This from post injury/surgery/recovery?!
If so, I just imagining Brad had the same look on his face as he did when Tomi smashed the guitar lol
Illini Basketball 2026-2027
If so, I just imagining Brad had the same look on his face as he did when Tomi smashed the guitar lol
That's not a player that looks like he's missing a month of the season.
Battle89
- Cary-Grove, the better Trojan team
Battle89
- Cary-Grove, the better Trojan team
Both sides of Bridgestone are really big, it's an Areana Grande.
Whether you are or not, you are offically a Dad. LOL. You can see yourself out now.Both sides of Bridgestone are really big, it's an Areana Grande.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Now that we have a few more preseason rankings, here are a few comparisons of Big Ten teams! Just like the AP Top 25, my composite below will give each team points based on its rank in each poll* (e.g., #1 = 25 points, #2 = 24 points ... #25 = 1 point).
FOX
#3 Illinois
#4 Michigan State
#15 Michigan
#18 UCLA
#22 USC
#25 Indiana
CBS
#3 Illinois
#7 Michigan State
#16 Michigan
#20 UCLA
#22 USC
#25 Purdue
#26 Indiana
ESPN
#3 Illinois
#6 Michigan State
#17 USC
#22 Michigan
#24 UCLA
KenPom
#4 Illinois
#7 Michigan State
#16 Nebraska
#21 Ohio State
#24 Purdue
EvanMiya
#3 Illinois
#8 Michigan State
#13 Michigan
#21 UCLA
#25 Nebraska
ON 3 (FKA Rivals)
#3 Illinois
#6 Michigan State
#14 Michigan
#20 UCLA
#22 USC
#24 Purdue
CBK Report (Instagram)
#3 Illinois
#8 Michigan State
#16 Michigan
#19 Nebraska
#24 UCLA
#25 USC
Composite Points
160 - Illinois
136 - Michigan State
60 - Michigan
29 - UCLA
22 - USC
18 - Nebraska
5 - Purdue
5 - Ohio State
2 - Indiana
Composite Rank
(Rough Guess Based on Selecting / Reviewing the Averages)
#3 Illinois
#7 Michigan State
#16 Michigan
#21 UCLA
#22 USC
RV - Nebraska, Purdue, Indiana
NR - Ohio State
FWIW, here are some notes on how the RV teams could get ranked...
1) Anything can happen, but if Nebraska can beat a decent Providence team on November 7, they will not face another true challenge until hosting Ohio State on December 2, arguably not until a December 5 trip to (mediocre) Creighton and possibly not even until they play Mizzou in Kansas City on December 12. They could easily ride a soft schedule to a 10-0 start, and that would easily get them in the top 25, IMO.
2) Purdue opens with Gonzaga (likely top 15) in Vegas, and then they have at least 7 straight games where they will be heavy favorites before hosting Iowa on December 1. Given their recent history of success, if they are 8-0 with a win over Gonzaga, they will DEFINITELY be ranked.
3) Indiana starts with a soft schedule (surprise!!), but they will likely have to beat Arkansas (likely top 20) at Madison Square Garden on November 17 or Kentucky in Indy on November 20 to get ranked. However, never underestimate the media's desperate desire for this program to be relevant again!
4) They did not show up on this list, but watch out for Iowa. I think they're very underrated, and they should be 7-0 heading into a 3-game stretch of at Purdue, vs. Indiana and vs. Iowa State (fringe top 25?). If they can go 2-1 in these (likely sweeping the home games), they will be ranked, as well.
So, there should be a lot of top 25 matchups on our schedule, and that is always exciting!! We have multiple practically guaranteed ones (Duke, UConn, MSU, Texas Tech, Michigan), a few more that are very likely (UCLA, USC) and we have several opponents that could easily be ranked when we face them (Missouri, Purdue x2, Nebraska, North Carolina, Iowa, etc.).
* I gave Indiana a point for being #26 in the CBS poll since they brand that ranking as a "Top 25 and 1."
FOX
#3 Illinois
#4 Michigan State
#15 Michigan
#18 UCLA
#22 USC
#25 Indiana
CBS
#3 Illinois
#7 Michigan State
#16 Michigan
#20 UCLA
#22 USC
#25 Purdue
#26 Indiana
ESPN
#3 Illinois
#6 Michigan State
#17 USC
#22 Michigan
#24 UCLA
KenPom
#4 Illinois
#7 Michigan State
#16 Nebraska
#21 Ohio State
#24 Purdue
EvanMiya
#3 Illinois
#8 Michigan State
#13 Michigan
#21 UCLA
#25 Nebraska
ON 3 (FKA Rivals)
#3 Illinois
#6 Michigan State
#14 Michigan
#20 UCLA
#22 USC
#24 Purdue
CBK Report (Instagram)
#3 Illinois
#8 Michigan State
#16 Michigan
#19 Nebraska
#24 UCLA
#25 USC
Composite Points
160 - Illinois
136 - Michigan State
60 - Michigan
29 - UCLA
22 - USC
18 - Nebraska
5 - Purdue
5 - Ohio State
2 - Indiana
Composite Rank
(Rough Guess Based on Selecting / Reviewing the Averages)
#3 Illinois
#7 Michigan State
#16 Michigan
#21 UCLA
#22 USC
RV - Nebraska, Purdue, Indiana
NR - Ohio State
FWIW, here are some notes on how the RV teams could get ranked...
1) Anything can happen, but if Nebraska can beat a decent Providence team on November 7, they will not face another true challenge until hosting Ohio State on December 2, arguably not until a December 5 trip to (mediocre) Creighton and possibly not even until they play Mizzou in Kansas City on December 12. They could easily ride a soft schedule to a 10-0 start, and that would easily get them in the top 25, IMO.
2) Purdue opens with Gonzaga (likely top 15) in Vegas, and then they have at least 7 straight games where they will be heavy favorites before hosting Iowa on December 1. Given their recent history of success, if they are 8-0 with a win over Gonzaga, they will DEFINITELY be ranked.
3) Indiana starts with a soft schedule (surprise!!), but they will likely have to beat Arkansas (likely top 20) at Madison Square Garden on November 17 or Kentucky in Indy on November 20 to get ranked. However, never underestimate the media's desperate desire for this program to be relevant again!
4) They did not show up on this list, but watch out for Iowa. I think they're very underrated, and they should be 7-0 heading into a 3-game stretch of at Purdue, vs. Indiana and vs. Iowa State (fringe top 25?). If they can go 2-1 in these (likely sweeping the home games), they will be ranked, as well.
So, there should be a lot of top 25 matchups on our schedule, and that is always exciting!! We have multiple practically guaranteed ones (Duke, UConn, MSU, Texas Tech, Michigan), a few more that are very likely (UCLA, USC) and we have several opponents that could easily be ranked when we face them (Missouri, Purdue x2, Nebraska, North Carolina, Iowa, etc.).
* I gave Indiana a point for being #26 in the CBS poll since they brand that ranking as a "Top 25 and 1."
Just think when gets back in game shapeThis from post injury/surgery/recovery?!
If so, I just imagining Brad had the same look on his face as he did when Tomi smashed the guitar lol
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Looking at the seat map, I am assuming 108 would also be in there. If we assume the UNC sections would be "mirrored" behind the other bench, they would be 105, 104, 103 and 102. That would only take up the following section of the arena:
I will let someone who was at the game vs. Tennessee last year speak to this, but it seemed like we had nearly an entire half of the arena ... and I would guess that our turnout would not be smaller vs. UNC than it would be vs. Tennessee in Nashville, specifically. I'd bet that anything on the left side of that arena will be mostly Illini fans!!
When will the AP preseason poll be released? I’m assuming Monday or the Monday after?
The early sale this morning for this game was a bloodbath. I luckily got in early and grabbed a handful of tickets for me and my buddies, it I had one friend that joined the queue at 10:03 and was like 5,400th in line…
From the ticket office: The Illinois locations will be in Sections 106 to 115 in the 100 Level
Fairly universal at this point that Illinois is seen as the 3rd best team in the country, a perceived shade behind Florida and Duke. It's a year where we have potentially the best litmus test possible seeing UConn & Duke, we should know early what this teams upside is. I'm not sure winning is 100% necessary, simply seeing we cracked the code on UConn and can play Duke tough at Cameron.
I don't want to be chasing double digits deficits early to UConn where it's clear their system has us by the cajones again. It would be nice to actually play from a lead. I saw some tweets from their exhibition against Syracuse and their transfer big is a terrorist. He is not going to be an easy matchup. Tomi may be big, but this kid is explosive and nasty.
Beating Duke at Cameron is a big ask, but I think we match up well.
Indeed, sportsbooks have a clear 1st and 2nd tier then it gets muddy (but they still give it a 66% chance it isn't one of the top 4):
got my tickets for the game. section 102 row C. three row behind the bench. wife an i will be there in our dee brown jerseys. i know its not until february but i am so stoked. see us there on fox. lol
I may eat my words here, as very few of the expert analysts agree with me on this one and Izzo is one of the coaches that you certainly shouldn't bet against, but I fail to see how MSU's team is going to be better this year than they were last year.
Their backcourt is once again going to be awesome, perhaps one of, if not the best in the country, but it seems like there is a massive skill and experience downgrade in their frontcourt.
- Jesse McCulloch: There are rumblings that he's taken a leap, but young bigs tend to be inconsistent, and even if he has gotten substantially better, I'm not sure that it could be considered a 1-for-1 replacement for Senior Jaxon Kohler.
- Bonke seems serviceable but slow, like if you put a weight vest on Tomi. It seems like he did really well in the AAC but not sure how he compares to B1G caliber bigs.
- Cam Ward showed flashes but I'm not sure how he would stack up against some of the bigger 4's in the B1G.
- Ethan Taylor has looked pretty bad in the times I've seen him play and I doubt he'll get much tick.
Unless there is a substantial upgrade to several of their players' shooting, I don't know how they're going to space the floor enough to take full advantage of their team's athletic ability. I'm by no means saying they're going to be bad, but I'm skeptical they'll finish better than 10, which is where they ended last year.
Hines is a tough matchup defensively for the twins. But Tomi playing stretch 5 will challenge Hines on the other end. I’d love to see some big / big PnR. I’m imagining bowing by Hines from the perimeter and/or Tomi getting a fairly uncontested 3ball look.
Mirk really unlocks our offense in so many ways.
The concern will be how we defend and rebound against Duke / UConn frontlines.
Noblesville Illini
- Nappanee, IN
Looking at the F4 box, looks like they gave Tomi his shots, focused on shutting down the rest of the floor.
The early season match, Tomi only had 5 shots. Mirk did very little in either game, so it seemed their focus was on shutting down Mirk and keeping the rest of the floor inefficient.
Brad needs to grab that tape and understand how to hedge.
Got mine this morning as well.....really looking forward to this one.....I really really am!
Very interesting analysis this AM from CGFacer of The Champaign Room about Championship teams' regular-season home-court performance vs. Illinois performance in recent history:
www.thechampaignroom.com
I was curious about our probabilities of finishing unbeaten at home this year, and what our most likely finishing record is overall. I used KenPom individual game projections to calculate the probability distribution of our home record and overall regular-season record:
HOME RECORD PROBABILITY:
Probability of going 15-2 or better at home: 67.57%
OVERALL REGULAR SEASON RECORD PROBABILITY:
Probability of going 25-7 or better in the regular season: 61.8%
**Notes: last year's one-seeds went 29-2 (Duke), 29-2 (Zona), 25-6 (Florida), 29-2 (Michigan)
last year's two-seeds went 26-5 (Houston), 25-6 (ISU), 23-8 (Purdue), 27-4 (UConn)
last year's three-seeds went 24-7 (Illinois), 25-6 (MSU), 28-3 (Gonzaga), 27-4 (Virginia)
Pro
Illinois fans need to make the State Farm Center a nightmare for opponents
It’s time to do our part.
www.thechampaignroom.com
I was curious about our probabilities of finishing unbeaten at home this year, and what our most likely finishing record is overall. I used KenPom individual game projections to calculate the probability distribution of our home record and overall regular-season record:
HOME RECORD PROBABILITY:
Probability of going 15-2 or better at home: 67.57%
OVERALL REGULAR SEASON RECORD PROBABILITY:
Probability of going 25-7 or better in the regular season: 61.8%
**Notes: last year's one-seeds went 29-2 (Duke), 29-2 (Zona), 25-6 (Florida), 29-2 (Michigan)
last year's two-seeds went 26-5 (Houston), 25-6 (ISU), 23-8 (Purdue), 27-4 (UConn)
last year's three-seeds went 24-7 (Illinois), 25-6 (MSU), 28-3 (Gonzaga), 27-4 (Virginia)
Pro