Illini Basketball 2025-2026

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#351      
I'll believe you, but a few pointers (and correct me on any if I'm mistaken):

As an avid mac user, these are the following dashes:

hyphen: smallest dash, just right of the 0.
en dash: medium sized dash, option + hyphen.
em dash: largest sized dash, option + shift + hyphen.

For professional writeups, that em dash may prove a quintessential aspect of work. But for posting a few sentences on a sports message board, using it multiple times is generally highly unlikely. BUT, most notably, that was the guy's only post which 1) contained em dashes and 2) was written with highly articulate grammer and language.

Some of his other posts:




Compared to the one I called out:

And just another additional note: AI em dashes are known to never uses spaces between them, and neither did his. I know there are textbooks outlining what's the correct way to use it (use spaces or not), but it's certainly a gray area.

But most importantly what I was contemplating was the big ten being a "mid tier college basketball conference." Was it more likely he himself stood on that lunacy-fueled ideology or a fault in the AI system? Sounds like he's entitled to defend that claim, as ridiculous as that is, so I'll let that one pass.

My guy really stumbled in here like drunk, nude Santa Claus falling out of my fireplace with “FIRE BRAD!!!” and “B1G is mid-tier” takes and can’t understand why people would raise questions
 
#353      
Michigan is not the team it was when Yaxel was working his way back from injury to start the season. On top of that they've played two cupcakes to our five.

1. We had some guys working their way back from injuries as well

2. The metrics already take into account opponent strength

Regardless, there isn’t a huge difference between 3 and 7 so your points aren’t without some merit

Edit: I should add their last 5-6 games have been especially impressive, so they might be closer to #1 in that timeframe
 
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#355      
Exactly why the highly skilled teams take big ten teams down at a high rate each year. The big ten does great in the opening couple of rounds and then fades off once the top tier teams start advancing. 1 final four team in a decade is really representative of the issue with the league right now.
  • 2025: 13–8 (.619) | 8 teams | Furthest: Elite Eight (started 9-0 in opening round)
  • 2024: 10–6 (.625) | 6 teams | Furthest: Championship Game (Purdue lost to UConn)
  • 2023: 6–8 (.429) | 8 teams | Furthest: Sweet 16
  • 2022: 9–9 (.500) | 9 teams | Furthest: Sweet 16
  • 2021: 8–9 (.471) | 9 teams | Furthest: Elite Eight
  • 2019: 13–8 (.650) | 8 teams | Furthest: Elite Eight
  • 2018: 9–4 (.692) | 4 teams | Furthest: Elite Eight
  • 2017: 8–7 (.533) | 7 teams | Furthest: Sweet 16
  • 2016: 8–7 (.533) | 7 teams | Furthest: Sweet 16
  • 2015: 12–7 (.632) | 7 teams | Furthest: Elite Eight
So where is this info from because it's egregiously wrong.
 
#356      
*Currently ranked*

What stats course did you take that allowed for 13 game sample sizes to supersede 10 year ones?

And hold this L? Are you 14? Like listen man.. I get it. You love you some Bu. Maybe let those of us with different opinions to express them? And don’t turn this into a middle school chat room?
This discussion is going nowhere fast, but just let me point out the irony in basing all of your opinions about what is good and what is not good on the outcomes of a single elimination tournament that accounts for anywhere from 3%-16% of a given team's schedule (depending on how far they make it - for a S16 team you're looking at about 9%) and then complaining about small sample sizes.
 
#357      
This discussion is going nowhere fast, but just let me point out the irony in basing all of your opinions about what is good and what is not good on the outcomes of a single elimination tournament that accounts for anywhere from 3%-16% of a given team's schedule (depending on how far they make it - for a S16 team you're looking at about 9%) and then complaining about small sample sizes.
Your point would hold some merit if I was using 1 year of tournament data. I provided a decade worth, thus your data is mutt. Because the sample size ain’t that small. The big ten is bad in March. And has been for awhile.
 
#358      
Good lord.
Let it f$&king go.
Kj Apa No GIF by Netflix Philippines
 
#359      
Your point would hold some merit if I was using 1 year of tournament data. I provided a decade worth, thus your data is mutt. Because the sample size ain’t that small. The big ten is bad in March. And has been for awhile.

Yet still is nowhere close to being a "mid-tier" conference
 
#360      
“Big 10 mid-tier conference” thing…

Here are players on current NBA rosters by conference:

Big 10 - 96
SEC - 82
ACC - 76
Big 12 - 63
Big East - 36
WCC - 21
MWC - 13
American - 12
A10 - 10
Mo Valley - 4
C-USA - 3
MAC - 3
Horizon - 2
Bunch of other conferences with 1 each. 4 guys played college ball at a non-D I school.

Obviously this doesn’t include Euros, straight to G-League, etc players who didn’t go to college.
 
#361      
“Big 10 mid-tier conference” thing…

Here are players on current NBA rosters by conference:

Big 10 - 96
SEC - 82
ACC - 76
Big 12 - 63
Big East - 36
WCC - 21
MWC - 13
American - 12
A10 - 10
Mo Valley - 4
C-USA - 3
MAC - 3
Horizon - 2
Bunch of other conferences with 1 each. 4 guys played college ball at a non-D I school.

Obviously this doesn’t include Euros, straight to G-League, etc players who didn’t go to college.

Its ok, he has now backpedaled all of the way to "hasn't done extremely well in the tournament that makes up less than 5% of the season for most teams"
 
#364      
“Big 10 mid-tier conference” thing…

Here are players on current NBA rosters by conference:

Big 10 - 96
SEC - 82
ACC - 76
Big 12 - 63
Big East - 36
WCC - 21
MWC - 13
American - 12
A10 - 10
Mo Valley - 4
C-USA - 3
MAC - 3
Horizon - 2
Bunch of other conferences with 1 each. 4 guys played college ball at a non-D I school.

Obviously this doesn’t include Euros, straight to G-League, etc players who didn’t go to college.

dude I'm sorry but your data is WAYYYYY off lol. It's something like

102 players for SEC.
77 for ACC
61 for big ten
55 Big 12
 
#365      
Your point would hold some merit if I was using 1 year of tournament data. I provided a decade worth, thus your data is mutt. Because the sample size ain’t that small. The big ten is bad in March. And has been for awhile.
Every single conclusion you've come to in this entire conversation is based on the results of an annual tournament that accounts for less than 1/6 of the college basketball schedule.
 
#371      

dude I'm sorry but your data is WAYYYYY off lol. It's something like

102 players for SEC.
77 for ACC
61 for big ten
55 Big 12
It’s 94 including the Pac12 teams.

If you just select “big ten” and “entire conference,” it isn’t including the Pac12 teams as none of them are listed. Go one by one for each of the 4 teams (UCLA, USC, WASH, ORE) and add them to the 61.

94 in total.
 
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#372      
It’s 94 including the Pac12 teams.

If you just select “big ten” and “entire conference,” it isn’t including the Pac12 teams as none of them are listed. Go one by one for each of the 4 teams (UCLA, USC, WASH, ORE) and add them to the 61.

94 in total.
Choose not to include the newer teams as we were talking about last decade and they were still in the Pac 12. But yeah, correct if we do it that way the numbers would be:

SEC - 114 players / 16 teams = 7 players per team
Big 10 - 94 players / 18 teams = 5.2 players per team
ACC - 85 players / 18 teams = 4.7 players per team
Big 12 - 77 players / 16 teams = 4.8 Players per team
Big East - 35 players / 11 teams = 3.18

SEC - IMO is far and above the best conference right now if you are trying to get to the NBA. Biggest gap is when you look at scoring and STD DEV, Ayo for example is like 6th in the NBA for the big ten in scoring at 15ppg. He would not be in the top 30 for SEC scorers, top 20 for the ACC, or top 12 in the BIG 12. The talent coming out of the big ten is not at the same level as other conferences. Numbers.. sure. But when you look at the gap. Its very wide.
 
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#374      
is 1 in 7 or 1 in 9 really a difference? It all rings the same message at the end of the day
I think it’s fair to divide it up by perspective, though … pre-2020 should absolutely be considered apples to oranges given the rebuild, and there obviously wasn’t a Tournament. So, I think it’s only fair to judge 2021 and on.

From there, I would consider two things:

1) Did we achieve an appropriate seed given the team we had on our hands?
2) Did we underachieve in the Tournament given our seed and eventual draw?

And I’d put it like this.

2021 - Massively overachieved our expectations to get a #1 seed. Massively underachieved our expectations to lose in the Second Round as a #1 seed.

2022 - Met expectations to get a #4 seed. Met expectations losing in the Second Round, given we got Houston in our bracket.

2023 - Massively underachieved getting a #9 seed. Mildly underachieved in our First Round loss, though we were all probably not surprised.

2024 - Exceeded our expectations to get a #3 seed, given we were barely a top 25 team preseason. Exceeded our expectations to make the Elite Eight, given (A) we at least finally made the Sweet Sixteen and (B) we were underdogs vs. #2 seed Iowa State.

2025 - Mildly underachieved getting a #6 seed, given the up-and-down season and being on track for a protected seed at multiple junctures. I guess met expectations by losing in the Second Round to a #3 seed, but our effort itself was a pretty big disappointment in that game.

So, as far as NCAAT performance given the seed, only 2021 stands out as a clear choke job. However, the issue - especially post-Trent and DaMonte - appears to be too many head scratching regular season losses that are pushing our seed ceiling so low that we have so little margin for error … I’m praying we can at least get to that #3 seed line this year where you at LEAST don’t need to play above your average level twice in a row to make the Sweet Sixteen.
 
#375      
Watching UofL Tngame. Showed top 5 freshmen. Wagler not getting any love after the games he has played.
 
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