Illini Basketball 2026-2027

#1,351      
NarrowJ
Illinisnake said:
I mean, yeah there is some luck attached to it but it was a tipped pass (a bad pass) but still defense caused that decision, Hurley coaches his guys to never give up. Lately he has landed two of the best Illini teams in program history a loss in the tourney, his players believe they are always going to win. That is why I didn't want this team to play UCONN and would rather them play DUKE because of coaching.

I can't stand Hurley but let's not pretend luck won him that game, it was a tipped pass, great defense, that led to a shot from a stud shooter.
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The offensive player could've just launched the ball in the air and the game is over. He made an error by throwing it where a player could easily reach it.

It was 100% an error by Boozer, that's not really disputable.

There is no way to give Hurley credit for this. Having a player on the other team make a dire mistake and then banking in a 40 foot heave isn't something you draw up on the clipboard. :ROFLMAO:
 
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#1,352      
EmeraldCityIllini
The coaching and culture instilled by Hurley gave them a chance to be in it being down big.

The final play itself was a fluke. Even taking out the steal, it still required a 40-foot heave anyway.

A little luck too it just happened to be the freshmen point guard instead of the veteran pg who was hobbled and limited.

Not every single result and play result in college basketball needs to be about in game coaching and adjustments
 
#1,353      
Get yourself a new map
NarrowJ said:
The offensive player could've just launched the ball in the air and the game is over. He made an error by throwing it where a player could easily reach it.

It was 100% an error by Boozer, that's not really disputable.

There is no way to give Hurley credit for this. Having a player on the other team make a dire mistake and then banking in a 40 foot heave isn't something you draw up on the clipboard. :ROFLMAO:
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The 40-footer against Duke was pure nylon. They started banking in threes against us. Because of course.
 
#1,355      
BWA
OrangeBlue98 said:
My brother and I tossed this question around. We both said Kofi with Plummer’s shooting because that’s a bigger marginal gain and impact.

His comp for Wagler with TSJ’s athleticism is Jaylen Brown, while his comp for Kofi was a poor man’s Joel Embiid.
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I think I’d go the other way. Kofi didn’t have the best hands and certainly couldn’t handle the ball well enough on the perimeter. How much would the shooting really help if he still couldn’t play on the perimeter?

Wagler+TSJ fast breaks alone would be insane to watch.
 
#1,357      
WyattEarp
Poe's Law said:
Knowing The Wyatt Earp Effect is a thing means never having to admit nice things about Hurley (even if maybe he earned them).
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Kurt Russell Smoking GIF by GritTV
 
#1,358      
March2TheArch
hoopsfan47 said:
Great to see that clip. Last clip we saw showed him lacking in physicality and a tad hesitant instead of doing his thing quickly and confidently.

Brown is obviously progressing physically (thanks Adam Fletcher) which he badly needed. In addition, he appears to be confident and doing what he needs to do to contribute. Could become a solid cog in the Illini wheel and/or a starter/rotational player in a couple of years....not just a guy that plays due to experience, but a B1G warrior who hits shots every night, low turnovers, and defends. Can't have enough of those guys.

He will have 4 and maybe 5 classmates ahead of him in playing time, but he has value at that spot that we have not had previously from similarly rated frosh. Hope he is willing to work hard and be patient. He has B1G level skills but not the body....yet. That should come with time and work...along with confidence.
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Brown has 3 months.

Think about how much weight/strength Keaton gained. He was getting checked full court by Yaxel and Morez, two lotto picks with far greater physical gifts.

I’m confident we’ll see a B1G-ready Ethan this year at least against the lower half of the conference.
 
#1,359      
wc_illini
If Hurley/UConn's tourney results vs the spread are a measure of the magic, it was strongest in 2023 & 2024. It's apparently come back down to earth since then, but it's still positive. I've included their results vs Tovik's margin to show that bettors haven't deviated much from the computers.

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#1,360      
jjv0004
NarrowJ said:
The offensive player could've just launched the ball in the air and the game is over. He made an error by throwing it where a player could easily reach it.

It was 100% an error by Boozer, that's not really disputable.

There is no way to give Hurley credit for this. Having a player on the other team make a dire mistake and then banking in a 40 foot heave isn't something you draw up on the clipboard. :ROFLMAO:
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Correct, but if you don't think Hurley's coaching got them to the point that a bonehead mistake by Scheyer would win UCONN the game, then I don't know what to tell you. Hurley can flat out coach.
 
#1,362      
NarrowJ
jjv0004 said:
Correct, but if you don't think Hurley's coaching got them to the point that a bonehead mistake by Scheyer would win UCONN the game, then I don't know what to tell you. Hurley can flat out coach.
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Throughout this entire conversation we've given Dan Hurley his flowers. He's been called a great coach more than several times.

It is also okay to know that they were handed that game by Duke via an inexcusable mistake by Cayden Boozer and the ensuing scramble that led to a 40 foot heave at the buzzer.

Was not aware the Illinois message board had such a large contingent of Dan Hurley stans.
 
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#1,363      
HoopsterMan
NarrowJ said:
So one team has a 2 point lead with seconds left, and also has the ball (other team has no timeouts).

Momentum? lol mkay

Lot of bending over backwards to give Hurley credit for a 0.01% chance of winning that game. The guy has enough on his resume that we already must consider him a great coach, do we really have to work this hard to make him the divine cause of the completely improbable turnover + desperation heave? I mean what's next? Are we going to argue he actually made that play happen somehow? Wasn't aware there were so many Hurley fanboys on here...
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Do you think the outcome of a 40 minute game is reliant on one play that determines the winner? C'mon. Might as well roll the ball out there with 60 seconds and give each team one possession. It's like saying one bad reffing call mid game was luck/not luck and determined the game.

I'd personally prefer beating UConn as well as in this sport, coaching is what wins. Players come and go. Their system is our kyrptonite. In three games, where we had very good teams and the #2 and #3 offensive kenpom teams, we have scored an average of 58 pts a game. I believe it's our three lowest scoring games in the last three seasons. We break that rut, I'd say it shows this team is different.

I also watched that NC game - Michigan was a far better team on paper, yet if not for a really favorable UM whistle (check the box on fouls/free throws), UConn may have won that game. There were 5-6 WTF calls on UConn that looked like the refs were being paid off, most involving Cadeau.
 
#1,364      
Bucktown
OrangeBlue98 said:
My brother and I tossed this question around. We both said Kofi with Plummer’s shooting because that’s a bigger marginal gain and impact.

His comp for Wagler with TSJ’s athleticism is Jaylen Brown, while his comp for Kofi was a poor man’s Joel Embiid.
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You are correct, and I don't think its close.
 
#1,365      
EmeraldCityIllini
HoopsterMan said:
Do you think the outcome of a 40 minute game is reliant on one play that determines the winner? C'mon. Might as well roll the ball out there with 60 seconds and give each team one possession. It's like saying one bad reffing call mid game was luck/not luck and determined the game.

I'd personally prefer beating UConn as well as in this sport, coaching is what wins. Players come and go. Their system is our kyrptonite. In three games, where we had very good teams and the #2 and #3 offensive kenpom teams, we have scored an average of 58 pts a game. I believe it's our three lowest scoring games in the last three seasons. We break that rut, I'd say it shows this team is different.

I also watched that NC game - Michigan was a far better team on paper, yet if not for a really favorable UM whistle (check the box on fouls/free throws), UConn may have won that game. There were 5-6 WTF calls on UConn that looked like the refs were being paid off, most involving Cadeau.
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UConn stayed in it.

But I’ll go to my grave thinking if we could buy like a single layup against UConn we would have spooked Michigan.

A) even though they beat us in Champaign, they were rolling then and we were probably at our worst of the season, I still think a slight mental advantage of Brad owning Michigan

B) Yaxel was very clearly hurt, really hurt. And no Cason.

C) That crowd would have been 85% orange
 
#1,367      
HoopsterMan
NarrowJ said:
In this case? Yes, and it’s not even arguable.
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Really depends on how you look at it - some may say Duke should have never been in that position. Saw a stat were overall 1's were 134-0 when leading by 15 at the half prior to that game, Duke had a 99% of winning when it was up 17 in the second half.
 
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#1,368      
HoopsterMan
EmeraldCityIllini said:
UConn stayed in it.

But I’ll go to my grave thinking if we could buy like a single layup against UConn we would have spooked Michigan.

A) even though they beat us in Champaign, they were rolling then and we were probably at our worst of the season, I still think a slight mental advantage of Brad owning Michigan

B) Yaxel was very clearly hurt, really hurt. And no Cason.

C) That crowd would have been 85% orange
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Yeah never know - conference opponents have a funny way of playing out in title games(Gtown/Nova 1985, Kansas/OU 1988). Both times it happened in the modern era, the dog won in big upsets.

Michigan didn't play particularly well in that final. They got UConn on 22 to 13 personal fouls, and FTs were 25-12.
 
#1,374      
NarrowJ
HoopsterMan said:
Really depends on how you look at it - some may say Duke should have never been in that position. Saw a stat were overall 1's were 134-0 when leading by 15 at the half prior to that game, Duke had a 99% of winning when it was up 17 in the second half.
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You can choose to look at it however you’d like to, but Hurley did not draw that sequence up as it transpired. We can agree on that, hopefully.

“Okay, Boozer is gonna screw this up. All you have to do is heave a 40 foot shot. Guaranteed win. Break!”

That isn’t what happened.
 
#1,375      
lstewart53x3
NarrowJ said:
You can choose to look at it however you’d like to, but Hurley did not draw that sequence up as it transpired. We can agree on that, hopefully.

“Okay, Boozer is gonna screw this up. All you have to do is heave a 40 foot shot. Guaranteed win. Break!”

That isn’t what happened.
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Yeah, let’s start here.

Let’s imagine for a sec that the steal with a few seconds to go was defensive skill, not luck. Arguable for sure, but let’s stick with that.

Let’s focus solely on the shot. A shot from 40 feet out. What percentage of the time does that shot go in? Maybe 25% of the time?

Which means there’s a 75% chance he misses that shot. Had the shot not went in, they of course would have lost the game. Therefore, they were decently lucky to win that game.

 
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