Illini Basketball 2026-2027
Shoot, with the addition of Lincoln, and Jakstys getting cleared, the 9th man stuff kind of dried up like south Texas.
skyIdub
"I can't tell you. Secret."
Lol....except it's so wet and humid you need scuba gear to walk your dog.
To be fair, the summer hype is just that the vast majority of the time. Wagler was definitely the exception.
Too lazy to look it up, but my recollection was Andrej, Boz & Keaton all had lackluster sprint numbers, which passed the eye test since teams were always back on us
foby
- Bonnaroo Land
Let #thefletchening commence!
The commentators have to have something to talk about other than Keaton wagler only having one other high major offer every game
Insiders, I have a suggestion, can someone on staff please make two (2) media guides, one preseason and one mid season?
A midseason “fun fact” reset would be so refreshing.
Worth noting that the game has changed.
Our 125.5 rating in 2024 was good for 3rd for that year, but would be 10th in 2026.
Alabama finished with the #3 offense last year at 129.7.
To be a top 3 offense next year, we’re probably gonna have to be pushing 130.
That 2019 Maryland game has to be there.
Didn’t turn out that bad, since we had a great year, but felt BRUTAL in the moment.
Since we’re not counting Loyola, I might even put it #1. Either that or Penn State.
Davis needs to look for his shot more. He's the best shooter on the team.
Ben and Jake were virtually identical players offensively. However, Ben's 3pt attempts per game were significantly higher.
Jake should have many of the same shots available to him (and he's a far better shooter than Ben).
Ben and Jake were virtually identical players offensively. However, Ben's 3pt attempts per game were significantly higher.
Jake should have many of the same shots available to him (and he's a far better shooter than Ben).
Not sure we expect Jakstys to play anything close to meaningful minutes. He's in the Brandon Lieb role.
The hope is one of Lincoln, Zens, Brown is good enough to take that role.
pruman91
- interviewing new NL's daily....I really really am
Ben H. 2.0 maybe ?
First question of the article, which everyone can see for free:
“I don't anticipate Illinois will try to do a lot differently offensively this season. The shift to a slower pace was very intentional last year and produced the No. 1 offensive efficiency in the country for most of the season. Yes, Keaton Wagler was certainly a big part of that, but a lot of the personnel on next year's team is the same (Mirkovic's usage will likely increase) and Stefan Vaakshas a lot of similarities to Wagler as a primary playmaker. He's not going to beat with open floor speed or top-tier athleticism; he's going to win with ball screen decision-making and halfcourt shot creation.
Jeremy did a great piece back in Januaryabout the Illini's offense, and in it Tyler Underwood talked about the adjustment to playing slower last season. He felt like they got too sped up in 2024-25, when the Illini ranked 17th nationally in tempo, and weren't generating the types of shots they wanted consistently. So, they tried to model the Boston Celtics and slowed things down considerably to help their players find and exploit matchups better and also conserve energy to stay on the court.
Now, can Illinois create more transition opportunities with this roster? I think so. Quentin Coleman really shined in that area during the AmeriCup and looked very comfortable making plays in transition. Andrej Stojakovic is a great open floor athlete who can probably take advantage of that more in Year 2. With David Mirkovictaking on more responsibility this year, I think you'll see him grab and go a little bit more instead of always trying to get the ball into Wagler's hands like last year.
In general, though, I think this team will want to play slower again, and they should be elite doing it.“
This. All of it.
It's SIGNIFICANTLY more likely that we match last year's elite efficiency (or at least get close to it), by playing at a similarly slow pace.
If we were below 300 last year, we definitely shouldn't persue being top 200. Ideally the 200-300 quadrant.
Less possessions = less wasted. More possessions = more wasted (and rushed shots).
Last year's group is THE template (and we return almost everybody, which means same personnel).
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
Okay fine, this past year:
Alabama, #3 offense, #5 tempo.
Michigan, #4 offense, #22 tempo.
Arizona, #5 offense, #49 tempo.
Arkansas, #7 offense, #17 tempo.
Florida, #9 offense, #31 tempo.
Half of the top 10 offenses were top 50 in tempo. Showing that there is no correlation between pace and offensive efficiency, it simply comes down to personnel.
Attempts per game is useless.
Attempts per 20 minutes:
Jake 3.65
Ben 3.8
Not THAT much of a gap.
Ben was pretty quick to get his shot off and was looking to shoot anytime he could when under 30 ft. Jake only shoots when open and was deterred anytime a defender was within 6 ft. He can get more shots, but needs to work on a quicker process and maybe some moves to get open. I can't recall him shooting off a screen but that could happen (maybe it did but I did not see it). It is somewhat surprising that he is not more aggressive in his shooting... but then with all the other offensively talented guys on the team, he does not have to be. That could change though.
I think Ben's 3pt shot attempts were higher because he played more (22.2 MPG vs Jake's 19.4). If you adjust Jake's total 3PA over the year of 133 to 22.2 MPG, you get 153 3PA on the season, vs Ben's 158 total, so Ben actually took approx. 3% more 3PA than Jake over the course of the season.
To your point, there are other usage stats they share that are remarkably close. They both only took 24 FT attempts on the full season, they both had top 5 turnover rates in CBB, and had very similar OReb rates. Ben had more counting stats on defense (2x as many DReb, 3x as many blocks).
I agree Ben has the higher quicker release of the two. But I think Jake’s release is quicker/better than you’re giving him credit for. I can’t go along with the “six feet” stuff.
Also, you have to consider Jake was utilized primarily as a corner spacer/sniper in most all of our sets. That was what was asked of him. Ben often found himself in different situations; often out front in pick and pop situations; more than Jake.
So…different roles…different situations. It’s tough to compare. (They were often used differently.)
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ptgrd23
- orange county CA
Jakstys 6'10' 220 is significantly stronger than Lieb so he can help out of somebody is beating up Tomas or Big Z in the paint and David is in foul trouble.
Landon Davis is 6'9" 220 lbs but does not look as strong.
in 2027 we run the risk of Tomas, Big Z graduating and David to NBA. Depending on what bigs we can bring in Jakstys and Landon Davis might be playing significant 4 or 5 roles.