Illini Basketball 2026-2027

#1,026      
PleaseMakeABowlGame
thefalcon5 said:
The worst thing Keaton Wagler did to me was make be start believing in off-season hype again.

Now its got me thinking Mirk is the best player in CBB. Still unsure if I’m happy or annoyed at this change in mind.
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Combo said:
Yeah, I think Keaton was the exception - that rare instance of a player actually meeting (and surpassing) the preseason hype.
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It's a lot like the claims about Tomi last year. Not that he wasn't a good player, but he was our 5th best player instead of our best player.

Eventually that top guy will emerge. But on a team with this many options, you can't be so sure on one guy like that (on July 22nd especially).
 
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#1,027      
WhereDoWeStandWithStorr?
lstewart53x3 said:
I haven’t seen anyone say he’s going to be the best player in the country, but he is currently 4th in player of the year betting odds. So it’s not just homer Illini fans who think he will be one of the best players in the country.
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I mean it was literally the debate a few days ago? The guy said he'll average 20 and 10, because he's going to win National Player of the Year and that every winner in the last however many years has averaged 20.

Those are the perspectives I'm questioning. Not whether he'll be a good player or not.
 
#1,029      
NarrowJ
WhereDoWeStandWithStorr? said:
I mean it was literally the debate a few days ago? The guy said he'll average 20 and 10, because he's going to win National Player of the Year and that every winner in the last however many years has averaged 20.

Those are the perspectives I'm questioning. Not whether he'll be a good player or not.
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Mirkovic can score the same amount of points and still be a much better player. You're just taking what one random guy said and acting like the entire message board thinks it.

If we really did that, our offseason summary would look like:

- None of ESPN, The Athletic, Sports Illustrated, CBS, Torvik or Kenpom knows anything about how to rank teams, only random people on the internet are skilled at this

- We only have 7, maybe 8 (if we're lucky), guys on the roster who are good at basketball

- Keaton Wagler was a complete non-story this past season, everyone knew he was awesome last summer

- USC has a better roster than Illinois despite being ranked 31st on Torvik

- Justin Harmon > Lucas Morillo

- Really need to improve upon last year's offense

- John Blackwell is far better than any of our players could ever hope to be

- Mirkovic being mocked in the lottery and having 4th best odds to win NPOY is silly because he is slow and can't jump and already hit his ceiling as a player

- Morez Johnson is an impeccable young man who was drafted exactly where everyone thought he would be

- Brady Pettigrew became a worse player overnight as chatter of re-class surfaced

- Its impossible for any of our players to improve
 
#1,031      
OrangeBlue98
Given the Illinois offense is based on hunting favorable matchups, having three high usage potential players with different skill sets is going to be a nightmare for opposing teams. I don’t worry in the least about usage, because it will largely depend on who has the best matchup.

Sure, there may be a “main guy” who gets the usage late in a close game, but for 34-36 minutes I think usage will vary game to game as matchups vary.
 
#1,032      
WhereDoWeStandWithStorr?
NarrowJ said:
Why would 37% be so unlikely to improve upon? The power conference median is 35%. Literally several hundred players shot over 37.5% last year.
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You have to look at 6"9 power forwards shooting that percentage on over 4 attempts per game.

That percentage, paired with that size, and that volume, is extremely impressive. That's not something to improve. It's something to maintain.

Maintain is where my focus would be, especially considering he wasn't thought to be a great shooter coming into the year.
NarrowJ said:
Why would 8 rebounds be so unlikely to improve upon? About 50 players averaged 9 rebounds or better. Steinbach averaged 12.
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8 could be improvable. Still very good, but as we play with more pace and he plays more minutes, could definitely see that going up.
 
#1,033      
NarrowJ
WhereDoWeStandWithStorr? said:
You have to look at 6"9 power forwards shooting that percentage on over 4 attempts per game.

That percentage, paired with that size, and that volume, is extremely impressive. That's not something to improve. It's something to maintain.
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Everyone shoots from the same line regardless of how tall they are.

The guy who led the NCAA in 3 point percentage last year is 6 foot 8 inches tall and averaged 7.5 attempts per game.

I'm not saying I think he will improve on 37%, just that it isn't some crazy abnormal thing if he does... literally hundreds of guys shoot that percentage.
 
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#1,034      
Fly Illini Fly!
NarrowJ said:
Everyone shoots from the same line regardless of how tall they are.
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6"9 or taller players are generally much worse shooters than guards.

Don't let Illinois fool you. They are the exception:

1000015999.jpg
 
#1,035      
NarrowJ
Fly Illini Fly! said:
6"9 or taller players are generally much worse shooters than guards.

Don't let Illinois fool you. They are the exception:

View attachment 50952
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So we can't expect Mirkovic to shoot well because he's tall?

I'm not sure what the point of him being tall or playing a certain position would be. It's not like if we moved him from PF to C that he'd automatically become a worse shooter, or if we moved him to SF he'd automatically shoot better. Still the same guy.

Knowing bigs generally are worse shooters is common basketball knowledge, but doesn't help us in this particular discussion though.
 
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#1,036      
zentrails
Oracle21 said:
Stojakovic is who he is and he’s played a ton of minutes in his career. I don’t see much growth there. I don’t see why anyone should expect more.
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I don't get this, last year he became arguably our best defensive player seemingly out of nowhere. Just improving a little on that alone would be great, I expect improvement in that area, if he can stay healthy. His offense could use a better 3pt % as well, but the rest is so good that it will be hard from him to play better. Just those two improvements and I think he is a cinch 1st rounder. I expect more though, dude wants the NBA bad and our staff knows how to do that.
 
#1,037      
WhereDoWeStandWithStorr?
NarrowJ said:
So we can't expect Mirkovic to shoot well because he's tall?

I'm not sure what the point of him being tall or playing a certain position would be. It's not like if we moved him from PF to C that he'd automatically become a worse shooter, or if we moved him to SF he'd automatically shoot better. Still the same guy.

Knowing bigs generally are worse shooters is common basketball knowledge, but doesn't help us in this particular discussion though.
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That, but more-so he wasn't known as a shooter before his one season at Illinois. It was the exception season in his basketball career. Is it possible he dramatically improved after arriving on campus? Absolutely.

But just projecting 37.5% to be 40% based off some "Sophomore leap" is fools gold. Especially after we saw Tomi go from 35.7% to 31.3%.

If he's able to maintain that percentage, or be worse but only slightly worse, then that's still a big success.
 
#1,038      
BretMyBeachHouse
I think the arrow is pointing up on Mirkovic. But in terms of shooting I think there's a ton of variability on 3pt percentage. I dont think the development arc for that tracks in the same way it does for most parts of a player's game.
 
#1,040      
NarrowJ
WhereDoWeStandWithStorr? said:
That, but more-so he wasn't known as a shooter before his one season at Illinois. It was the exception season in his basketball career. Is it possible he dramatically improved after arriving on campus? Absolutely.

But just projecting 37.5% to be 40% based off some "Sophomore leap" is fools gold. Especially after we saw Tomi go from 35.7% to 31.3%.

If he's able to maintain that percentage, or be worse but only slightly worse, then that's still a big success.
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Haven't said I expect/project it, just that if he does then I wouldn't fall out of my chair or anything.

The most likely thing this season is Andrej's percentage goes up, and Mirkovic's goes down a bit. But regression in either direction isn't guaranteed either.
 
#1,041      
illiniguy24
Bleedorangeandblue44 said:
This just came through my feed today and am just posting it for any of our younger Illini fans don't know why we hate Indiana

GOD bless you Lou Henson for fighting the good fight all those years. Your efforts are paying off through all these years and especially now with Brad who doesen't take this kind of crap

I have no idea how Illini fans ever took playing against Bobby Knight

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This is so good lol
 
#1,042      
PleaseMakeABowlGame
NarrowJ said:
The most likely thing this season is Andrej's percentage goes up, and Mirkovic's goes down a bit.
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Then that means Stojakovic likely averages more points. Call it 30% for Andrej and 35% for David from 3.

Free throws and Twos will likely be in Stojakovic’s favor. Last year, Andrej averaged 4.4 twos per game compared to Mirk’s 3.2. He also averaged 3.0 free throws per game compared to Mirk’s 2.3. This is, DESPITE Andrej playing 3 less minutes per game (Andrej could play more next year).

Can Mirk lead the team in scoring? Yes. But I’m not sure where the certainty is coming from, considering Andrej played 3 LESS minutes last year, and still averaged more points.

We haven’t even talked about Vaaks, who’s by far the best shooter (and probably has the most usage).
 
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#1,043      
Fly Illini Fly!
PleaseMakeABowlGame said:
Then that means Stojakovic likely averages more points. Call it 30% for Andrej and 35% for David from 3.

Free throws and Twos will likely be in Stojakovic’s favor. Last year, Andrej averaged 4.4 twos per game compared to Mirk’s 3.2. He also averaged 3.0 free throws per game compared to Mirk’s 2.3. This is, DESPITE Andrej playing 3 less minutes per game (Andrej could play more next year).

Can Mirk lead the team in scoring? Yes. But I’m not sure where the certainty is coming from, considering Andrej played 3 LESS minutes last year, and still averaged more points.

We haven’t even talked about Vaaks, who’s by far the best shooter (and probably has the most usage).
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They’re all great players. You can make an argument for each of them. Offseason buzz is just guessing; nothing to set in stone or get offended about.
 
#1,044      
NarrowJ
PleaseMakeABowlGame said:
Can Mirk lead the team in scoring? Yes. But I’m not sure where the certainty is coming from,
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No certainty here, I think any of Stoj, Vaaks, Mirk could lead the team in scoring. I would guess there won’t be a wide margin between the 3. If forced to make up numbers I’d go Stoj 17 and Vaaks/Mirk 15 each.
 
#1,047      
Fly Illini Fly!
PleaseMakeABowlGame said:
Then that means Stojakovic likely averages more points. Call it 30% for Andrej and 35% for David from 3.

Free throws and Twos will likely be in Stojakovic’s favor. Last year, Andrej averaged 4.4 twos per game compared to Mirk’s 3.2. He also averaged 3.0 free throws per game compared to Mirk’s 2.3. This is, DESPITE Andrej playing 3 less minutes per game (Andrej could play more next year).

Can Mirk lead the team in scoring? Yes. But I’m not sure where the certainty is coming from, considering Andrej played 3 LESS minutes last year, and still averaged more points.

We haven’t even talked about Vaaks, who’s by far the best shooter (and probably has the most usage).
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NarrowJ said:
No certainty here, I think any of Stoj, Vaaks, Mirk could lead the team in scoring. I would guess there won’t be a wide margin between the 3. If forced to make up numbers I’d go Stoj 17 and Vaaks/Mirk 15 each.
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Fly Illini Fly! said:
Fighting over who will be our leading scorer is prime offseason melodrama lol.
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While we’re at it, points per 100 possessions last season:

Stojakovic — 31.2
Mirkovic — 27.6
Vaaks — 27.8 (on an awful team)

As of preseason, I do think Stojakovic has the leg up here. His 3pt% should also increase.
 
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