Illini Basketball 2026-2027

#726      
the juiceman cometh
NarrowJ said:
I have been so surprised listening to various outlets/analysts who are normally very well informed refer to Vaaks as if he is an off-ball guy
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Not sure I'd call Raphael Davis "normally very well informed."

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#729      
mysterio2525
RabidDawgClassic said:
You mean depths like this? Yeah… I never wanna go back there either.

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omg I didn't realize how much he sounds like the drunk guys trying to elaborate how cool Bill brasky was.... and he is even doing that poorly!

Will Ferrell Snl GIF by Saturday Night Live


I for one with raise a glass to Josh Whitman and Bill brasky!!!!

Josh Whitman's tears cure cancer.... too bad he never cries!
 
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#730      
Ga65
PleaseMakeABowlGame said:
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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The only depth that matters in my opinion is the replacement of a player that is injured and out for a sustained period. For Tomi-Z, for Dre-Jake, for QC- Jake, for Vaaks-Morillo, for Mirk-Z. All of these would hurt and strategies would be affected but none to the extent of MSU losing Fears. Having a 10 be equivalent to the 6 doesn’t have much value unless you lose a player for a sustained period of time because the 10 isn’t going to play anyway. Having that depth may help you in practice but also may cause you team morale problems.
 
#731      
Second place is 1st loser
PleaseMakeABowlGame said:
It doesn’t make or break a roster, but it does mean we aren’t as deep as that team and other top teams in the big ten (especially when the difference is that severe - one’s a boarderline 5 star guy and the other’s barely ranked top 150).

It also means one team is significantly more equipped to handle injuries, while the other isn’t.
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This, in theory, would be the takeaway. HOWEVER, if ANY team loses a bonafide starter and critical piece of the equation for a significant amount of time.....there is absolutely nothing that the 9th man on the roster is going to do to mask that.

If MSU loses Fears, their ceiling crashes down on them. They have absolutely nothing to replicate him.

For us, we know the cast of characters that make the engine run. If we lost Mirk, Drej, Tomi, etc.....there is absolutely nothing we can do to replace that type of production and experience.

Last year, if MI lost Yaxel, Morez or Mara.....with all due respect to Tschetter.....they would have been screwed.
 
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#732      
Second place is 1st loser
NarrowJ said:
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 think you mean Rienk Mast.

Nate was one of our up 40 with 3 minutes to go guys.
 
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