Illini Basketball 2026-2027

#576      
RollChief
Fly Illini Fly! said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/2077377645508243461
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IL Big Ten Opponents
Home & Away: Northwestern, Purdue, Wisconsin
Home only: Iowa, Michigan State, Nebraska, Ohio State, Penn State, UCLA, USC
Away only: Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, Rutgers, Washington

Considering a favorable schedule giving us MSU, UCLA, and USC at home, we've got to be a runaway favorite in the B1G at this point. MSU is listed in second and they have to play Michigan, UCLA, and USC on the road. Not winning the league this year considering the favorable schedule would be disappointing, and I could see us winning by 3-4 games easily. What an opportunity we have in front of us.
 
#577      
lstewart53x3
PleaseMakeABowlGame said:
MSU has more depth, it's not close.

Starting 5 (per Rothstein): Fears, Carr, Scott, Ward, Bonke.

Bench: Teng, Glenn (averaged 13/game at Eastern KY), Jervis (5 star freshman), Taylor (5 star freshman), Medlock (top 50 freshman).

MSU and USC are the deepest teams. Michigan would've been in that conversation had Cason played, but he transferred.
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Let’s use Torvik as unbiased source.

I’ll remove Illinois’ top 3 players and MSU’s top 3 players. That would turn the 6th, 7th, and 8th men into starters and the 9th, 10, and 11th men into key rotational players. Should do a decent job of comparing team depth.

Illinois before: 5
Illinois after: 32

MSU before: 7
MSU after: 52

For fun, here’s USC too:

USC before: 31
USC after: 56

According to Torvik, we’re the deepest of the 3. MSU’s the most top heavy of the 3 (the biggest drop off from their starters to their bench).
 
#578      
Illwinsagain
LvilleILL1 said:
Some of the incoming freshman are further along than expected. Going to be some tough calls.

This isn't just from the staff, so not just your typical "rose colored" assessment during the summer.
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I just hope that the bench players see the opportunity next year. I have a feeling that we will be losing 5-7 players to graduation and the draft.
 
#579      
lstewart53x3
Illwinsagain said:
I just hope that the bench players see the opportunity next year. I have a feeling that we will be losing 5-7 players to graduation and the draft.
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If that happens, we likely won’t build the team around the current freshman. We’ll go get transfers and euros to build an upperclassman team again.
 
#580      
EmeraldCityIllini
PleaseMakeABowlGame said:
MSU has more depth, it's not close.

Starting 5 (per Rothstein): Fears, Carr, Scott, Ward, Bonke.

Bench: Teng, Glenn (averaged 13/game at Eastern KY), Jervis (5 star freshman), Taylor (5 star freshman), Medlock (top 50 freshman).

MSU and USC are the deepest teams. Michigan would've been in that conversation had Cason played, but he transferred.
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Calling Taylor and Jervis 5-stars is just straight up lying man.
 
#582      
RabidDawgClassic
Det_Illini_fan said:
Sexy Mood GIF by truTV
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Sexy Homer Simpson GIF
 
#584      
Curbelo Fanboy
illiniwil said:
I think after 8 guys, you start to risk your best three not being on the court for enough minutes. Three of Mirk, Stoya, probably QC or Vaaks need to be on the court with at least one of the twins 65% of the time to play at the highest level. not gonna find minutes for 9-10 guys.
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I'm not talking a lot of minutes. Especially in the tournament games you could play a guy 2 or 3 minutes each half (situated around the tv timeouts) & get the guy he is subbed in for a solid 15 minutes of actual rest time. The tv timeouts at those tourney games take forever and then some. Take a guy out at like 13:00 minutes. He sits til say 11:00. Within there is the under 12 timeout that takes 4 or so minutes from whistle to restart. Plus some natural game stoppages.

Do that twice a game & you could get significant rest time. And I admit it's a very nebulous point that may only matter a couple times a year. But if it matters it's gonna be in the games at the end of the year.
 
#587      
PNWIllini
RollChief said:
IL Big Ten Opponents
Home & Away: Northwestern, Purdue, Wisconsin
Home only: Iowa, Michigan State, Nebraska, Ohio State, Penn State, UCLA, USC
Away only: Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, Rutgers, Washington

Considering a favorable schedule giving us MSU, UCLA, and USC at home, we've got to be a runaway favorite in the B1G at this point. MSU is listed in second and they have to play Michigan, UCLA, and USC on the road. Not winning the league this year considering the favorable schedule would be disappointing, and I could see us winning by 3-4 games easily. What an opportunity we have in front of us.
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Expecting another brigade Washington Hec Ed Pavilion takeover by Seattle Illini. Can’t wait. Last time was outstanding.
 
#588      
WhereDoWeStandWithStorr?
PleaseMakeABowlGame said:
Here's our minutes per game amongst rotation players added up in last 3 seasons:

2026: 8 guys - Keaton, Kylan, Andrej, Mirk, Tomi, Ben, Jake, Z combined for 204.5

2025: 9 guys - Kasparas, Will, Kylan, Ben, Tomi, Tre, Morez, DGL, Jake combined for 206.5 (yes, Jake counts)

2024: 9 guys - TSJ, Domask, Hawkins, Quincy, Ty, Dainja, Harmon, Goode, DGL combined for 203.7 (yes, DGL counts)

My guess would be that number inflates the more the team has injuries and players miss games? Anyways, let's say for next season the number is 204.

Vaaks - 32
Andrej - 32
Mirk - 31
Coleman - 28
Tomi - 26
Jake - 20
Z - 19
Morillo - 16

would be where I see it.
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Very mystified / curious who plays most out of Morillo, Davis, and ZI.
 
#591      
hangdog
Curbelo Fanboy said:
I'm not talking a lot of minutes. Especially in the tournament games you could play a guy 2 or 3 minutes each half (situated around the tv timeouts) & get the guy he is subbed in for a solid 15 minutes of actual rest time. The tv timeouts at those tourney games take forever and then some. Take a guy out at like 13:00 minutes. He sits til say 11:00. Within there is the under 12 timeout that takes 4 or so minutes from whistle to restart. Plus some natural game stoppages.

Do that twice a game & you could get significant rest time. And I admit it's a very nebulous point that may only matter a couple times a year. But if it matters it's gonna be in the games at the end of the year.
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So in a knockout tournament game, you want our best players to get extra rest because TV timeouts already provide them with even more rest than they get in a regular season game. Do I have that about right?
 
#592      
RandyfromTuscola
NarrowJ said:
Finding some way to play Z and Tomi together more this year is one of my biggest hopes. If Z makes a big jump this year, I don't think we can keep him under 20-22 minutes per game and Tomi will still be in the mid-to-upper 20s.

Which that is the antithesis to the Mirkovic 33 minutes per game argument. I actually want him to play less than 33, and I want the reason to be because Z (and Tomi too) are more effective players and can be on the floor at the same time more often.
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I agree. At first last year, it seemed just like a novelty, but later in the year Brad had them playing together occasionally, and it just allowed us a different style of play and was a lot of fun. I'm sure someone can share the +/- and say it wasn't a good lineup, but it just creates match-up nightmares for everyone, especially because they both can shoot 3's. If there's ever a time that both Ivisics are out, who else can step up with Mirk to guard the paint?
 
#594      
lstewart53x3
The Galloping Ghost said:
The difference in ball knowledge between Mike and the rest of the dudes on The Field of 68 is wild. I could listen to MLT talk hoops all day. The rest? Naw.
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Rob Dauster: The problem with this Illinois team is they just have a point guard.

Rob Dauster 5 minutes later: Vaaks is so good he wouldn’t even be playing college basketball 5 years ago. He would’ve went straight to the league.

Huh!?
 
#595      
Curbelo Fanboy
hangdog said:
So in a knockout tournament game, you want our best players to get extra rest because TV timeouts already provide them with even more rest than they get in a regular season game. Do I have that about right?
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It's primarily a regular season thing where I'd like to see a little more depth. Was just pointing out the tournament rest is even longer because of the long tv timeouts.

And yes, I get the concept that a bench guy can kill you at times. But in hindsight we looked tired shooting especially in the elite 8 & final 4 games. A little more depth during the year can make a big difference at the end of the year. Only point I was trying to make. If you use those guys a little more during the year you may be able to ride the best players a little harder if you get deep into March/April.

Yeah, if you get to Detroit you don't worry about going 10 deep in the semifinal but if you did it up to then your key guys have that little bit extra juice to really be leaned on at the end of the season. It's a subtle thing but when you are preseason anywhere from 1 to 5 depending on whose poll it is, you look for every subtle edge that might matter at the end of the season. It can be done with 8 deep but it's a thinner margin. And I'm not expecting those 9 or 10 guys to play much. Just a couple spot minutes as it adds up during the year.
 
#596      
stlrunner
lstewart53x3 said:
Rob Dauster: The problem with this Illinois team is they just have a point guard.

Rob Dauster 5 minutes later: Vaaks is so good he wouldn’t even be playing college basketball 5 years ago. He would’ve went straight to the league.

Huh!?
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I feel like "Huh?" is my response most of the time I get roped into watching a video Dauster is in.
 
#597      
NarrowJ
Joel Goodson said:
the key to unlocking the 9th man mystery is cottage cheese
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Just peeked in the fridge and the expiration date on my cottage cheese was July 9th so I think this has legs.

Also: I need to clean out the refrigerator when returning from vacation.
 
#598      
Fly Illini Fly!
lstewart53x3 said:
Rob Dauster: The problem with this Illinois team is they just have a point guard.

Rob Dauster 5 minutes later: Vaaks is so good he wouldn’t even be playing college basketball 5 years ago. He would’ve went straight to the league.

Huh!?
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Don’t*

…..

Goodman and Rob have been spamming “don’t have a point guard” for months. It’s hysterical.

Just listening to it — so clear as day who the more intelligent voice is.
 
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#600      
PleaseMakeABowlGame
lstewart53x3 said:
Let’s use Torvik as unbiased source.

I’ll remove Illinois’ top 3 players and MSU’s top 3 players. That would turn the 6th, 7th, and 8th men into starters and the 9th, 10, and 11th men into key rotational players. Should do a decent job of comparing team depth.

Illinois before: 5
Illinois after: 32

MSU before: 7
MSU after: 52

For fun, here’s USC too:

USC before: 31
USC after: 56

According to Torvik, we’re the deepest of the 3. MSU’s the most top heavy of the 3 (the biggest drop off from their starters to their bench).
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Depth isn’t about removing three players. It’s about how many guys can realistically play in Big Ten games.

For MSU and USC, the answer is 9 or 10 with very talented players. For USC their 9th man is a top 30 freshman; for us it’s a sub 100 freshman. Pretty big difference.

The discussion isn’t best team. It’s deepest team. In that regard, MSU and USC are a step in front.
 
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