Illini Basketball 2026-2027

#451      
ChiefGritty
PleaseMakeABowlGame said:
There's just no other team who can match up with that level of talent.
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Who is their best player?

They have zero lottery picks in this mock draft I googled

NBA Mock Draft - NBADraft.net

Specializing in drafts with top players on the NBA horizon, player profiles, scouting reports, rankings and prospective international recruits.
www.nbadraft.net

A good and deep team that belongs in the national title picture without question, but I'm not sure where the hushed tones of this being an all-time collection of talent are coming from.
 
#452      
Emerson Bigguns
illiniwil said:
i think (hope) we have sufficient ball handlers. If we are going to add a piece, I wish it were a strong 6-9, 250 lb
ish super senior who could come off the bench to defend a big 4 or post man and take a few of Z and Tomi's fouls.
Also push those two around in practice, help them develop their post games under some physical duress. Oh,
and if this a true holiday wish list, make a Humrichous % from 3. A particularly good fit against Wisconsin, Iowa,
Mich. st.
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I would also like to see a bit more size, but 6'9, 250, and can hit a 3? The twins do have a guy like that to practice against, but there aren't many DJ Smirk's in the portal. Fortunately, they can beat on each other in practice.
If JJ is healthy, he should be able to take the spot minutes this year. Thier lack of concern for additional post depth, suggests they are confident that he will be available. For me, the size concern is really related to next season. B1G caliber post players are the hardest guys to find in the portal.
Hopefully, there is some tall kid in the Balkan peninsula with a hard name to pronounce, who is ready to step in.
 
#454      
RockfordIllini
Listened to the Trotter pod and he made 2 very valid points as to why we might not be as good next year. First is that it’s unreasonable to expect us to have a historically good offense so offense will likely drop at least a little, and then we likely won’t be as good defensively either with the losses of Kylan, Keaton and Ben. And so a team that isn’t as good offensively or defensively won’t be as good overall.

And that got me thinking, particularly about the defensive end. Kylan is certainly known as a defender and had his moments last year but I would contend he had a bad year defensively at least for him. Thornton, Philon, Boyd in the BTT, Stirtz in the E8. Kylan got cooked a lot last year. And in the tourney, Drej was our shut down defender and Iowa probably beats us if he didn’t have a 6’7 wing to throw on Stirtz and bother him with length.

So I guess I’m wondering, if we get that version of Drej all year (big if I know) such that we have a lock down defender on the perimeter, could we be better on the perimeter even if Coleman isn’t quite as good a defender as Keaton (not a given. Kid competes). And as amazing as it is to say, is Ben the player we will miss the most defensively?

I get what Trotter is saying and good chance he’s right but I’m not convinced we can’t replace at least last year’s version of Kylan defensively.
 
#456      
PleaseMakeABowlGame
mysterio2525 said:
vaaks - 16
stojakavic - 15
Mirk - 15
tomi - 12
QC - 11
big z - 6
Jake - 6
morillo - 4
Rest - 3

I think we break the kenpom offense efficiency record this year
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It's very unlikely that our offense will be as good as, or better than last year. It was a historic offense, and due to some of the ignorant doomsayers after losses, I think it's gone very underrated how hard that is to recreate. And you're removing the guy at the center of it all, in Keaton.

It's also reasonable to say our defense will take a step back. Illinois finished 20th last year in D-efficiency. We're losing Kylan/Keaton/Ben and replacing them with objectively worse individual defenders.

I think where we'll need to make up that ground is luck. We finished 308th last year, and lost several close finishes. A lot of it had to do with subpar officiating. Hopefully those margins will be in our favor this year.
 
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#457      
Combo
ChiefGritty said:
Who is their best player?

They have zero lottery picks in this mock draft I googled

NBA Mock Draft - NBADraft.net

Specializing in drafts with top players on the NBA horizon, player profiles, scouting reports, rankings and prospective international recruits.
www.nbadraft.net

A good and deep team that belongs in the national title picture without question, but I'm not sure where the hushed tones of this being an all-time collection of talent are coming from.
Click to expand...
I don't see it either. Yes they have a ton of talent, likely more than any other team. But most years that's the case. I curious what makes this year's Duke roster any more ridiculous than any other year since the 90s?
 
#458      
RollChief
mysterio2525 said:
vaaks - 16
stojakavic - 15
Mirk - 15
tomi - 12
QC - 11
big z - 6
Jake - 6
morillo - 4
Rest - 3

I think we break the kenpom offense efficiency record this year
Click to expand...
If we play at the same pace we would probably shatter it to score 88 points per game
 
#460      
Fly Illini Fly!
Let’s say our non con is UCONN / Duke / Mizzou / TTU / Houston / UNC.

What’s the O/U for wins… 2.5? 3.5?

3-3 would be most realistic, IMO.

There’s absolutely a world where that gauntlet burries you if the team doesn’t have things figured out, right out of the gates. But yes, lots of opportunities for big wins.
 
#462      
HensonHall71
Fly Illini Fly! said:
I feel like one of the more crazy stories is that of this guy:

247sports.com

Sebastian Wilkins, Brewster Academy Bobcats, Power Forward

Sebastian Wilkins is a 6-8, 215-pound Forward from Groton, MA.
247sports.com 247sports.com

He was a top 35 recruit who redshirted this past season because he wouldn’t get playing time. Think about that: a top 35 recruit coming to Illinois, or anywhere not named Duke, and redshirting.

Then, to make matters even more absurd, he chose to come back this season, and will be entering the year as the presumed 11th man. Literally, the 11th man.

And if it isn’t him, then it’ll be one of their top 15 recruits — Rippey, Howard, or Williams. Or 16 year old Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje, who’s being labeled as one of the most high-ceiling big men for the next few years. Or Belmont transfer Drew Scharnowski, who’d start on like 90% of rosters.

Plus, they landed a go-to scorer in Blackwell from the portal. And Boozer, Foster, Sarr, Ngomba all returned.

How on earth do you put together that much talent on one college basketball team?
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Yeah, Duke’s roster is absurd and makes no sense as it breaks all the rules of how you would think kids make their college decisions.

What makes it different from those Kentucky teams that went 10-11 deep is it has a ton of experienced players on it as well- it’s not all 5 star freshman

Just at G- Blackwell, Rippey, Boozer, Foster all think they are running the offense this year - it could be a disaster or they somehow all accept their roles and they are a juggernaut
 
#463      
Illinicpa14
Fly Illini Fly! said:
Let’s say our non con is UCONN / Duke / Mizzou / TTU / Houston / UNC.

What’s the O/U for wins… 2.5? 3.5?

3-3 would be most realistic, IMO.

There’s absolutely a world where that gauntlet burries you if the team doesn’t have things figured out, right out of the gates. But yes, lots of opportunities for big wins.
Click to expand...
Given the roster continuity we have to open the season alongside guys presumably knowing roles more, I’d hope for better.

Besides UCONN/Duke, those teams will be figuring out their rotations and roles the first few months.

I’d set realistic goal for 4-2
 
#464      
EyeoftheIllini
Putting this question here because no great place to put it and I think it might have happened at BIG basketball media days. I seem to remember former commissioner Kevin Warren making a faux pas that riled up Illini Nation a bit. I think it might have been calling the Illini, Illinois University. Anyone remember what it was?

And to stay on topic, really looking forward to this coming season. Typically I’m pretty optimistic going into a new season, but not sure it is always warranted. This year it will be warranted and can’t wait for Brad and company to advance even further this year. Please be so.
 
#465      
RockfordIllini
Combo said:
I don't see it either. Yes they have a ton of talent, likely more than any other team. But most years that's the case. I curious what makes this year's Duke roster any more ridiculous than any other year since the 90s?
Click to expand...
Another thing about Duke, is when Scheyer hasn’t had a transcendent, NPOY type player on his roster he’s merely had okay seasons by Duke standards, finishing 2nd and 3rd in a very watered down ACC. And while this years roster does have a ton of talent, it doesn’t have anyone close to a Flagg or a Boozer.

Now he’s a young guy and so maybe he’s improved or figured it out. This season will be a good litmus test. If he can build a one seed featuring John Blackwell that tells me he’s one of the best in the business. But there’s no proof of concept yet of guys transferring into Duke and elevating their game like at other places such as Illinois or even Wisconsin. Give Gard credit, the last 3 years he’s pulled guards off the transfer scrap heap and turned them into all BIG players. TBD whether Scheyer can do the same.
 
#466      
Ga65
HensonHall71 said:
Yeah, Duke’s roster is absurd and makes no sense as it breaks all the rules of how you would think kids make their college decisions.

What makes it different from those Kentucky teams that went 10-11 deep is it has a ton of experienced players on it as well- it’s not all 5 star freshman

Just at G- Blackwell, Rippey, Boozer, Foster all think they are running the offense this year - it could be a disaster or they somehow all accept their roles and they are a juggernaut
Click to expand...
Seems to be a great advantage if you can play 7-8 at a time. Not so much if 5 on the floor with an 8 man rotation.
 
#468      
Fly Illini Fly!
HouTexIllini said:
I still don’t see how there is a limit. Some teams want to make it a grind game and keep possessions and shots low and others want to run and get shots up within a certain time on the shot clock.

If they’re made baskets that’s a different story. Then there are other aspects to the sport, like rebounds, creating turnovers with the defense.

The number of possessions can be manipulated.
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There’s a limit because:

1) a team’s points per possession AND possessions played are not limitless (even with superb efficiency). Hence, the points to go around are not limitless. Last year we only had 82.1 points per 40min (65.7 x 1.249) to distribute between all the players.

2) there’s a limit to how many shots a player is allowed to take, on a per outing basis (whatever you think that quantity is for that particular guy). More shots for one guy = less for the another.

Hence, it’s just fantasy to claim, for example, that every guy in our starting lineup will score 15 per game. The points and shots to go around are not unlimited.

If you think Coleman or Tomi will score 16-17/game, then the other guys’ points will almost certainly have to come down. If you take Keaton Wagler off last year’s team, then assuredly Andrej, Kylan, David would score more points. Would we be a better team? Absolutely not.

That really shouldn’t be all too hard to grasp.
 
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#469      
Combo
Fly Illini Fly! said:
I feel like one of the more crazy stories is that of this guy:

247sports.com

Sebastian Wilkins, Brewster Academy Bobcats, Power Forward

Sebastian Wilkins is a 6-8, 215-pound Forward from Groton, MA.
247sports.com 247sports.com

He was a top 35 recruit who redshirted this past season because he wouldn’t get playing time. Think about that: a top 35 recruit coming to Illinois, or anywhere not named Duke, and redshirting.

Then, to make matters even more absurd, he chose to come back this season, and will be entering the year as the presumed 11th man. Literally, the 11th man.
5
And if it isn’t him, then it’ll be one of their top 15 recruits — Rippey, Howard, or Williams. Or 16 year old Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje, who’s being labeled as one of the most high-ceiling big men for the next few years. Or Belmont transfer Drew Scharnowski, who’d start on like 90% of rosters.

Plus, they landed a go-to scorer in Blackwell from the portal. And Boozer, Foster, Sarr, Ngomba all returned.

How on earth do you put together that much talent on one college basketball team?
Click to expand...
Did you just notice this recently? Because they've been doing this for at least 30 years now. They had a team in the mid to late 90s (can't remember which year exactly) that had 9 McDonalds All-Americans on it, a few who were top 5 players.
 
#470      
jrichisamazing
PleaseMakeABowlGame said:
It's very unlikely that our offense will be as good as, or better than last year. It was a historic offense, and due to some of the ignorant doomsayers after losses, I think it's gone very underrated how hard that is to recreate. And you're removing the guy at the center of it all, in Keaton.

It's also reasonable to say our defense will take a step back. Illinois finished 20th last year in D-efficiency. We're losing Kylan/Keaton/Ben and replacing them with objectively worse individual defenders.

I think where we'll need to make up that ground is luck. We finished 308th last year, and lost several close finishes. A lot of it had to do with subpar officiating. Hopefully those margins will be in our favor this year.
Click to expand...

When it comes to offense I think there's a good chance we aren't as efficient, but will be more explosive. Last year we played slow and shot pretty average from 3. That let teams stay in it even when we were clicking offensively. This year I'm hoping we have a much better 3pt shooting team. A lot of that will depend on the twins shooting it better.

But I'm most interested in tempo. Don't forget we tried playing fast to start last season. It wasn't working and the slower we played the better we got as the season went along. It will be interesting if we try to play fast again. Vaaks played fast at Providence. Andrej would benefit playing downhill, similar to TSJ. Big Z is a great rim runner. Not sure about Quentin, but he seems like the type of player you let go into attack mode. The 2 players I don't see benefiting in an up tempo style are Tomi and Mirk.
 
#471      
Goldtop
RockfordIllini said:
Listened to the Trotter pod and he made 2 very valid points as to why we might not be as good next year. First is that it’s unreasonable to expect us to have a historically good offense so offense will likely drop at least a little, and then we likely won’t be as good defensively either with the losses of Kylan, Keaton and Ben. And so a team that isn’t as good offensively or defensively won’t be as good overall.

And that got me thinking, particularly about the defensive end. Kylan is certainly known as a defender and had his moments last year but I would contend he had a bad year defensively at least for him. Thornton, Philon, Boyd in the BTT, Stirtz in the E8. Kylan got cooked a lot last year. And in the tourney, Drej was our shut down defender and Iowa probably beats us if he didn’t have a 6’7 wing to throw on Stirtz and bother him with length.

So I guess I’m wondering, if we get that version of Drej all year (big if I know) such that we have a lock down defender on the perimeter, could we be better on the perimeter even if Coleman isn’t quite as good a defender as Keaton (not a given. Kid competes). And as amazing as it is to say, is Ben the player we will miss the most defensively?

I get what Trotter is saying and good chance he’s right but I’m not convinced we can’t replace at least last year’s version of Kylan defensively.
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Interesting take and I see the logic. But I am sure the Illinois staff would not agree.
After making a Final Four run they want to take it to the championship, and didn’t put a team together that they see on paper as being less of what they were last year.
 
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#472      
Fly Illini Fly!
band camp said:
The Athletic has us #1 in their latest preseason poll.
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Should be free link:

https://twitter.com/x/status/2060725298329706807

“1. Illinois​

Starters: Stefan Vaaks (No. 11 transfer, 6-7 CG), Jake Davis, Andrej Stojakovic, David Mirkovic, Tomislav Ivisic
Other notable returners: Zvonimir Ivisic
Newcomers: Quentin Coleman (No. 13 freshman, 6-4 SG), Lucas Morillo (No. 52 freshman, 6-7 SG), Zavier Zens (No. 52 freshman, 6-7 SG), Ethan Brown (No. 170 freshman, 6-4 CG), Landon Davis (No. 150 freshman, 6-8 PF)

Here’s my logic for going against consensus by slotting Illinois over Florida: The Illini finished one spot ahead of the Gators in the KenPom rankings, made the Final Four out of the same region and return four players who started at least 21 games on a historically efficient offense. Illinois has to replace a lottery pick, while Florida just has to replace guard Xaivian Lee; that’s a point in Florida’s favor. But I’d argue that Illinois has upgraded its bench and found the perfect Keaton Wagler replacement in Stefan Vaaks.

The Illini have the nation’s best backup big in Zvonimir Ivisic and need to hit on just one or two of their four freshman guards to round out the rotation. A reason for believing the bench could be improved is the addition of Quentin Coleman, who recently moved from No. 34 in his class to 13th, landing in five-star territory.

This will be another year together for a lovable core that had to gain confidence from its tourney run. Losing Kylan Boswell and Ben Humrichous will be a hit to the defense, and my biggest question is team speed, particularly on the perimeter, but this offense should be awesome again, and David Mirkovic is about to become a star. If Vaaks or Coleman end up looking like an NBA prospect, the ceiling is higher than a year ago because of the continuity in Champaign.”
 
#473      
pruman91
Allowing for puke to having an elite roster on an annual basis , my major question is " how good of a
coach is John Scheyer ?? ".......... is he a top 5 coach ??...............as talented as puke usually is , are their players overrated or is it their coach that is lacking ?.............

The Illini have the talent on our roster to be Top 5 starting the season and there is zero chance I would trade BU for JS........

ZERO CHANCE......................JMHO.......................
 
#475      
Guest
EyeoftheIllini said:
Putting this question here because no great place to put it and I think it might have happened at BIG basketball media days. I seem to remember former commissioner Kevin Warren making a faux pas that riled up Illini Nation a bit. I think it might have been calling the Illini, Illinois University. Anyone remember what it was?

And to stay on topic, really looking forward to this coming season. Typically I’m pretty optimistic going into a new season, but not sure it is always warranted. This year it will be warranted and can’t wait for Brad and company to advance even further this year. Please be so.
Click to expand...
I think it was Warren’s decision not to grant Illinois a share of the Big Ten title in 2021. Illinois finished the COVID-19 season with the most conference wins at 16-4, beating Michigan on its home court, but the Wolverines won the outright regular season championship with a 14-3 record. Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman advocated last March for the Illini to receive their due.
 
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