Cant say enough how happy I am for Brad. He's paid his dues and has deserved this for awhile now. Seeing the joy on his face and the pride he has representing us and the University of Illinois is amazing to see!
Illini Basketball 2025-2026
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That's incredible. I can't imagine trying to do a job like coaching during that. I'm so glad they're all healthy now, and I feel bad for my criticisms of our defense since that happened.
I was most critical of our defense against good teams- I wonder if our superior talent was enough to get by against bad teams, but we justifiably didn't have the necessary level of preparation for good teams. Amazingly, our adjusted defensive efficiency after that wasn't even that much worse than the stretch preceding that:
Dec 22 - Jan 11 (Mizz through @Iowa): 86.6
Jan 14 - Feb 4 (@NW through NW): 99.9
Feb 7-27 (@MSU through UM): 101.0
Including just the Q1 games for those stretches, it was 86.5 (just @Iowa), 105.6 (3 games), and 107.5 (4 games)
I hope our defense during the NCAAT (93.5, and 87.0 vs Q1) is a reflection of him being in a good place now that his family is healthy, and I hope all those things continue.
Wow, had no idea he was dealing with this during the season, his story made me tear up too. As a mom of a son born at 32 weeks who had a NICU stay as well, I literally cannot imagine also dealing with a high pressure job like he did. So glad his baby is home as doing well!
Very impressive to get Keaton up 25lbs over a season program really firing on all cylinders.
If you thought it was impossible to like him any more than you already do, check out this article (paywall) on DJ SMIRK. This group is special.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/71...l-four-karaoke-dj/?source=user_shared_article
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/71...l-four-karaoke-dj/?source=user_shared_article
This is fantastic, man. Thanks for sharing this.
The comment about his mother was hilarious
Fixed it for you.
Am I wrong to think that Petro starting the season injured is the best thing to happen to us in 20 years? No disrespect to him, but Wagler isn’t Wagler without that, or at the very least he’s not there until February and we’re a 5-seed
Andy Philip was a hero with roots in Eastern Europe as well. He and other immigrants’ kids formed the core of the Granite City HS 1940 State Champion team. He and other boys from literally the other side of the tracks did a lot for their community. There was a movie project backed by Shirley McLaine, a sort of “Hoosiers” kind of tale, that never made it to the silver screen.
I was trying to think of how much this season has meant and I can't think anything better than this...I had friends and colleagues who never talk about sports messaging me about illini basketball, one even asking me, 'have you always been a basketball school?'. That's what a final four can do for a program and thats what im going to remember.
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
I just really hope it isn’t 21 years until the next Final Four.
I may not be around by then.
I may not be around by then.
Such a great year with so many ups and downs, but it gave us all such great memories and will go down as one of the best Illini teams in history.
It still blows my mind how unkind the rims were for us last tonight, and how friendly they were for UConn.
It still blows my mind how unkind the rims were for us last tonight, and how friendly they were for UConn.
my pre season prediction was pretty spot on... missed on the big ten tourney but the rest basically happened
I need insight as to lotto #’s tomorrow
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Holy cow, nice job!
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