I'd like to think PleaseMakeABowlGame is just making a point about their 9th+ men and not that they'd be better than us if we each lost two guys, so I tried removing David and Andrej and swapping our replacements with theirs to see if that gives a better result than it does with our replacements, but I couldn't get it to work.
Illini Basketball 2026-2027
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Long time posters on this board were scarred when coaches missed on priority PG targets and then pretended we could do PG by committee. BU and crew are doing something entirely different.
LaTulip had this discussion on the F68 podcast. The host hadn't figured out how Illinois had done it year after year, but Illinois has not had a traditional PG in some time, and values ball handling and passing at all positions. The only guy I would say was an exception last year was AS, who was a match-up problem as a driver. His A/T was by far the worst at 0.8, but the value of driving, getting fouls, pulling defenders in has a lot of value that's not in the stats. I suppose KB was a traditional PG coming off the bench, but BU has also said many times he loves having different tools in the toolbox, so to speak, and having Kylan with his toolset (traditional PG and leader, great on ball defender, etc.) gave us something important especially situationally.
By the way, when I went to post this, I was checking stats and still am in disbelief --Jake and Ben, combined for 1557 minutes and ...13 TOs. Did not realize they were that good. Unreal.
Battle89
- Cary-Grove, the better Trojan team
As a former Rochester Hills resident (many years ago but post-college), I am envious!
The only team I think that's truly lacked a point gaurd... is the Mayer team (especially after Skyy departed).
Any other year we've had a point guard. They've just been too tall for people's liking.
What's ironic though, is that those same people will actually look at the 22-23 team as having that point guard, and the 23-24 team as not having one. Because, well, Jayden Epps is 6"1 and Domask is 6"6. This despite the assist rate and facilitator ability being SIGNIFICANTLY more advanced for Domask, compared to Jayden Epps.
It's all so ignorant.
Any other year we've had a point guard. They've just been too tall for people's liking.
What's ironic though, is that those same people will actually look at the 22-23 team as having that point guard, and the 23-24 team as not having one. Because, well, Jayden Epps is 6"1 and Domask is 6"6. This despite the assist rate and facilitator ability being SIGNIFICANTLY more advanced for Domask, compared to Jayden Epps.
It's all so ignorant.
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It's crazy how far we've come from the question mark coming into the season being Ty Rodgers at PG, vs now having the question be Vaaks at PG
Agree it’s very silly. The question that should be asked is do we have a replacement for Keaton? That is, a lead guard who can shoot, play in ball screens and process and make the right play? We do. His name is Stefan Vaaks.
Will he play that role to the level Keaton did? Still very much TBD and let’s be fair, probably unlikely as Keaton was a consensus AA last year.
But those are the questions that should be asked about us. Why I tuned out national pundits 20 years ago. Most of their takes are uninformed bordering on ignorant.
I'm guessing there are many well paid college basketball analysts who believe that, so we should probably give a few similarly inclined Loyalty members a break.
Agreed. He's the one that can give you a lot of what Keaton did. Not saying he'll be as good (though he could be).
Blows my mind that some folks insisted Ty could be our PG, yet don't believe it with Vaaks. You want your PG to be able to score - both from outside and taking it into the lane. If the guy can't do that, defenders will sag off of him, and whatever distributing ability he has is less useful.
Well put. Latulip also called it out on the field of 68 after dark grades podcast on the main page.
If Vaaks were 6'2 everyone would be fine. Which is...dumb.
ptgrd23
- orange county CA
College is getting more like NBA - including big PGs
SGA 6'6"
Luka 6'7"
Cade C 6'7"
Lamelo 6'7"
Tyrese Hal 6'5"
Donavon M 6'4"
Tyrese Maxey 6'4"
Jalen Brunson is outlier at 6'1"
It would be nice to have an emergency PG -- Nico M, Justin H but Brad does not see the need
I agree if Vaaks goes down we are probably screwed - no B10 title or FF chance
SGA 6'6"
Luka 6'7"
Cade C 6'7"
Lamelo 6'7"
Tyrese Hal 6'5"
Donavon M 6'4"
Tyrese Maxey 6'4"
Jalen Brunson is outlier at 6'1"
It would be nice to have an emergency PG -- Nico M, Justin H but Brad does not see the need
I agree if Vaaks goes down we are probably screwed - no B10 title or FF chance
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
To give a few of the talking heads the benefit of the doubt, Vaaks did have quite a bit lower of an assist rate than Keaton last year (Keaton’s was 23.2 vs 18.1 for Vaaks).
Jason Edwards had the highest assist rate on Providence at 21.9.
But, let’s say Vaaks played for us last year in the Keaton role and Keaton played for Providence in the Vaaks role, would their assist rates have switched? How much of their stats were system and role related?
I think we have a good chance of being very similar to last year in the backcourt with Vaaks being our primary ball handler and initiator of the offense with Coleman as the 2. On the defensive side of it Coleman on the ball and Vaaks on the 2 much like how Brad used Wagler and Boswell.
I don't care if he's 6'0 or 6'7. He looks like he sees the court extremely well, handles well, and shoots well. That's what you need from your primary PG. Defense is a concern but I think our staff will get him to be at least adequate there.
Our flexibility last year covered 2-5 with our eight man rotation with Z for the 4-5, Ben 3-4, and Jake at the 2-3. We had only KB and KW for the 1-2. With KB hurt we had no replacement for KW at the 1. Brandon Lee was not a 1 and Petrovic did not fit our system. Think our weakness this year is at the 4-5 if Mirk, Tomi or Z go down as no Ben and not sure how well JJ can cover. However covering that position probably not as critical as lead guard. Morillo has played that position as well as Brown so not without positional coverage but suspect it would be significant drop off. Foul problems could probably be covered but lengthy absences?. BU did however do a great job at covering our star when TSJ was out.
I love this notion that being 6’7” is too tall to play point guard, when perhaps one of the best PGs in the history of the Big Ten, and close to the history of the sport itself, was a 6’9” Magic Johnson.
Not saying Vaaks is the next Magic Johnson obviously, but maybe, just maybe, cookie cutter molds aren’t an adequate means of determining whether or not a player can be good at a position.
Hell, a similar 6’9” Ben Wallace was one of the most effective defensive Centers, stuffing Shaq in the Playoffs.
Let’s let the coaching staff determine the best way to use our guys, and not let height or build pigeonhole them.
Not saying Vaaks is the next Magic Johnson obviously, but maybe, just maybe, cookie cutter molds aren’t an adequate means of determining whether or not a player can be good at a position.
Hell, a similar 6’9” Ben Wallace was one of the most effective defensive Centers, stuffing Shaq in the Playoffs.
Let’s let the coaching staff determine the best way to use our guys, and not let height or build pigeonhole them.
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No defense.... No play... We don't have anyone in the line up to cover for him. We will live or die with his defense. His last year's team died with him.
54:20 — 9 guys have played 30 games only one time in Brad’s time here.
I like Jake a lot but claiming he might be the best backup in the country(or one of them) is an insane homer take.
Duke will be bringing one of Boozer or Foster off the bench and Davis would be lucky to even see the court on that roster. MSU is potentially bringing Jervis off the bench. Michigan might be bringing McCoy off the bench. USC is likely bringing Jalen Cox off the bench. And so on.
I'll give you that Z would likely start on a lot of teams and is a huge luxury, but top bench guys look like Michigan bringing Mckenney off the bench last year(along with Gayle and Cason).
I don't even think defense is a concern at least for Vaaks.
He's 6'7, has good length, and is a capable enough athlete to move his feet.
Neither of Domask or Wagler were issues defensively and Vaaks has similar enough traits to be utilized like them. Don't expect him to be a plus defender but I expect him to be utilized within the system to the point where he's not a liability either.
There is maybe a question of having a point of attack defender on the roster, but it Coleman and Stojakovic can handle that duty then I don't see much of an issue with the 3 of them on the floor.
Well, he legitimately might be the worst defender on the team. Not saying he can’t improve, but the word seems to be it was very bad last year (and is definitely a downgrade from Keaton and Kylan).
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