More on inverted offense (they just don't use the term itself). Get those 6'3 guys guarding down low, while the 7 footers stick on the perimeter.
Illini Basketball 2026-2027
More on inverted offense (they just don't use the term itself). Get those 6'3 guys guarding down low, while the 7 footers stick on the perimeter.
I swear, by the 2096 season, we’re going to have AI agents and cyborgs trying to determine who the next Marcus Domask replacement is to carry on the proud tradition of BoOtyBalL
There is presale information here: https://nashvillehoopsshowdown.com/tickets/
I've already got my plane tickets, I want to see Nashville 60%+ Illini fans again.
In other news, THREE EXHIBITIONS! Thanks Illini staff for the free basketball!
Quick edit: This means 139 days have passed with 57 days left of offseason, meaning we've made it through 71% of the offseason.
Last edited:
Wish Baylor and Cincy counted.
Stoked they are playing here in Cincy!! Can’t wait to get a first glimpse at them in person
Can't echo this - not wishing for a tougher schedule/games while we are without our best player. But not only that... Cincy and Baylor are both right in that 40-200 range where winning doesn't help you much at all, but losing places big, fat red marks next to your name come selection Sunday.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Just to follow up on this since I am "in limbo" waiting for a 12:30 pm meeting and sitting by my computer AND because I frickin' love this rather pointless fan base speculative math (so again, this is in no way to be argumentative, I am just having some weird fun!) ... you pretty much rely on four groups of Illini fans to fill any arena away from Champaign. There are ALWAYS going to be groups that don't fit into these buckets, but I would wager that 85%+ of Illini fans at a given non-SFC arena could be captured in these broad groups.
1) Alumni traveling from Champaign-Urbana. These are the "diehards" that I feel like broadcasters just assume make up the entire fan section at neutral sites, hence why they are constantly talking about distance from campus as if it's the main factor on broadcasts for games like Braggin' Rights where they always show those maps of Champaign, St. Louis and Columbia with a gold and orange arrow pointing in either direction.
2) Non-alumni traveling from Champaign-Urbana. These are functionally the exact same as the first group, I just included them for a neat set of alumni and non-alumni groups.
3) Alumni who are LOCAL to wherever the arena is. You see posts from these fans all the time on this site when Illinois plays somewhere like Penn State, Duke, Maryland, Washington, etc. These are alumni who found themselves living far enough away from Champaign (whether that's somewhere closer like Chicago or way out on the West Coast, doesn't matter) that their main time they see the boys in person is by jumping at the chance to see the boys play closer to home.
4) Non-alumni who are LOCAL to wherever the arena is. This group is once again very similar to the alumni group, but there is a super important difference ... they pretty much only exist in areas that are "Illini Country" to some degree ... I mean, as a non-alum fan, I would not be an Illini fan if I hadn't been born in Illinois! In other words, this group would only really exist for games like the UC in Chicago or for Metro East people and Braggin' Rights, but it would be non-existent for a game at, say, Madison Square Garden.
Comparing Indianapolis and Chicago for those four categories and being damn generous to Indy here...
1) Let's ignore that it is much easier for instate alumni living somewhere like Rockford, Peoria, Bloomington, etc. to get to Chicago vs. Indianapolis and ONLY focus on alumni from C-U. While the difference is negligible here, let's give an advantage to Indianapolis for the slightly closer distance, just for the sake of argument.
2) Same logic as #1 ... advantage to Indianapolis.
3) This is where it's just not close whatsoever, and I think people REALLY underestimate how much of a given arena's crowd is made up of locals who jump at the chance to see their team while they're in town vs. people who made a trip out of it. Anyway, Chat GPT estimates that there are about 3,000 UIUC alumni in Marion County, IN. Let's be SUPER overly fair to Indy here and (A) assume that absolutely zero UIC or UI-Springfield alumni are Illini fans and (B) exclude all Collar Counties and only use Cook County. According to the UIUC website, there are 92,739 (specifically) UIUC alumni in Cook County, IL, or approximately 30 times more than Marion County, IN. Thus ... decisive advantage to Chicago.
4) This is where you almost couldn't even come up with a ratio. Many probably think that there are not a lot of non-alum Chicagoans would adopt the Illini; as one myself I would dispute that, but let's say that's true to some extent. There are still literally probably THOUSANDS of times more of such fans in Chicago than Indianapolis ... how many people grew up in Indy and didn't cheer for Indiana or Purdue and instead became passionate Illini fans ... just because? I'd say next to zero. HUGE advantage to Chicago.
TL;DR
If you are imagining only Illini fans who live in Champaign traveling to a neutral site arena, you can certainly suggest that the advantage of Chicago vs. Indianapolis is about the same ... heck, if you want to consider the extra 15 miles material and consider Indy as a flat-out more convenient / reasonable place to road trip, you can even say Indy is the better option.
However, if you even BEGIN to entertain that not all of the Illini fans in the crowd are traveling from Champaign, it's clear as day why the UC was filled with 18K orange-clad Illini fans at 8:00 pm on a Wednesday night and that the exact same setup at Gainbridge Fieldhouse would have had an immense struggle at drawing a large weeknight crowd ... because there just aren't that many Illini fans living in Indy who could easily make a weeknight game work, and there are tens of thousands of such Illini fans in Chicago.
Okay, sorry, carry on!
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
Ladies and gentlemen, a FOTN analysis special.Just to follow up on this since I am "in limbo" waiting for a 12:30 pm meeting and sitting by my computer AND because I frickin' love this rather pointless fan base speculative math (so again, this is in no way to be argumentative, I am just having some weird fun!) ... you pretty much rely on four groups of Illini fans to fill any arena away from Champaign. There are ALWAYS going to be groups that don't fit into these buckets, but I would wager that 85%+ of Illini fans at a given non-SFC arena could be captured in these broad groups.
1) Alumni traveling from Champaign-Urbana. These are the "diehards" that I feel like broadcasters just assume make up the entire fan section at neutral sites, hence why they are constantly talking about distance from campus as if it's the main factor on broadcasts for games like Braggin' Rights where they always show those maps of Champaign, St. Louis and Columbia with a gold and orange arrow pointing in either direction.
2) Non-alumni traveling from Champaign-Urbana. These are functionally the exact same as the first group, I just included them for a neat set of alumni and non-alumni groups.
3) Alumni who are LOCAL to wherever the arena is. You see posts from these fans all the time on this site when Illinois plays somewhere like Penn State, Duke, Maryland, Washington, etc. These are alumni who found themselves living far enough away from Champaign (whether that's somewhere closer like Chicago or way out on the West Coast, doesn't matter) that their main time they see the boys in person is by jumping at the chance to see the boys play closer to home.
4) Non-alumni who are LOCAL to wherever the arena is. This group is once again very similar to the alumni group, but there is a super important difference ... they pretty much only exist in areas that are "Illini Country" to some degree ... I mean, as a non-alum fan, I would not be an Illini fan if I hadn't been born in Illinois! In other words, this group would only really exist for games like the UC in Chicago or for Metro East people and Braggin' Rights, but it would be non-existent for a game at, say, Madison Square Garden.
Comparing Indianapolis and Chicago for those four categories and being damn generous to Indy here...
1) Let's ignore that it is much easier for instate alumni living somewhere like Rockford, Peoria, Bloomington, etc. to get to Chicago vs. Indianapolis and ONLY focus on alumni from C-U. While the difference is negligible here, let's give an advantage to Indianapolis for the slightly closer distance, just for the sake of argument.
2) Same logic as #1 ... advantage to Indianapolis.
3) This is where it's just not close whatsoever, and I think people REALLY underestimate how much of a given arena's crowd is made up of locals who jump at the chance to see their team while they're in town vs. people who made a trip out of it. Anyway, Chat GPT estimates that there are about 3,000 UIUC alumni in Marion County, IN. Let's be SUPER overly fair to Indy here and (A) assume that absolutely zero UIC or UI-Springfield alumni are Illini fans and (B) exclude all Collar Counties and only use Cook County. According to the UIUC website, there are 92,739 (specifically) UIUC alumni in Cook County, IL, or approximately 30 times more than Marion County, IN. Thus ... decisive advantage to Chicago.
4) This is where you almost couldn't even come up with a ratio. Many probably think that there are not a lot of non-alum Chicagoans would adopt the Illini; as one myself I would dispute that, but let's say that's true to some extent. There are still literally probably THOUSANDS of times more of such fans in Chicago than Indianapolis ... how many people grew up in Indy and didn't cheer for Indiana or Purdue and instead became passionate Illini fans ... just because? I'd say next to zero. HUGE advantage to Chicago.
TL;DR
If you are imagining only Illini fans who live in Champaign traveling to a neutral site arena, you can certainly suggest that the advantage of Chicago vs. Indianapolis is about the same ... heck, if you want to consider the extra 15 miles material and consider Indy as a flat-out more convenient / reasonable place to road trip, you can even say Indy is the better option.
However, if you even BEGIN to entertain that not all of the Illini fans in the crowd are traveling from Champaign, it's clear as day why the UC was filled with 18K orange-clad Illini fans at 8:00 pm on a Wednesday night and that the exact same setup at Gainbridge Fieldhouse would have had an immense struggle at drawing a large weeknight crowd ... because there just aren't that many Illini fans living in Indy who could easily make a weeknight game work, and there are tens of thousands of such Illini fans in Chicago.
Okay, sorry, carry on!
The best there was, the best there is, the best there ever will be.
That is some kinda non-con schedule.
All the biggies on the road - kinda crazy, no?
All the biggies on the road - kinda crazy, no?
RabidDawgClassic
- Los Angeles, CA
Just to follow up on this since I am "in limbo" waiting for a 12:30 pm meeting and sitting by my computer AND because I frickin' love this rather pointless fan base speculative math (so again, this is in no way to be argumentative, I am just having some weird fun!) ... you pretty much rely on four groups of Illini fans to fill any arena away from Champaign. There are ALWAYS going to be groups that don't fit into these buckets, but I would wager that 85%+ of Illini fans at a given non-SFC arena could be captured in these broad groups.
1) Alumni traveling from Champaign-Urbana. These are the "diehards" that I feel like broadcasters just assume make up the entire fan section at neutral sites, hence why they are constantly talking about distance from campus as if it's the main factor on broadcasts for games like Braggin' Rights where they always show those maps of Champaign, St. Louis and Columbia with a gold and orange arrow pointing in either direction.
2) Non-alumni traveling from Champaign-Urbana. These are functionally the exact same as the first group, I just included them for a neat set of alumni and non-alumni groups.
3) Alumni who are LOCAL to wherever the arena is. You see posts from these fans all the time on this site when Illinois plays somewhere like Penn State, Duke, Maryland, Washington, etc. These are alumni who found themselves living far enough away from Champaign (whether that's somewhere closer like Chicago or way out on the West Coast, doesn't matter) that their main time they see the boys in person is by jumping at the chance to see the boys play closer to home.
4) Non-alumni who are LOCAL to wherever the arena is. This group is once again very similar to the alumni group, but there is a super important difference ... they pretty much only exist in areas that are "Illini Country" to some degree ... I mean, as a non-alum fan, I would not be an Illini fan if I hadn't been born in Illinois! In other words, this group would only really exist for games like the UC in Chicago or for Metro East people and Braggin' Rights, but it would be non-existent for a game at, say, Madison Square Garden.
Comparing Indianapolis and Chicago for those four categories and being damn generous to Indy here...
1) Let's ignore that it is much easier for instate alumni living somewhere like Rockford, Peoria, Bloomington, etc. to get to Chicago vs. Indianapolis and ONLY focus on alumni from C-U. While the difference is negligible here, let's give an advantage to Indianapolis for the slightly closer distance, just for the sake of argument.
2) Same logic as #1 ... advantage to Indianapolis.
3) This is where it's just not close whatsoever, and I think people REALLY underestimate how much of a given arena's crowd is made up of locals who jump at the chance to see their team while they're in town vs. people who made a trip out of it. Anyway, Chat GPT estimates that there are about 3,000 UIUC alumni in Marion County, IN. Let's be SUPER overly fair to Indy here and (A) assume that absolutely zero UIC or UI-Springfield alumni are Illini fans and (B) exclude all Collar Counties and only use Cook County. According to the UIUC website, there are 92,739 (specifically) UIUC alumni in Cook County, IL, or approximately 30 times more than Marion County, IN. Thus ... decisive advantage to Chicago.
4) This is where you almost couldn't even come up with a ratio. Many probably think that there are not a lot of non-alum Chicagoans would adopt the Illini; as one myself I would dispute that, but let's say that's true to some extent. There are still literally probably THOUSANDS of times more of such fans in Chicago than Indianapolis ... how many people grew up in Indy and didn't cheer for Indiana or Purdue and instead became passionate Illini fans ... just because? I'd say next to zero. HUGE advantage to Chicago.
TL;DR
If you are imagining only Illini fans who live in Champaign traveling to a neutral site arena, you can certainly suggest that the advantage of Chicago vs. Indianapolis is about the same ... heck, if you want to consider the extra 15 miles material and consider Indy as a flat-out more convenient / reasonable place to road trip, you can even say Indy is the better option.
However, if you even BEGIN to entertain that not all of the Illini fans in the crowd are traveling from Champaign, it's clear as day why the UC was filled with 18K orange-clad Illini fans at 8:00 pm on a Wednesday night and that the exact same setup at Gainbridge Fieldhouse would have had an immense struggle at drawing a large weeknight crowd ... because there just aren't that many Illini fans living in Indy who could easily make a weeknight game work, and there are tens of thousands of such Illini fans in Chicago.
Okay, sorry, carry on!
Hey… glad to see that, as a member of group four, I’m a rare breed. That’s what made me going to the USC (yay) and UCLA (ugh) games last year so special. And I’ve been waiting 15 years for Illinois to play at the Rose Bowl!
No??
Losing them gives you poor loss, while winning them doesn’t do much because they’re not T25 teams. Those are EXACTLY the games the staff has been smart about avoiding.
It is going to interesting to see who plays and how much in close games. I know we talk about the 8th or even 9th man but i just dont know how much that happens unless its a blow out. In a close game it will likely be 1, Vaaks/Coleman 2 Coleman/? 10 min, 3 Andre/Jake/ maybe a couple for others but doubtful for many, 4 Mirk, Z, ? 5 min. 5 Tomi/Z . Plus, Andre or Jake may play some at the 2 or Dre at 4. The few minutes in question arent many for guys outside the top 7 in close games if at all.
ptgrd23
- orange county CA
I love we added:
@ Cincinnati last year 18-15 (9-9 in B12) played in post season CBC beat DePaul. Coached by Jerrod Calhoun (ex Utah State). They fired Wes Miller after 5 years.
Home vs Baylor last year 17-17 (6-12 in B12) played in post season CBC beat Minnesota. Coached by Scott Drew 23rd year
Good challenging games. If we don't play well we could lose either one. Better than cupcakes
@ Cincinnati last year 18-15 (9-9 in B12) played in post season CBC beat DePaul. Coached by Jerrod Calhoun (ex Utah State). They fired Wes Miller after 5 years.
Home vs Baylor last year 17-17 (6-12 in B12) played in post season CBC beat Minnesota. Coached by Scott Drew 23rd year
Good challenging games. If we don't play well we could lose either one. Better than cupcakes
Thanks Chief…submitted my info to get my package..looking forward to getting the season started
Orangetool
Give me back my Afta, heh heh
I am unsure that I have ever been so jacked and impatient for a season of Illini basketball to begin.
Memory isn't what it used to be and I don't want to jinx anything but LFG!
Memory isn't what it used to be and I don't want to jinx anything but LFG!