I think Lincoln Williams plays meaningful minutes this year. If he brings the defensive intensity and rebounds well, his length and quickness will be a problem for other teams. He's the X factor for me this year given I already think everyone in the top 7 will be great. I also love Morillo, I just don't think what Morillo brings is as much of a need for this team. Next year, I can see Morillo running the point and playing the Vaaks role and being all Big Ten. It will be interesting how the rotation plays out
Illini Basketball 2026-2027
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I think a lot of Petro not living up to the hype had to do with Keaton dominating the available minutes at the only position in which Petrovic could feasibly play. EDIT: Also, Boswell.
Brandon Lee actually got in the game with 12 mins left in the first half of that Wisconsin game everyone keeps referencing (aside: funny we care about one singular game as if Brad is the first coach ever to play 6 guys when two players are out).
When Koa Peat went down for Arizona, 6 players played 93% of the minutes
When Nate Mast went down for Nebraska, 6 players played 95% of the minutes
When Ngongba went down for Duke, 6 players played 94% of the minutes
We had TWO players out, one of them was a last second DNP in warmups (as someone else mentioned).
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I mean, there are 15 roster spots. Obviously if you could have spots #9-15 be 9thman quality you do that. Actually, you'd just want spots #1-15 to be NBA lottery picks if you could get whatever you want. But realistically, the end of the roster is going to be guys who will almost certainly not be 9th or 10th in a rotation. That's not a bad evaluation. That's using the end of your roster on a project or someone who's going to be good to have around in scrimmages. I'm sure when Jakstys was recruited there was hope that he could develop into a rotation piece or more. But I don't think anyone was betting the future of the program on it. And I'm giving the staff enough credit to assume theyr'e not taking on too many project pieces to the point they don't have enough guys to play this season. To borrow an old trope, Brad can count.
Unreliable and situational are different though.
I’m not sure Petro “was unreliable” as much as “well our best player plays his position and is a top 5 pick”.
The perceived/real dropoff from Keaton to Petro was partly situational. Whereas if you looked at floridas guard spots, would be Petro be as “unreliable” there?
Maybe the answer is yes. But the drop off wouldn’t be nearly as pronounced and the trade off more with it. I don’t think we’d call Petro unreliable during the skyy Clark and Jayden Epps year
Does he need to? Everyone knows he’ll take lots of threes next year.
Joel Goodson
- it's all ball bearings, nowadays
stop making sense
As much as it’s “at his position,” the 9th man can’t be a purely on-ball player. Because it means you’re taking the ball out of Keaton’s hands and Kylan’s hands.
It has to be someone who can provide value off the ball, and not clog a ton of usage. Jake Davis is the perfect example (he was a very good 9th man his first year).
Unfortunately, Petro was the exact opposite of that. He needs the ball in his hands, or his value is zero.
Someone like Lincoln Williams or Zens could be more suited for that role, this year. Perhaps neither have Jake’s ability as a shooter, but neither need the on-ball usage and can still impact the game.
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Absent, god forbid, serious injury, I'm not worried about our depth. You generally use an 8-man rotation. We're very good 1-7. Morillo is likely to be 8th and he's a top 50 recruit who can contribute at multiple positions. After that, I'm confident we can get a few minutes our of Williams, Brown, JJ, etc.
Now if something happens to one of our top 7 guys, everything changes. I actually think our most crucial guy is Vaaks. He just looks like the perfect PG for what we do offensively. I don't think we have anyone else like that on our roster.
Whatever his contract is, it still won’t be enough. He brought us back from depths I wish to never go back to.
I think we’re saying the same thing - you can’t take the ball out of their hands because they’re studs, one a mega-stud - that was our situation last year.
If it was Skyy Clark at point guard, or heck even KJ at times of insanity (basic frosh stuff), Petro absolutely could have been brought in onball.
RabidDawgClassic
- Los Angeles, CA
I do think the injury point is valid.
If we get an update that one of Vaaks / QC / Andrej / Mirk has a broken foot and will be out until February… then yes, I would be extremely concerned about our depth.
If it’s a few games in the middle of the year, but nothing too rash, then I’d have much more confidence as we always seem to work through it.
At full strength, we have a legitimate top 8. One of Brown, Zens, Williams should emerge as the low workload 9th man.
…..
I think Vaaks and Andrej are the two most irreplaceable players. Vaaks because of his ball handling — no one else has PG level ball skills. And Andrej because of his two way ability. He’s our best defender, paired with he might be our leading scorer.
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Any team losing one of its two star players is cooked (as far as being an elite team)
#9th man can’t fix that
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
But bro, we didn't have a 9th man last year and look what happened. We made the Final Four. Wait.
People seem to be all aboard on Vaaks.
When we got him, I figured he’d be a bit underrated nationally, since he’s the “new guy” amongst all these returners… and then would really show out and prove himself.
But there seems to be no hesitation that he is that guy right now.
…..
With transfers, many people put stock into the PLAYER and not the SCHOOL they’re going to. To me it seems Vaaks had the biggest “stock up” of any player in the portal based on where he committed. It’s probably not even close.
If he went to, say, Ohio State… don’t think he’d be talked about the same way he is at Illinois. (for whatever reason that may be — development, recent program success, coaching, etc)
When we got him, I figured he’d be a bit underrated nationally, since he’s the “new guy” amongst all these returners… and then would really show out and prove himself.
But there seems to be no hesitation that he is that guy right now.
…..
With transfers, many people put stock into the PLAYER and not the SCHOOL they’re going to. To me it seems Vaaks had the biggest “stock up” of any player in the portal based on where he committed. It’s probably not even close.
If he went to, say, Ohio State… don’t think he’d be talked about the same way he is at Illinois. (for whatever reason that may be — development, recent program success, coaching, etc)
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I bet Chris Beard would have had a #9thman.
I posted this a month ago- it's a way to see how our past freshman have fared relative to their incoming composite rating. The "Freshman Season Rating" is an average of Torvik's PRPG! and D-PRPG. For an elite team, a starter is 3+, primary reserves are 2+, and much below that is probably garbage time only.
The 0.85-0.97 range was surprisingly uniform (the floor was lower below 0.90, but anything below 0.5-1 wouldn't help us anyway), and in that range 10% were "stars" (Wagler and Mirk), 14% were "bench" players, 14% were "borderline bench" players (9th+ men?), and 62% probably shouldn't see the floor much on a team this good.
Give a bump to guys with defensive contributions that are notoriously hard to capture.
The 0.85-0.97 range was surprisingly uniform (the floor was lower below 0.90, but anything below 0.5-1 wouldn't help us anyway), and in that range 10% were "stars" (Wagler and Mirk), 14% were "bench" players, 14% were "borderline bench" players (9th+ men?), and 62% probably shouldn't see the floor much on a team this good.
Give a bump to guys with defensive contributions that are notoriously hard to capture.
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coen carr having same odds and andrej and sandfort is sorta weird... guess they think a lot more of him than i do
Can’t believe a Big 10 Network analyst can be this biased against us.
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