Illini Basketball 2025-2026

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#453      
OrangeAndBlueBlooded
#456      
bavanga3
Fly Illini Fly! said:
So there's 6 teams who have 30% or more of their total team's threes made by bigs. Two of them are Wisconsin and UCLA.

Of course Illinois is #1 by an absurd margin.
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So crazy how polarizing some of the Illini metrics are. They are close to the bottom in certain categories and running away with it in others. This team is really unique and fun to watch.
 
#458      
NarrowJ
IlliniwekKDR said:
Sounds like we gotta beat the hell out of mom to end the season
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Blink Omg GIF
 
#463      
From the cheap seats
Observations after spending way too much time on this site (just because it's fun, sometimes even enlightening and cheaper than a shrink):
--Illini win the national title: 75% want to build a statue, 10% say let's wait to see how next year goes, 10% say Illini got a lucky draw, 5% disappear
--Illini lose in semis or title game: 50% statue, 10% wait and see, 20% blame refs, 10% say Brad just can't win the big one, 5% luck ran out, the other 5% reappear, calling for Brad's head
--Illini lose in E8: 50% say great season, 20% blame refs, 20% Brad can't win big one, 10% say might need new coach
--Illini lose Sweet 16: 30% say good but not great season, 20% blame refs, 30% Brad can't win big one, 20% probably need a new coach to take us to the next level
--Illini lose Round of 32: 30% say underperformed, 20% blame refs, 20% say Euro players too soft (though none would say that to Mirk's face), 30% obviously need a new coach
--Illini lose in first round: No one blames refs. 50% blame Brad, 10% blame Bruce Weber, 10% say I told you the metrics were fake news, 10% say Petrovic should have played more, 10% say Ben should have played less, 10% want to hire bigcity with illinigrad2014 as his top assistant
 
#464      
Illwinsagain
From the cheap seats said:
Observations after spending way too much time on this site (just because it's fun, sometimes even enlightening and cheaper than a shrink):
--Illini win the national title: 75% want to build a statue, 10% say let's wait to see how next year goes, 10% say Illini got a lucky draw, 5% disappear
--Illini lose in semis or title game: 50% statue, 10% wait and see, 20% blame refs, 10% say Brad just can't win the big one, 5% luck ran out, the other 5% reappear, calling for Brad's head
--Illini lose in E8: 50% say great season, 20% blame refs, 20% Brad can't win big one, 10% say might need new coach
--Illini lose Sweet 16: 30% say good but not great season, 20% blame refs, 30% Brad can't win big one, 20% probably need a new coach to take us to the next level
--Illini lose Round of 32: 30% say underperformed, 20% blame refs, 20% say Euro players too soft (though none would say that to Mirk's face), 30% obviously need a new coach
--Illini lose in first round: No one blames refs. 50% blame Brad, 10% blame Bruce Weber, 10% say I told you the metrics were fake news, 10% say Petrovic should have played more, 10% say Ben should have played less, 10% want to hire bigcity with illinigrad2014 as his top assistant
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Only 20% blaming refs? I would go up to 33.3% in all cases (even while winning the whole thing).
 
#467      
Illinicpa14
From the cheap seats said:
Observations after spending way too much time on this site (just because it's fun, sometimes even enlightening and cheaper than a shrink):
--Illini win the national title: 75% want to build a statue, 10% say let's wait to see how next year goes, 10% say Illini got a lucky draw, 5% disappear
--Illini lose in semis or title game: 50% statue, 10% wait and see, 20% blame refs, 10% say Brad just can't win the big one, 5% luck ran out, the other 5% reappear, calling for Brad's head
--Illini lose in E8: 50% say great season, 20% blame refs, 20% Brad can't win big one, 10% say might need new coach
--Illini lose Sweet 16: 30% say good but not great season, 20% blame refs, 30% Brad can't win big one, 20% probably need a new coach to take us to the next level
--Illini lose Round of 32: 30% say underperformed, 20% blame refs, 20% say Euro players too soft (though none would say that to Mirk's face), 30% obviously need a new coach
--Illini lose in first round: No one blames refs. 50% blame Brad, 10% blame Bruce Weber, 10% say I told you the metrics were fake news, 10% say Petrovic should have played more, 10% say Ben should have played less, 10% want to hire bigcity with illinigrad2014 as his top assistant
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You forgot the ensuing thread about Sean miller, Chris Beard, and 4 other coaches would have gone 39-0 with this squad.
 
#469      
Epsilon
Another ESPN article mentioning KW. Kinda interesting to see who else has beaten expectations as a Freshman or returnee and/or come back from injuries better. Not sure where Mirk would rank here but I think he was a very pleasant surprise, even if there was a small amount of buzz around him.

www.espn.com

Ranking 25 men's college basketball breakout stars in 2025-26

From injury comebacks to bigger roles than forecasted, these players are outperforming preseason expectations.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
 
#470      
ejam21
Random thought of the day from me...I've seen some ppl insinuate this team is bad in close games bc of the close losses.....IE 1-4 in games decided by 5 or less

I think that's a flawed way of looking at it becuase the team then doesn't get credit for pulling the game out if it goes above 5 points

FOr instance

-Against OSU, we were up by 3 with one minute left....we won by 8 so we get no credit by the "5 or less metric"

-Against Purdue..game was within like 4points for the last few minutes of the game, but keaton put us up 4, then Purdue bricks a shot, we get Fts and go up 6 to win...no credit for close win under the 5 or less metric

-Iowa was within 4-5 of us in the final 2-3 minutes til we pulled away slightly and won by 6



So basically, had we performed slightly worse in the clutch in games like this, we'd have a better "close game" record by the way its looked at, but that would actually be a negative as opposed to what actually happened in the games.
 
#471      
NarrowJ
ejam21 said:
Random thought of the day from me...I've seen some ppl insinuate this team is bad in close games bc of the close losses.....IE 1-4 in games decided by 5 or less

I think that's a flawed way of looking at it becuase the team then doesn't get credit for pulling the game out if it goes above 5 points

FOr instance

-Against OSU, we were up by 3 with one minute left....we won by 8 so we get no credit by the "5 or less metric"

-Against Purdue..game was within like 4points for the last few minutes of the game, but keaton put us up 4, then Purdue bricks a shot, we get Fts and go up 6 to win...no credit for close win under the 5 or less metric

-Iowa was within 4-5 of us in the final 2-3 minutes til we pulled away slightly and won by 6



So basically, had we performed slightly worse in the clutch in games like this, we'd have a better "close game" record by the way its looked at, but that would actually be a negative as opposed to what actually happened in the games.
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Yep a lot of close games where Illinois ran away at the end. Only time that’s happened to us was vs a top 5 team all of the way back in November
 
#474      
Username
ejam21 said:
Random thought of the day from me...I've seen some ppl insinuate this team is bad in close games bc of the close losses.....IE 1-4 in games decided by 5 or less

I think that's a flawed way of looking at it becuase the team then doesn't get credit for pulling the game out if it goes above 5 points

FOr instance

-Against OSU, we were up by 3 with one minute left....we won by 8 so we get no credit by the "5 or less metric"

-Against Purdue..game was within like 4points for the last few minutes of the game, but keaton put us up 4, then Purdue bricks a shot, we get Fts and go up 6 to win...no credit for close win under the 5 or less metric

-Iowa was within 4-5 of us in the final 2-3 minutes til we pulled away slightly and won by 6



So basically, had we performed slightly worse in the clutch in games like this, we'd have a better "close game" record by the way its looked at, but that would actually be a negative as opposed to what actually happened in the games.
Click to expand...
Very good point. I wouldn't say we are good in close games, but I think we can still put it together. Hopefully getting Andrej and Boz back and healthy occurred in time for the team to come together and gel. We've been good all year - time to elevate to great in time for that magical run. Sorry, I've got some potent mixers in my pregame orange kool-aid tonight.
 
#475      
CogDog
Absolutely terrified of the alternate reality where Stoja is a focal point on this team like the staff brought him in to be. Thank goodness for the unpredictable emergence of Wagler.
 
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