Illini Basketball 2026-2027

#351      
PleaseMakeABowlGame
foby said:
I'm tremendously excited about the upcoming season. Our ceiling truly is our first NCAA Tournament Championship!

2 things I'm really looking forward to;

1) Vaaks passing in the PnR. Tomi feasted with KJ and struggled a bit when he was out. I think the feasting returns with Vaaks.

2) The team on the floor at the end of our blowout wins. Blake, Lincoln, ZZ, Ethan, Landon, JJ - they should be very fun to watch.
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He feasted with Keaton too, just didn’t make the shots.

Tomi’s likely the one that cost Keaton the most assists last year.
 
#353      
ptgrd23
foby said:
1) Vaaks passing in the PnR. Tomi feasted with KJ and struggled a bit when he was out. I think the feasting returns with Vaaks.
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2024-5 was KJ/Tomas pick and roll or Tomas low post. Ben H, Tre White, and Kylan were less effective scorers. Will was not a passer. You could argue Tomas was our #2 option most of the time.

2025-6 Keaton avg 18 ppg on 40% 3pt shooting. Andrej avg 14 ppg driving the lane and David avg 14 ppg posting up and 3's. Tomas' usage was way down most of the season.

2026-7 Vaaks takes a lot of shots like Keaton. Andrej and David are back. Quentin is low usage. Tomas will have work hard to get his shots.
 
#354      
Illinirog1970
ptgrd23 said:
2024-5 was KJ/Tomas pick and roll or Tomas low post. Ben H, Tre White, and Kylan were less effective scorers. Will was not a passer. You could argue Tomas was our #2 option most of the time.

2025-6 Keaton avg 18 ppg on 40% 3pt shooting. Andrej avg 14 ppg driving the lane and David avg 14 ppg posting up and 3's. Tomas' usage was way down most of the season.

2026-7 Vaaks takes a lot of shots like Keaton. Andrej and David are back. Quentin is low usage. Tomas will have work hard to get his shots.
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What did you mean Q is "low usage?"
 
#355      
Second place is 1st loser
ptgrd23 said:
2024-5 was KJ/Tomas pick and roll or Tomas low post. Ben H, Tre White, and Kylan were less effective scorers. Will was not a passer. You could argue Tomas was our #2 option most of the time.

2025-6 Keaton avg 18 ppg on 40% 3pt shooting. Andrej avg 14 ppg driving the lane and David avg 14 ppg posting up and 3's. Tomas' usage was way down most of the season.

2026-7 Vaaks takes a lot of shots like Keaton. Andrej and David are back. Quentin is low usage. Tomas will have work hard to get his shots.
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You're going to want to revisit this thought.
 
#356      
Guest
Emerson Bigguns said:
The vast majority of HM college athletes do most of their work on-line, rather than in class. The flexibility for workouts, practice, and travel is extremely advantageous for them.
It's probably not ideal from a team building/chemistry standpoint, but it's not like he's going sightseeing... he will be playing against some of the best players in the world. Fortunately, he has been around the team a bit this summer, starting that process.
You probably don't get a kid like him on your team, unless you plan to honor his commitment to his country.
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Agree. Pure speculation because I don’t know much about these FIBA games. But it appears that Vaaks and Estonia (and the other Euro teams) are done for the time being. So, I assume Vaaks is back or will be soon. The FIBA European qualifying games restart at the end of August for about 5 days. So, again, I assume he will return at the end of that and have all of September and October to practice with the team. I have gotten the impression that the September/October practices are the most important, generally. So, it really doesn't sound as if he is missing a whole lot.
 
#360      
hooraybeer
RollChief said:
It seems like the difference between S16 and Championship this year is injury luck finally going our way and Vaaks + the Freshmen coming up to speed defensively.
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to that point, does anything change about the way we workout/practice/prepare this year knowing that a championship is on the table? simply cannot have big injuries to key players this year
 
#361      
jamarvelous31
hooraybeer said:
to that point, does anything change about the way we workout/practice/prepare this year knowing that a championship is on the table? simply cannot have big injuries to key players this year
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Dunno how "Every Day Guys" meshes with not practicing hard ..and it likely sets the wrong tone short and long term for the 7 new guys.
 
#363      
grue2
Combo said:
Yeah I never understood some fans' fascination with the idea. It's extremely rare for any coach to do it. You want your best players on the floor as much as possible and furthermore you want them to build chemistry - hard to do if you're constantly subbing in guys. You do need some depth because of foul trouble, injuries, and fatigue.

And no stud wants to play just 20 mpg so the coach get do this.
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The hockey lines were supposed to increase chemistry. You are always playing with the same players. It also dealt with foul trouble because no one played more than 20 minutes. The downside was needing to create two balanced lines which resulted in both lines being over-matched vs. another really good team. Without the hockey line restriction Kentucky could have matched up.
 
#368      
HensonHall71
Second place is 1st loser said:
You're going to want to revisit this thought.
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The reality is we have 5 starters who all have the ability to be high usage guys, which is what makes this team so exciting.

We don't need Q to have really high usage, if he is a catch and shoot three point man and someone who can breakdown a defense and create shots for others, that is all we really need from him.
 
#369      
OrangeBlue98
CoalCity said:
Nice! Get Fran back in the building and should be a nice payday for Penn
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Hope that “alien Fran” poster with the red eyes is still around. Would be awesome to have Fran sign it and get a photo (assuming he doesn’t take himself too seriously).
 
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