to have a leg up on their competition regardless of athletic ability or skill.
Homecoming 2019
- Chicago
5th most returning minutes of the top 16 teams on bart torvik, so im not sure this excuse works this season.
8th most of the top 50. And only Purdue returns more minutes than us of the teams ranked higher than us on Torvik
blackdog
- Champaign
Tomi also was not bad defensively by any means. Playing sick/underweight was part of the struggle but also having to cover for poor perimeter defense put him in unwinnable positions a lot of the time.
Illinois has the 9th most returning minutes out of all power conf teams:
https://barttorvik.com/trankpre.php?sort=rmp&conlimit=
Agree here. There are going to be physical bigs who eat in the paint against us. We can live with that so long as everything else defensively isn't doo-doo
I understand that, but they did this last year when they say something is a sell out and promote is as there are no more tickets, but you can still find single seats. Single game tickets have already gone on sale, so it's not holding them back for another window. It's nit-picky, I understand, but sell-out to me means 100% of original tickets available are sold.
If its a marketing strategy to then increase interest in other games, I totally get that. Just curious what they constitute a "sell-out". At some point their ticket portal will show that no more tickets are available for a game, but should we consider that a SUPER sell-out?? This...and other first world problems are just keeping us busy.
Take out Ty Rodgers and tell me where we fit on that scale. Unlikely to me that he contributes in any on-court way this season. There isn't even a timetable on his return and the season starts in four days.
After that, your "experienced" roster is Bam, Tomi, Ben, Jake, and Jason Jakstys. Those last three guys are the guys you will have to fall back on if the new guys are struggling to mesh. Like it or not, the potential of this team that makes us surefire sweet-16 bound relies on the premise that the new guys click and play well together. And we just don't know that yet. What I do know is that we've penciled in some of the newcomers for 20-23 mpg already and that means our experience factor is going to be less impactful.
It's a very common thing we do where we look at the team on paper and say yes we should achieve x and y goal based on what we know about these players individually. That isn't how championship teams are made, though. If we don't achieve our goals, people will look at that goal and say we failed or that the coaching staff has more problems. I think it's a very different reality - that the staff year in and year out works absolute miracles to cut an entire roster together from nearly whole cloth that ends up being very good even if they do stumble into a season-ending upset.
If I could have a year two with this entire group, I would feel much better about predicting deep tournament runs. I'm really not trying to throw cold water on our potential. It's there. I can see it as well as anyone. But I'm not going to place any expectations upon these guys just yet. Just go ball out!
So we made a deal that this year all of the injuries happen before the season so we don't have to deal with them during the season, AWESOME!!
I should clarify I'm going off of the assumption that Ty comes back for conf slate as insiders have said
Mihailo isn't "experienced"?
We also mustn't gloss over the relativity piece to this - the reason we're ranked so highly in experience & continuity is because it's a huge issue across college basketball in general and not just a problem that "only Illinois has"
EDIT: Great point below too, Ty doesn't even count toward returning minutes anyhow
Mihailo isn't "experienced"?
We also mustn't gloss over the relativity piece to this - the reason we're ranked so highly in experience & continuity is because it's a huge issue across college basketball in general and not just a problem that "only Illinois has"
EDIT: Great point below too, Ty doesn't even count toward returning minutes anyhow
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Ty didn't play last year. He doesnt contribute toward our returning minutes.
We'll have more roster continuity than most teams we play this year. And as such, we should have high expectations. No reason to shy away from them.
sacraig
- The desert
...on paper. We still need to put it together into an on-the-court product.
I feel better with a star or two. When I look back at Illini basketball over the years, the tournament runs always had some incredible players. Most recently TSJ was averaging about 28 & 4 in the 3 wins getting us to the regional final. It seems like there's always an NBA level player keying the tournament success. We have several candidates this year but time will tell.
Retro62
- North Bethesda, Maryland
I admit to not having read every post related to our scrimmage against Florida, so if it's repetitious, I apologize.
I feel pretty good about it. I know Fland didn't play, but this is still the defending champ with a lot of guys back. We were without a major (hopefully) piece as well, a limited Tomi, and a coupe of freshmen getting major tick. And it sounds like we gave them a pretty serious run.
I feel pretty good about it. I know Fland didn't play, but this is still the defending champ with a lot of guys back. We were without a major (hopefully) piece as well, a limited Tomi, and a coupe of freshmen getting major tick. And it sounds like we gave them a pretty serious run.
LouHenson
- Naples Florida
Illinois will be interesting this year - and it appears for the foreseeable future? - in that they are going about roster construction very differently than most schools. It is a very interesting concept, going after “European Pros” in reality? If it works, look for many other schools to look at the model. It really is an exercise in financial responsibility vs supply and demand constraints?
This is college sports in 2025
This is college sports in 2025
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I checked the site again, and there has been unfortunately very little movement with these ticket sales. I'll admit I am a tad biased, but I do think it would be a not-ideal look for the UC to look too empty for this game ... just sends a bad message about our program, fan base and aspiring to being the default "home team" in Chicagoland. I'll be curious to see what ticket sales start to look like (A) as it gets a little closer and (B) if we are able to start 3-0 and beat Texas Tech.
Does anyone know if the DIA can run any types of specials for a game like this? Or is it entirely in the hands of the UC? Not sure how that works with neutral site games that were originally our home games. Anyway, calling all Chicago Area Illini fans, because you can get really good seats for this one for not that expensive at all!
After scrolling for answers, I figured it's just easier to ask. What's the insider outlook on each injured/sick player? Any updates on Andrej's knee recovery or Tomi's progress after surgery and how bad is Mihailo"s hamstring injury? 
I expect Tomi and Andrej to play next week. We will see on Miahailo.After scrolling for answers, I figured it's just easier to ask. What's the insider outlook on each injured/sick player? Any updates on Andrej's knee recovery or Tomi's progress after surgery and how bad is Mihailo"s hamstring injury?
they said that last year too
For game 1?
I'm having flashbacks to the preseason football prediction thread.
In my opinion, it was a breakout year for him, especially March! He showed he was a consistent top defender, and could get to the rim and ft line. His 3pt% was down, but aside from that, he exceeded my expectations.
Texas Tech could be a loss. Hopefully it won't be dependent on that.
I think "breakout year" is a little vague. Does that mean that he takes a giant leap up and is the face of the Big Ten? If that's the case, then he would likely go pro after that. That's not the case. The thing I like (and expect) with Kylan is that he is progressing every year and not leveling out. So I doubt I would consider it a breakout year last year or this year unless he's 1st team all Big Ten and the national face of our team (which I don't expect). He might be the leader of the team and be a top 3-4 guy on the team, but nobody expects him to be a lottery pick
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