Illini Basketball 2026-2027

#226      
NarrowJ
There's an obvious romanticizing of former players (it makes sense, just pointing it out)

This Ty / Morillo discussion reminds me a bit of reading yesterday that maybe Morillo could fill the vaunted 'Justin Harmon role' as if there was a poster-child for the best ever 18 minute per game guard at Illinois and Just Harmon is him. Like... Morillo is a top 50 player, I am fairly certain he can give us at least something similar as a dude who was 3 inches shorter and a zero star recruit who spent 4 years between Juco and the WAC.

(btw, this Ty / Morillo discussion is clearly more grounded than that comment was so not necessarily trying to draw a 1:1 here)
 
#227      
blackdog
Combo said:
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.
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Morillo actually has a functional shooting form and is already good from mid-range so there is definitely a lot more potential than Ty in that area.
 
#228      
ChiefGritty
blackdog said:
Morillo actually has a functional shooting form and is already good from mid-range so there is definitely a lot more potential than Ty in that area.
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On the one hand that's what everybody said about Ty at the time too.

On the other hand, these things are probabilistic, and Ty's evolution as a jump shooter was just a 10th percentile outcome, you'd feel good about your chances rolling those same dice again.
 
#229      
lstewart53x3
ChiefGritty said:
On the one hand that's what everybody said about Ty at the time too.

On the other hand, these things are probabilistic, and Ty's evolution as a jump shooter was just a 10th percentile outcome, you'd feel good about your chances rolling those same dice again.
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Ty was reluctant to shoot 3s even in high school. Morillo had 186 attempts across his junior and senior year and made 37% of them (40% his senior year on 98 attempts). So he’s a willing shooter, unlike Ty. But he has struggled at times too, most notably during EYBL where he shot just 20% from 3 (on a limited sample size, 24 attempts).
 
#230      
ChiefGritty
lstewart53x3 said:
Ty was reluctant to shoot 3s even in high school. Morillo had 186 attempts across his junior and senior year and made 37% of them (40% his senior year on 98 attempts). So he’s a willing shooter, unlike Ty. But he has struggled at times too, most notably during EYBL where he shot just 20% from 3 (on a limited sample size, 24 attempts).
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Sure.

I guess what I'm saying is, it would be wise to bet on Morillo to become a competent shooter of an open college 3, and it also would have been wise to bet on Ty to become a competent shooter of an open college 3. Ending up on the wrong side of an 80/20 proposition doesn't make the 20 more likely or demand some parsing of the two situations, it is just the nature of how things work.
 
#231      
NarrowJ
Everyone sort of figured Mirkovic would be a poor shooter based on a 28% number via a small sample of attempts his final season at SC Derby

He shot 37% the year prior via another small sample but yet nobody referenced it -- only the poor shooting sample got any traction in discussions

He shot 38% this year on decent volume (152 attempts... still a small sample, yet larger than the international league sample)

I can see with Morillo averaging 4 attempts per game, probably says more about his shooting ability than the percentage of them that he made
 
#233      
blackdog
lstewart53x3 said:
Ty was reluctant to shoot 3s even in high school. Morillo had 186 attempts across his junior and senior year and made 37% of them (40% his senior year on 98 attempts). So he’s a willing shooter, unlike Ty. But he has struggled at times too, most notably during EYBL where he shot just 20% from 3 (on a limited sample size, 24 attempts).
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Looking at these numbers its strange that he has been labeled as not a good shooter based on a 24 attempt sample size considering hes been a good shooter more often than not.
 
#234      
RollChief
NarrowJ said:
Everyone sort of figured Mirkovic would be a poor shooter based on a 28% number via a small sample of attempts his final season at SC Derby

He shot 37% the year prior via another small sample but yet nobody referenced it -- only the poor shooting sample got any traction in discussions

He shot 38% this year on decent volume (152 attempts... still a small sample, yet larger than the international league sample)

I can see with Morillo averaging 4 attempts per game, probably says more about his shooting ability than the percentage of them that he made
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I agree that larger samples indicate that Morillo is probably a better shooter than he's getting credit for. QC averaged 29.2% from 3 during the Americup and I would still consider him an excellent shooter coming in based on his 50.6% in his last year at Principia.

With that said, it would be pretty surprising if Morillo took more than 4 attempts per game, and would probably mean he's a lot better than we think he is if he plays enough to average that much. The only guys last year that averaged more than 4 per game were Wagler, Mirkovic, Tomi and BH, who all played 22 minutes a game or more.

Edit: Was looking at 3PT stats a little more, and the thing about 3 point shooting last year that still surprises me is the monumental cold streak both of the twins went through to end last season. Tomi ended the season at 22.2% from February 21st on after UCLA, 10-45 to end the season, and Z shot a remarkably low 9.7% from 3 after February 7th, ending the season at 3-31.
 
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#235      
Boomauer
What stood out to me about Morillo in the all star game that I watched...when he got in the lane he was aggressive physically. I'm a fan.
 
#236      
NarrowJ
RollChief said:
I agree that larger samples indicate that Morillo is probably a better shooter than he's getting credit for. QC averaged 29.2% from 3 during the Americup and I would still consider him an excellent shooter coming in based on his 50.6% in his last year at Principia.

With that said, it would be pretty surprising if Morillo took more than 4 attempts per game, and would probably mean he's a lot better than we think he is if he plays enough to average that much. The only guys last year that averaged more than 4 per game were Wagler, Mirkovic, Tomi and BH, who all played 22 minutes a game or more.

Edit: Was looking at 3PT stats a little more, and the thing about 3 point shooting last year that still surprises me is the monumental cold streak both of the twins went through to end last season. Tomi ended the season at 22.2% from February 21st on after UCLA, 10-45 to end the season, and Z shot a remarkably low 9.7% from 3 after February 7th, ending the season at 3-31.
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I meant he was taking 4 attempts per game in high school, not that he will shoot that many here as a freshman. If he’s averaging 15-20 minutes per game then I’d guess somewhere around 30-40 total attempts for the entire season as a willing yet selective perimeter shooter. So whatever his percentage on 30-40 attempts ends up being, we’ll all overreact to whatever that number is next offseason. 😁
 
#237      
RollChief
NarrowJ said:
I meant he was taking 4 attempts per game in high school, not that he will shoot that many here as a freshman. If he’s averaging 15-20 minutes per game then I’d guess somewhere around 30-40 total attempts for the entire season as a willing yet selective perimeter shooter. So whatever his percentage on 30-40 attempts ends up being, we’ll all overreact to whatever that number is next offseason. 😁
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Ah yeah my bad I see what you're saying, totally missed the "with" and thought you were saying you could see him averaging 4 a game... Nonetheless, he's obviously comfortable taking them...
 
#238      
RabidDawgClassic
21ChampaignSt said:
A little bit like Ty with less explosiveness and more craftiness offensively.

Needs to get his outside shot to at least 30% though.
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jamarvelous31 said:
Ha, so a lot bit like Ty
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#239      
RabidDawgClassic
NarrowJ said:
Everyone sort of figured Mirkovic would be a poor shooter based on a 28% number via a small sample of attempts his final season at SC Derby

He shot 37% the year prior via another small sample but yet nobody referenced it -- only the poor shooting sample got any traction in discussions

He shot 38% this year on decent volume (152 attempts... still a small sample, yet larger than the international league sample)

I can see with Morillo averaging 4 attempts per game, probably says more about his shooting ability than the percentage of them that he made
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I looked at Mirk’s pre-Illinois stats and assumed he’s be a poor three point shooter AND a poor free throw shooter. Either I was way off or Mirk improved immensely in an absurdly short amount of time. I’m guessing it was more the former and less of the latter.
 
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