Illini Basketball 2026-2027

#378      
RichardKeenesCousin
Chillinini said:
About Andrej. A buddy of mine has a daughter at the UofI. He said a lot of her friends and friend of friends are enamored with Andrej. Talk about his olive oil skin and flowing black hair. They just think he is da bomb diggity.

I believe he does have the best hair since Richard Keene.
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Nobody has better hair than Richard. I wasn't as lucky.... I'm bald.
 
#379      
Ga65
PleaseMakeABowlGame said:
It's called blue blood boredom.

They're by far the deepest and most talented team. Torvik projects them as the top defense AND top offense.

If they hit on their pieces, they could mirror the 2015 UK squad. Having them 4th is pretty silly.
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As long as only 5 guys play that depth is academic and belongs in the 9th man discussion. More chance to create dissension tha be an advantage. Results will be determined by first eight not 9 and 10.
 
#380      
mysterio2525
Chillinini said:
About Andrej. A buddy of mine has a daughter at the UofI. He said a lot of her friends and friend of friends are enamored with Andrej. Talk about his olive oil skin and flowing black hair. They just think he is da bomb diggity.

I believe he does have the best hair since Richard Keene.
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Jake Davis and kylan had great hair last year...I type in bald
 
#386      
grue2
nichi said:
Here is the breakdown from last season. Kylan (30) and Keaton (33.9) combined for 63.9 mpg. Who played the other 16 guard minutes?

Tomi (25.4) and Z (17.2) combined for 42.6.

Jake (19.6) and Andrej (26.3) 45.9.

Mirk (29.5) and Ben (22.5) 53.

Note That rotation consisted of 4 bigs, 2 wings, and 2 guards.

Next year projects to be 3 bigs, 2 wings, and 3 guards.

Realistically, Tomi and Z will take all the quality center minutes.again. They might play together a little more often. Can Mirk play more than 30 mpg? There should be 5 minutes or more for JJ or small ball with Zens?

Jake and Andrej return and should take all or most of the quality 3 minutes? Andrej starts and likely plays close to 30 if he is healthy.

I can't see Coleman and Vaacks matching almost 64 mpg. I am guessing 20 to 25 bench minutes will be available with Morillo getting most of them.
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I can see Coleman and Vaacks doing pretty close to 64m between them. Can Andrej play SG for 5 minutes, giving Jake 5 more minutes at SF?
 
#387      
Brosky
I can understand the excitement about this year's team. Six newcomers going to fight it out in practice for the two starting spots; wish I could see that.
 
#392      
NarrowJ
RabidDawgClassic said:
I do consider UConn to Illinois what the Pistons were to the Jordan Bulls. That’s the mental hurdle we must get past to get to the next level.
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Meh

Its an awful lot of unnecessary & frankly 'sports curse/hex' irrational non-thinking, sample size is 3 whole games and been favored once

Dan is 4-10 vs McDermott... not sure even that sample size is very telling, is it?

EDIT: Bulls & Pistons were in same division, they played each other like 15x per season, NBA vs CBB, was 40 years ago, etcetera etcetera... I don't see a 'mental hurdle' we have to get past with UConn... if we lose to them again this year, that will suck, but I don't think it means we are cooked either though

ChiefGritty said:
And in another comparison point, we'd better be out for blood in that game.
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Yes 100%
 
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#393      
Combo
grue2 said:
I can see Coleman and Vaacks doing pretty close to 64m between them. Can Andrej play SG for 5 minutes, giving Jake 5 more minutes at SF?
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I think that would be stretching it. I think they'll need a bit of help from Andrej, Lincoln, and/or Brown. Similary I think if we can't get 80 min out of our three Bigs, we'll go small ball for a bit (unless as I hope JJ is capable of helping there).
 
#394      
NarrowJ
NarrowJ said:
Meh

Its an awful lot of unnecessary & frankly 'sports curse/hex' irrational non-thinking, sample size is 3 whole games and been favored once

Dan is 4-10 vs McDermott... not sure even that sample size is very telling, is it?

EDIT: Bulls & Pistons were in same division, they played each other like 15x per season, NBA vs CBB, was 40 years ago, etcetera etcetera... I don't see a 'mental hurdle' we have to get past with UConn... if we lose to them again this year, that will suck, but I don't think it means we are cooked either though



Yes 100%
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Also: I forgot about the Duke game

Wondering if that has the same juju attached to it where if we lose that one singular game then we will just never 'get to the next level as a program' (as it was put)
 
#395      
Calvin
NarrowJ said:
Meh

Its an awful lot of unnecessary & frankly 'sports curse/hex' irrational non-thinking, sample size is 3 whole games and been favored once
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While true, I think the effort UConn showed was impressive, and there's another level Illinois (or most teams) need to have for the tournament to get to a natty.
 
#396      
NarrowJ
Calvin said:
While true, I think the effort UConn showed was impressive, and there's another level Illinois (or most teams) need to have for the tournament to get to a natty.
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I'll validate your opinion but we saw it differently:

Personally was proud of our effort in the F4 game, we shot 34% overall and 6-26 from three while UConn had all sorts of shots bounce around the rim and fall in
 
#397      
Emerson Bigguns
nichi said:
I can't see Coleman and Vaacks matching almost 64 mpg. I am guessing 20 to 25 bench minutes will be available with Morillo getting most of them.
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Why not? Perhaps not quite 64, but almost certainly over 60.

Jake and Andrej will be on the floor together pretty often. I don't think you accounted for that possibility.

Vaaks averaged 31 mpg last season.

A sampling of 5 star freshman guards last year, suggests 30 minutes from Coleman is not crazy.

Mikel Brown (29 mpg)
Brayden Burries (29 mpg)
Kingston Flemings (31 mpg)
Darrius Acuff (35 mpg)
Darryn Peterson (29 mpg)

MPG is always a noisy stat anyway, because you don't get penalized for games in which you don't appear.

There will be minutes for the other freshmen, but they are likely to be hard to earn. I think Morillo will have a role, but I'd be surprised to see 15 mpg.
 
#398      
21ChampaignSt
Calvin said:
While true, I think the effort UConn showed was impressive, and there's another level Illinois (or most teams) need to have for the tournament to get to a natty.
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NarrowJ said:
I'll validate your opinion but we saw it differently:

Personally was proud of our effort in the F4 game, we shot 34% overall and 6-26 from three while UConn had all sorts of shots bounce around the rim and fall in
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I think both are true. I've played this back a lot.

After the FF game there was a bit of commentary about how UConn just outplayed Illinois. I don't agree with that. UConn went on one 7 minute-ish run and outside of that run, Illinois actually outscored them. They outplayed us for 7 minutes out of 40.

But they also didn't have a 7 minute lapse like we did. And I do think part of that could be because they've been there before and they were a little more prepared for the moment mentally. And I can see where that can be described as taking it to "another level". But I don't think it was an issue of effort necessarily. More like focus or concentration... the mental toughness stuff that affects the outcomes in the margins. They were a little bit better than us in that regard.

Just my take on it.
 
#399      
NarrowJ
21ChampaignSt said:
I think both are true. I've played this back a lot.

After the FF game there was a bit of commentary about how UConn just outplayed Illinois. I don't agree with that. UConn went on one 7 minute-ish run and outside of that run, Illinois actually outscored them. They outplayed us for 7 minutes out of 40.

But they also didn't have a 7 minute lapse like we did. And I do think part of that could be because they've been there before and they were a little more prepared for the moment mentally. And I can see where that can be described as taking it to "another level". But I don't think it was an issue of effort necessarily. More like focus or concentration... the mental toughness stuff that affects the outcomes in the margins. They were a little bit better than us in that regard.

Just my take on it.
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Totally agree with 100 percent of this

I think, now stewing on it for a bit, my objection was simply that a single November matchup vs UConn is not going to be a program-changing swing point

Edit: oh and also - more to the point of the original comment - that our recent 3 game skid vs UConn doesn’t automagically mean they have a better team next year

We absolutely must have that game circled though
 
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#400      
rtbritt
grue2 said:
I can see Coleman and Vaacks doing pretty close to 64m between them. Can Andrej play SG for 5 minutes, giving Jake 5 more minutes at SF?
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Can Jake and Andrej play on the wings together with Vaaks or Coleman? Absolutely. It’s college basketball and they are really good. Too much goes into comparing 2s and 3s, IMO.

Last year we had times with Keaton, Ben, Mirk, Z, and Tomi in the game together. We be all right.
 
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