Illini Basketball 2026-2027

This 9th man stuff is such a nothingburger to me. It blows my mind that it has consumed this much talk in here. I guess we need something to talk about since the remaining 99% of the offseason hit the best case scenario.

RockfordIllini said:

I’m still surprised there wasn’t enough draft interest in Momcovic to keep him in. Shooting feels like the most coveted trait NBA teams are looking for these days, and he was the best shooter last year and also has good size at 6’8.

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If he were a 3 & D guy, sure. He's a 3, no D guy and not a good rebounder, passer, or creator. He has one NBA skill. It's the best skill to have in this context, but not enough to get him drafted anywhere near the number he would need to get a contract in the neighborhood of what UK likely shelled out.

ugottabjoshinme said:

This 9th man stuff is such a nothingburger to me. It blows my mind that it has consumed this much talk in here. I guess we need something to talk about since the remaining 99% of the offseason hit the best case scenario.

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Its a recruiting thread, and there is just nothing else to talk about here... It's like complaining about the color of the upholstery in our Lamborghini.

lstewart53x3 said:

And all of those guys, except for Jake, were freshman ranked at or below ZZ’s level, so coming back to your original point:

If you were confident in the 9th man headed into each of those seasons, why are you not confident in the 9th man headed into this season?

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Agreed. The argument for wanting more depth this year shouldn't be that we have less than previous years, but that this year seems like one to put all our chips in for.

Maybe the rumored final addition will put this to rest, or maybe there wasn't enough $ to upgrade any of the depth we have, or maybe no proven reserves were available by the time our roster was settled enough to know what would fit (while I've pointed out that guys have accepted such roles on other teams in the past, I do know that they aren't plentiful).

21ChampaignSt said:

My challenge would be, if our 9th man is always playable (with the exception of MP) then why would the expectation be that our 9th man this year isn't playable? Wouldn't past experience tell us that, according to your games played criteria, the staff actually has a 9th man on the roster they're confident in?

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Well, that's the point. They (Zens) needs to be an upgrade from Petro and on-level with those other guys... just for a playable body in case of necessity.

How likely is that? Fair question to discuss and opinionate, and time will tell.

WhereDoWeStandWithStorr? said:

Well, you're missing the point as it pretains to games played.

That's the biggest determinor of whether the player is getting onto the court. (the 3s comment was more so referring to skill set)

2021 Coleman Hawkins played in 25/31 games as the 9th man. That's 81%.

2022 Luke Goode played in 28/33 games. That's 85%.

2023 Ty Rodgers played in 33/33 games. That's 100%.

2024 DGL played in 28/38 games. That's 74%.

2025 Jake played in 32/35 games. That's 91%.

All of those guys, had the team had two of the top-eight injured, would've the coaches trust to get onto the court. Or if someone just wasn't playing well and we needed a change.

2026 Petrovic was the one exception: 19/37 games. 51%. That's likely a situation you'd like to avoid, rather than think it's a normality.

Therefore, I don't think it's crazy to say we need a playable 9th man. The idea that we always play 8 is pretty propaganda.

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#1 - you made the number of threes part of the criteria, not me.

#2 - Why do you think Zens can't register an appearance in 28 games? Like, you do realize most of that is spot minutes and garbage time right?

2021 Co-Hawk played for 10+ minutes in just 6 games, and played less than 5 minutes in 10.

2022 Goode played 10+ in 9 games and less than 5 in 4. But also remember, he was #8 on that team, and basically #7 for the half the season Curbelo was out with injuries. The actual #9 on that team is probably either BBV, Payne, or Melendez who all played a lot less than Goode.

In 2023 Ty Rodgers ended up #7 in minutes. He was a solid part of the rotation. Not sure why we're counting him as the #9thman

2024 DGL got some solid minutes in November against a bunch of Q4s, and then played 10+ minutes exactly three more times, all in blowouts. He had 12 games with less than 5 minutes. (BTW, Freshman DGL was also bad. .395 eFG%, 1:1 assist/turnover ratio, bad defense, box plus/minus of -4.1).

2025 Jake - I agree he is the 9th man that ZZ probably can't replicate. But the flipside of that team was the lack of experience further up the roster. I think I'd happily take the tradeoff of having that experience and proven quality in the 1-8 rotation and being a little weaker on the #9thman

So, with the exception of stepping into the 2nd guy off the bench role like Ty did in 2023, or being 2025 Jake, why do you not think ZZ can be every bit as impactful as those other guys?

ugottabjoshinme said:

This 9th man stuff is such a nothingburger to me. It blows my mind that it has consumed this much talk in here. I guess we need something to talk about since the remaining 99% of the offseason hit the best case scenario.

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I’m no psychologist but I think it’s just people trying to sound smart. If all you’ve got to offer is sweeping praise for an offseason that’s resulted in us being ranked between 1 and 4 by every notable publication, that’s nice and all but it doesn’t portray the wanted level of intelligence of a super granular and critical over-think!