Well, this is a good example of how a.season can turn without proper roster cinstruction and depth. Trying to say that no one will get hurt and iif it does we will be ok. I dont think next years team is in that type of situation but i pray Mirk stays healthy at the 4. He is the only banger we have
Illini Basketball 2026-2027
You said it. Role changed. As a team, we were more perimeter oriented. Played through the post even less than last year (which already wasn't much). And when we did play inside out, we played through the 4 more than we did last year. That's why Tomi's assist numbers were down, too.
But I do think that in the very rare instances when we were going through a prolonged drought, a designed Tomi post up could've been implemented more often.
What I find slightly more mystifying though is his rebound numbers. Down 2 rebounds per game vs last year. I suppose this too, could be attributed to Mirk's emergence.
Coaching Carousel (Basketball)
Probably the biggest news drop of the offseason. This seems significant.
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@thefalcon5 's post in the Coaching Carousel thread alluded to this, but Dusty May's departure leaves the door wide open for us to be the runaway favorite for the B1G regular season title. As it currently stands, Michigan was set to be our toughest test on the road this year, and with Dusty out, we should be going into the season favored in every single one of our away games.
If you look at the pre-season Torvik rankings, 5 of the top 6 teams we play in the B1G this year are home only (see next season's schedule vs. pre-season rank below). Even though we had Michigan at home last year, our away schedule was much more challenging on balance. A case can be easily made for us being a 1 or 2 loss team in the B1G this year. If you remove Michigan from the equation, MSU is the other team who can be considered in the top tier, and they have to travel to UCLA, USC, OSU, and Iowa this year (and have a home/away with UM).
I hate nitpicking our offense this season. Because, why would I?
But I’d have to agree with that. When we finally got him a few more post touches. His confidence went up as well. Then his perimeter #s went up. I’m nor sure why we we waited so long to make a point to do that.
RichardKeenesCousin
Richard Keene's Cousin
Of course, he has. It looks as though BU and staff know what they're doing.
He’s so versatile. Seems like the type of player you can pretty much plug in 1-4
He's in the Justin Harmon role for next year's team. Needs to be solid if he plays 15-18 minutes.
He's the natural point guard for the Illini-- Tall, great distributor, gets to the basket, can shoot from the outside, gets the ball up-court quickly, plays defense,,, CAN'T WAIT!!
hes not a point guard. at least at the big ten level.
He definitely needs to look for it more. I think there are a few explanations for it.
Mirk is such a good facilitator that I think it cut into his opportunities a bit, as he was the primary option on the block.
We were also very Keaton-centric from an attack standpoint. They didn't want to clog up the lanes looking for post up position. He seemed to have better synergy with KJ in pick and roll situations...
Tomi just never looked right physically until the end of the year last year. I think that knee injury in November nagged him for a long time, which could have also contributed to his being less assertive down low, also explains his decrease in rebounding. (Along with Mirk being a beast)
One thing i recall about Hummel doing or commenting on our team last season. He was alway questioning or calling on BU to feed T with his crazy success he had in the post. I tend to agree until they double him. He was really good and over 70% is insane.
He's not a good outside shooter - at least at this point in his development. That said, he will likely get some playing time behind Vaaks at PG. He's versatile enough to "help out" anywhere from 1-4, though it's unclear what his best spot would be. Best guess is they use him wherever he's needed.
I highly doubt Morillo will ever play PG for us. Nor do i forsee him ever in that role. When its not Vaaks, we will flow through our vets like Mirk, Tomi and then maybe Coleman. I would bet there will be a lot of Vaaks and Mirk running thunga chasing miss matches.
I respectfully disagree, while it depends on the definition of PG, I think it’s his most natural position in this offense. He’s a natural distributor, gets to the lane using his size, great vision on the pick and roll. While he needs more consistency in his outside shot, he is a good shooter and that will come.
I agree this year he’s likely not going to be called upon to initiate the offense a whole lot with Vaaks, Mirk and even Coleman doing that but I think he will be our primary PG at some point before he leaves
Probably not worth arguing the definition of a PG but Morillo is a ball dominant guard/forward.
I think if he's getting minutes it's pretty likely he will get his fair share of time with the ball in his hands.
A little bit like Ty with less explosiveness and more craftiness offensively.
Needs to get his outside shot to at least 30% though.
Ha, so a lot bit like Ty
Joel Goodson
- it's all ball bearings, nowadays
ONE NUGGIE NOT HARDLY ENUF. NEED MOAR!!!
I don't he's anywhere near the rebounder that Ty was. Probably a better shooter, but that's not saying much.
He's a bit like Ty in that he doesn't appear to have a an obvious position. Which is why I think the staff will use him where needed, which could be anywhere from 1-4.
QC is an obvious SG, Andrej SF/SG, Mirk PF, and so on.
Maybe. Ty was a prolific rebounder so it's a high standard. But in their respective FIBA U18 tournaments, Ty averaged 6 rebounds and Morillo averaged 9.